Organizational News
Latest Organizational News
Meet This Year’s Liota and Marren Award Winners!
May 25, 2021–As part of VNSNY’s ongoing Nurses Month celebration, the 2021 Liota and Marren Award winners have just been announced. Congratulations to the honorees, Collette Hendricks and Tameka McCabe, who were nominated by their VNSNY colleagues and selected by a committee of nursing leaders! Collette Hendricks, Psychiatric Nurse, Winner of the Marilyn Liota Award The Liota Award to Promote Cultural Diversity in Nursing Leadership, named after long-time VNSNY nurse and Queens Regional Vice President Marilyn Liota, is awarded each year to help an exemplary VNSNY nurse realize her or his leadership potential. The award provides a $1,500 scholarship for expenses related to nursing studies, continuing professional development, or communication/English language skills development. “I’ve always had compassion for people with mental illness.” Very early on during the COVID pandemic, when Zoom meetings were being held about pivoting to remote patient care during lockdown, Collette wouldn’t hear of it. “What’s going to happen
Queens Daily Eagle Spotlights VNSNY Homebound Vaccination Team
May 20, 2021–
Celebrating Nurses Month: Check Out These Long-Lost Photos of Early VNSNY Nurses!
May 17, 2021–As we continue our celebration of National Nurses Month, Frontline looks at this year’s theme, “Nurses Make a Difference,” through the lens of history. The fact is, VNSNY nurses have been making a difference in the lives of New Yorkers for 128 years. So what’s changed and what has stayed the same after all these years? A recent treasure trove of photos—featuring VNSNY nurses hard at work—gives us a hint! The National Institute of Health recently featured the online exhibition Outside/Inside:Immigration, Migration, and Health Care in the United States, which chronicles Lillian Wald’s efforts to support immigrants to New York City, starting with her creation of the Henry Street Visiting Nurse Service on New York’s Lower East Side—then the world’s largest immigrant neighborhood—in 1893. Wald realized how visiting nurses could play a crucial role in reducing death rates, helping immigrants adjust to life in the United States, and advocating for the
StreetInsider.com Shares HCANYS Announcement of Ruth F. Wilson Award Presented to Marki Flannery
May 7, 2021–
New York Beacon Features VNSNY Home Care Nurses for National Nurses Week
May 7, 2021–
VNSNY Hosts Donation Drive for Homeless and At-Risk Veterans
May 5, 2021–May is Military Appreciation Month—and in honor of the month, VNSNY’s Veterans Program, in collaboration with Backpacks For Life and Sunrise Senior Living of New Dorp, Staten Island, has launched a donation drive to support homeless and at-risk veterans. From now through May 20th, VNSNY is working with community partners to collect essential items that will be distributed to veterans in need. Requested items include hats, gloves, notebooks, pens, toiletries, feminine hygiene items, first aid products and more. Monetary donations, which will be used to buy similar items for veterans, are also welcome. All donations will be distributed through Backpacks for Life, a nonprofit organization that provides support to homeless and at-risk veterans struggling to reintegrate into civilian life. Founded in 2014 by U.S. Marine Corps veteran Brett D’Alessandro and his fiancé, Alexa Modero, Backpacks for Life has distributed thousands of backpacks filled with essential items across the country, with all supplies donated by members of
VNSNY Welcomes Board Member Simone-Marie Meeks
May 3, 2021–VNSNY’s newest Board member, Simone-Marie Meeks, is accustomed to wearing many hats. In her everyday life, Simone-Marie is Assistant Commissioner and Bureau Chief for the New York State Office of Rent Administration/ETPA (Emergency Tenant Protection Act) Bureau, which is part of the state’s Homes and Community Renewal agency. She’s also the wife of U.S. Congressman Gregory W. Meeks (who represents New York’s 5th District, covering southern Queens and part of Nassau County), the mother of three grown daughters, a brand-new grandmother, and a tennis and swimming enthusiast. And she leads the Queens branch of GirlTrek, a national Black women’s walking organization, which means that early on any given morning, she and a group of 8 to 14 fellow trekkers can be spotted traversing miles of trails and neighborhood sidewalks. Health care and advocacy for health issues have always been passions of hers, says Simone-Marie. “I was very good in biology
“What is one fascinating thing you’ve learned about your culture and something you’ve learned about another?”
April 28, 2021–To commemorate Celebrate Diversity Month, “Ask VNSNY” host Amery Moultry offers a short summary of the cultural diversity found in New York City, and then asks this question of employees from around the organization. To hear their responses as well as Amery’s tips on how you can celebrate cultural diversity month, click here below.
Meet VNSNY’s New Green Belts — The Graduates of Our First-Ever Lean Six Sigma Course
April 16, 2021–From Reducing Hospitalizations to Creating a Roadmap to 4 Stars, VNSNY’s Green Belt Grads Focused on Improving Patient Care Lean Six Sigma may sound like a college fraternity, but it’s actually a set of management tools used by organizations worldwide to help them operate more efficiently and improve the quality of their services or products. Tony Dawson, Vice President of Quality and Customer Experience, launched VNSNY’s first Lean Six Sigma program last year, leading 20 staff members through a six-month course that prepared them to become certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belts. (The program uses some of the language of martial arts, with White Belts, Yellow Belts and Green Belts overseen by more experienced Black Belts and Master Black Belts.) Despite the challenges of holding the course virtually due to COVID-19, the course was a resounding success. To encourage cross-fertilization and fresh perspectives, the participants were drawn from across VNSNY—including