Moore Regional Hospital Nurse Wins State Nurse Educator Award
| Date Posted: 11/10/2016
Yolanda Hyde, of FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital, (at right), accepts the Nurse Educator of the Year Award from Mary Graff, president of the North Carolina Nurses Association.
PINEHURST – Nursing and education – Yolanda Hyde has a passion for both, so much so that she works part time as a patient placement coordinator at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital while also fulfilling a variety of teaching, mentoring and administrative duties at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
By way of explanation, consider the impressive list of professional and academic abbreviations behind her name: Ph.D., R.N.-BC, OCN, CNE.
In recognition of Hyde’s commitment to nursing and education, the North Carolina Nurses Association (NCNA) recently named her NCNA Nurse Educator of the Year. The award was presented at an awards luncheon during the organization’s 109th convention in Winston-Salem in October.
“It’s such a great honor,” Hyde says. “It’s amazing to me when I think of starting as an ADN nursing student and coming up in the ranks. I can’t believe it. I’ve been mentored by all these great people, and it’s coming to fruition. I definitely thank the people who were there for me.”
Among those on hand to see Hyde accept the NCNA award were Karen Robeano, DNP, R.N., chief nursing officer and vice president of Patient Care Services at Moore Regional Hospital; and Dee Anna Johnson, R.N., administrative director, Moore Regional Emergency Services/Patient Flow.
“Yolanda is the epitome of nursing excellence,” Robeano says. “She is a lifelong learner with endless energy and positivity. She is so deserving of this award, and we are truly blessed to have her as a nursing leader at FirstHealth.”
Another supporter is Corrine Cochran, DNP, R.N., nursing research coordinator and Magnet program director at Moore Regional. “Yolanda is an inspiration to all nurses and exemplifies the essence of professional nursing,” she says.
Hyde was inspired to become a nurse by the nursing professionals who saw her younger daughter, now a 25-year-old commissioned officer/lawyer serving as a U.S. Air Force JAG, through a serious illness when she was just 3 weeks old.
“I had a great nursing staff who worked with me,” Hyde recalls. “I decided this was something I was meant to do. I wanted to give back for what they did for my daughter.”
Soon afterward, Hyde entered Richmond Community College, where she received an Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) and later an Associate in Science (A.S.) degree. After deciding to further her education, she earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) in nursing education and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNC-G), where she is now an associate professor and coordinator of the MSN Nursing Education Concentration.
She joined Moore Regional Hospital in 1995 as a new graduate nurse on the Tufts medical/surgical nursing floor. As a patient placement coordinator, her role since 2007, she is part of a seven-nurse team that coordinates patient admission, discharge and transfer.
An NCNA Leadership Academy graduate, Hyde received the Teaching Excellence Award from UNC-G in 2014 and a Great 100 Nurses in North Carolina award in 2015, and was recognized with the Sigma Theta Tau’s Gamma Zeta Chapter’s Excellence in Nursing Leadership Award earlier this year.
While admitting that the combination of teaching and hospital nursing can be a challenge, Hyde says she has been energized by the combination of careers.
“I felt like I could do so much more, working inside as well as teaching,” she says. “I found a way to collaborate and make it work. Teaching has kept me abreast of what was going on in the hospital, but FirstHealth is home.”
