Kenyan-Born Nurse Honored for Role in Covid-19 Fight in the US

US-based Kenyan-born nurse Anne Kiboi has been honored by the University of Southern Indiana (USI) for her role in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Kiboi, who was born in Nairobi and moved to the US at the age of five, was named as the recipient of this year’s USI Distinguished Nursing Alumni Award. She is a resident of Indianapolis.

“All of us have been affected by COVID-19 in some way; however, Anne showed up to answer a call in which she didn’t know what was on the other line,” one of her award nominators said.

“She didn’t know the hospital, the area or what she would be walking into, but she packed a suitcase and took her skills with her … she walked in those hospital doors and changed patients’ lives.”

After graduating from USI with a degree in nursing, Anne went to work on the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at IU Health University Hospital in Indianapolis.

But following the outbreak of Covid-19 in the US early this year, she volunteered to work in IU Methodist’s COVID ICU in March, which led to her desire to help coronavirus patients in New York, which was a hotspot.

In May, Anne joined New York Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital where she worked with passion despite facing various challenges including a shortage in personal protective equipment, mental exhaustion, and extreme patient conditions.

“Every nurse has a role to play during this pandemic, and I felt mine was to work with COVID patients,” Anne is quoted on the USI website.

She worked at the New York hospital for five weeks before moving to California for another spell as a traveling nurse in the fight against Covid-19.

Anne attributes her ability to fight the pandemic as a healthcare worker to the number of clinical hours and education she received at USI. 

She is a member of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, the National Society of Leadership and Success, Sigma Theta Tau International, and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. 

USI Distinguished Nursing Alumni Award is an annual award bestowed upon a nursing graduate who has made outstanding achievements in a career or public service.