See Saturday's Great Bend Tribune for our Salute to Nurses.

Editor’s note: In April, Rita Stueder, an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN), was at the Great Bend Tribune’s Health and Wellness Expo providing free skin cancer screening. Stueder, who is Dermatology Nurse Certified (DNC), was joined by Gina Liebl, APRN-C, her colleague at Heartland Dermatology.  We asked Stueder to tell us a little about herself. 

Rita Stueder began working at Heartland Dermatology in March 1985, just before she completed her BSN at Fort Hays State University. She earned her master’s degree in the Family Nurse Practitioner program from FHSU in 2002. She has been nationally certified in dermatology nursing by the Dermatology Nurses Association since 2000.

A Claflin native, Rita and her husband Alan live in Claflin. They have four children and three grandchildren.

“I married my husband and moved from Hays to Claflin, as he farms,” she said.

Every fall, she volunteers to help the Kans for Kids Fighting Cancer Foundation by helping at the Fun Festival at the Kasselman Farm near Claflin. She is also a Sacristan and Eucharistic Minister at Immaculate Conception Church in Claflin.

Her hobbies are spending time with family and friends – especially grandkids – along with reading and cooking. Family and friends are what she likes most about this area.

“My siblings and most of my nieces and nephews are in this area. My four children and grandchildren live close by. Family and friends are important. I also have met many people in my work life who have become a part of my identity and are very special. I would not want to be anywhere else.”