AMN Healthcare Services Inc. (NYSE: AHS) named Neil Nelson of Gibson City, Ill., as its 2012 country doctor of the year. Gibson is an internist/pediatrician, a pharmacist, a farmer and a deputy.

AMN’s Staff Care division has presented the award since 1992 to exemplary physicians practicing in communities of 30,000 or fewer.

Nelson’s practice includes 5,000 active patients in a town of only 3,500, according to AMN. He draws patients from 50 different zip codes and from as far away as 1,000 miles.

Nelson is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and has not taken a vacation in more than 12 years, according to AMN. He makes house calls and serves as an auxiliary deputy and as a local liaison physician for the Shriner’s hospital in Chicago. He was an active farmer until recently.

As 2012 country doctor of the year, AMN will provide a temporary physician for him at no charge to allow him to take a two-week vacation.