“It Was Always About the Patients”—Mary Dionson, RN, Reflects on Her Remarkable Career

In her 34 years with VNS Health, caring for patients in their homes and mentoring other nurses across New York City, Mary Dionson, Wound Ostomy Continence Nurse Manager for Manhattan and Staten Island, has carved a remarkable career, defined by compassion, dedication, and a deep love for nursing.

Mary began her nursing career in the Philippines, where she earned her nursing degree. After emigrating to the United States in 1985, she worked for six years at Goldwater Memorial Hospital on Roosevelt Island, Queens. In 1991, with three young sons and another baby boy on the way, she made the switch to home care nursing and began working for VNS Health in Roosevelt Island as a per diem field nurse—a role that allowed her to balance her career and motherhood.

“My schedule wasn’t as rigid as it was at the hospital, which really helped me,” Mary recalls. “It’s also so rewarding working in the home—looking at a patient’s situation and building a rapport with them. I would drop my children off at school each day and go do my field work. Then I would pick them back up and do all my paperwork at home.”

Mary eventually relocated to South Jersey with her growing family, but she stayed committed to her home care patients in New York City. “I loved working in Roosevelt Island, because I know it so well!” she says. She would board an early bus for a 90-minute trip into the city each day, using the commute to complete her patient documentation and prepare for her visits.

No matter the obstacles, Mary never hesitated to go above and beyond for those in her care. During the blizzard of 1996, which dumped more than three feet of snow on New York City and crippled the mass transit system, Mary walked 20 blocks to see one of her patients. And in the 2003 blackout that cut off electricity for tens of millions across the northeastern U.S., she climbed 16 flights up a darkened stairwell to provide insulin to another patient.

“I was so concerned about my patient. She had MS and wounds, and I had to give her that injection,” Mary remembers. “It was always about the patients. They trusted me, and I couldn’t let them down. I’ll always treasure the fact that I was able to help them.”

Mary became wound care certified in 1999, inspired by one of VNS Health’s early wound care leaders, Marianne Bradley. She went on to join the Wound Ostomy Continence Nurse (WOCN) team and ultimately became a team manager, supporting wound nurses across two boroughs, providing training to new nurses, and consulting on complex wound cases.

Mary has since moved into a remote role, but she’s maintained strong connections with VNS Health’s wound nurses in the field. “I usually start at 7 o’clock in the morning,” she says. “I look at the list of consults that came in for Manhattan and in Staten Island, see which one that nurses have flagged as urgent, and then go from there, working from the wound photos.”

Together with three of her fellow managers, Mary also runs orientation training and a skills lab for VNS Health’s wound nurses. While she admits she misses going out in the field, she is proud to have supported VNS Health’s wound care program at scale through her leadership and clinical expertise.

If she had one piece of advice for younger nurses, Mary adds, it would be to never stop seeking knowledge. “Medicine evolves, nursing evolves, and so should you,” she notes. “Stay curious, ask questions, and embrace every opportunity to learn—especially from your colleagues and your patients.”

After three and half decades with our organization—and four-plus decades in the nursing profession as a whole—Mary is now retiring from VNS Health. Hard as it is to believe, her last day will be July 2.  

In retirement, Mary plans to spend more time with her husband, children, and grandchildren, enjoying family life and traveling when she can. “My first trip is already scheduled—it’s to Hawaii. I have to go there to babysit my three-year-old granddaughter!”

She also hasn’t ruled out returning to nursing in a per diem capacity some day. As Mary says, “Nursing is a calling. I’ve always felt so lucky to do this work.”