Meet the Winner of Our New Outstanding Team Performance Award
Every year, VNS Health honors individual team members from across the organization for their dedication and commitment to our mission and core values. This year, for the very first time, we are also giving out an award for Outstanding Team Performance.
This brand-new award salutes a team that has gone above and beyond and worked collaboratively with each other and/or other departments, demonstrating commitment to innovation and/or success of the organization.
In all, 26 teams from all parts of our organization were nominated for the award. A committee of team members then reviewed the nominations. While it wasn’t easy, after much discussion, the committee came up with a list of finalists that they then narrowed down to one winner. To view the full list of nominated teams and finalists, click here.
And now we’re excited to share that this year’s inaugural award goes to… Home Care’s Nurse Preceptor team! This amazing team of nurse preceptors is profiled below.
- Michele Alternative
- Nicole Casiano
- Constance Evans
- Nancy Girlando
- Michael Guglielmelli
- Opal Hawkins
- Joyce Henry
- Mary McAleer
- Susan Sappleton
Providing the Extra Support That Newly Hired Nurses Need
The transition from nursing school to professional practice is a critical moment in the career of any nurse—and that’s especially true for nurses going into home health care. Unlike in a hospital, where new nurses are surrounded by colleagues and supervisors, home care nurses often begin their careers working alone in the field, making clinical decisions and managing patient care on their own with limited input from their supervisors.
VNS Health’s Nurse Preceptor Team was formed several years ago to address this challenge. The team of nine Nurse Preceptors, all highly experienced home care nurses themselves, provide personalized, ongoing support to newly hired nurses. To accomplish this, they developed a comprehensive educational framework that includes clinical shadowing, documentation training, workflow guidance, case conferencing, scenario-based learning, and regular feedback sessions.
The positive effect of this wrap-around support on VNS Health’s nurses has been huge—both on the personal and organizational level. In recognition of their outsized impact, the Nurse Preceptor team is now being honored as the winner of VNS Health’s first-ever Outstanding Team Performance Award.
“This exceptional group has consistently gone above and beyond in their dedication to onboarding and supporting new nurses,” notes one colleague. “By modeling best practices and fostering open communication, they ensure that our new nurses feel supported every step of the way.”
Here’s just one example of how important this support can be: A newly hired VNS Health Home Care nurse confided to her Nurse Preceptor that she was feeling extremely anxious about transitioning from working in a hospital to home care. Hearing her concerns, the preceptor adjusted her schedule to ride alongside the nurse for several extra days, providing hands-on support, reassurance, and guidance. That nurse said later that she would have probably quit her job if not for the encouragement and presence of her preceptor.
The fact is, our Nurse Preceptor team has made a major impact: In the short time since this team was formed, they’ve helped to significantly improve both first-year retention rates at VNS Health and job satisfaction levels across nursing teams. This improvement in turn is helping us achieve our Top Company Objective of making our field-based roles the obvious choice for top talent, and is also enabling us to expand our home care capacity so we can care for more people.
As CEO Dan Savitt said when he presented the team with their award at last evening’s 2025 VNS Health Annual Awards ceremony, “The personalized support you provide truly reflects VNS Health’s vision of walking with people throughout their health care journey. When our new nurses walk with their patients, you’re walking right alongside them, helping them get their sea legs beneath them. You are indeed shaping the next generation of nurses.”
