Vicki Snavely received five nominations for the DAISY Award:
Client nominations submitted:
I cannot describe one situation that demonstrates or meets the criteria for the award. That is because they are too numerous to list just one. Vicki has been encouraging, understanding, supportive, educating, mentoring and a friend. Vicki has helped our institution submit several abstracts to SCCM, working up until the deadline on some to help make them happen. I believe that I can speak for others at our facility that whenever we had contact with Vicki it was always professional and we knew that we could trust anything she was telling us would help us to grow in our professional and personal experiences with the program at hand. I believe that any individual that Vicki has helped grew in their position just by having met her. I personally received encouragement from Vicki when one of our programs was being eliminated and she believed that I could carry on what needed to be done and excel at it. Her words of encouragement and calls made me feel that I could do it and she supported the work and decisions that I was making. When we lost Vicki in our APACHE support team it was not just a person moving on, it left a large void in our program. The support she had given us made us aware of what we were losing but in the same turn, she made us what we were and we knew we would be able to survive. Please honor Vicki as a recipient of this deserving award because she not only deserves it, but she shines above all others in her devotion too whatever she is working on…. Susan Hanna - Borgess Health/Critical Care

I cannot begin to express my appreciation and gratitude for Vicki for being the biggest “APACHE cheerleader” I could ever have. I came from being a critical care bedside nurse to being sole “owner” of a program I knew little about. She taught me how to go from being a critical thinker who was now a data entry person to someone who could look at the data and tell the story it provided. She showed me how to utilize my information to improve patient outcomes. She literally helped turn a program, that at one point was going to be terminated, into a program with valuable data that could be used and shared with professionals in the critical care arena. She showcased our data and information in multiple poster presentations and invited us to participate in other valuable studies. She also assisted in helping me make arrangements so that I could be a part of the celebration of the accomplishments. She has been the biggest and best supporter of my APACHE work and early on became my friend. She never made me feel like she was merely doing her job, but instead made me feel like I was the brightest star in the APACHE universe. I appreciate and respect Vicki so much and am grateful to have worked with her…Stacy Dickess - St. Mary’s Medical Center

Associate nominations submitted:
Clare Benson - It has been my honor and privilege to work with Vicki since 2004 in several roles. She has been a mentor and trusted colleague who can be always be depended on for expert advice and support. While those qualities are important and appreciated, what is exceptional about Vicki is her passion about patient safety and doing the right thing for her clients. There are many examples I could give to demonstrate this, from her work with assisting numerous APACHE clients so they could present their quality findings at poster presentations in national forums, to answering calls (to this day) related to APACHE from her former clients. Why, because Vicki is not just a Cerner associate to those clients, but a trusted friend whose opinion they value. Her compassion is also freely given to her Cerner colleagues. When a recent tragedy happened to a fellow Cerner nurse, it was Vicki who coordinated communication to our group and organized our response. She did so with such loving kindness I can’t think of anyone who could have handled a difficult situation better. Thank you for considering this nominee and in closing I would summarize Vicki in this way; Vicki exemplifies what the heart of Cerner is all about. Without nurses like her, Cerner’s ability to make a difference in health care would be greatly diminished.
Ashleigh George - Seven years ago, fresh off of working the night shift in the ICU, I embarked on a new nursing career and joined the Cerner Critical Care team. Being “inexperienced” to Healthcare IT would be putting it lightly, but luckily I had the good fortune to meet and learn from some remarkable ladies within this division; one such nurse being Vicki Snavely. Vicki set an example for me to follow and forever impacted and molded the way I conduct myself as nurse. On a daily basis she reminded me that nurses can make a difference whether providing direct patient care or by providing guidance into the design and use of health information systems. She also instilled that it wasn’t just about doing your job or doing enough to get by, but instead she advocated that we as nurses needed to be thinking about what we should and could be doing to make a difference. Vicki would always go the extra mile. Whether it was a nursing conference, meeting, or some other event that a nurse from one of our clients wanted to attend but simply didn’t have the funds, she personally would drive him/her to the event or even donate her own frequent flyer miles or hotel room to make sure that they too could experience and learn from the event. I recall several occasions where Vicki would lend a helping hand to a hospital even when the work far exceeded her current role and responsibilities. One such example is when Vicki volunteered her weekend to help a hospital who had fallen behind on manually collecting APACHE data. She used this time to help them get caught up so that instead they could focus on using the data to improve patient outcomes. I can remember asking Vicki why she would give up her own free time to review data when it wasn’t her responsibility. She simply replied, “it’s just what we as nurses do.” Vicki continues to touch the lives of others. A little over a year ago, Vicki was blessed to be the proud grandmother of a new little baby boy, Zayden. With this little bundle of joy also came the devastating blow that her grandson had contracted cytomegalovirus (CMV). CMV is a virus rarely talked about that could have been treated while in the womb or even prevented. As Vicki’s family continues to understand what this diagnosis means for her grandson, she has been the glue that has kept her family together. From personally administering the around-the-clock IV antivirals to her grandson for his first couple months of life to working with the other clinical teams, Vicki ensures that Zayden receives the best treatment possible. But it isn’t just this commitment to her family that makes Vicki remarkable, it’s also the dedication to others, the cause, and creating awareness. Although, difficult to discuss such a personal story, Vicki recently shared her and Zayden’s story and journey at CHC to help promote awareness so that others can avoid this from happening to their families. Her voice is being used to educate others on CMV and prevention. Not only is she educating our Cerner family, but she is also working to spread the word and actively looking to partner with companies like Purell to increase the awareness about good hand washing. The list of Vicki’s amazing acts of nursing excellence is endless. I believe the DAISY Foundation would be honored to have Vicki Snavely in the distinguished class of recipients for the reasons stated above and countless others. Whether it’s helping a client during her personal time or educating communities about CMV, Vicki is an example of how a single nurse is making a difference in the lives of others because after all, “it’s just what we as nurses do.”
Regan Baron - Vicki Snavely regularly goes above and beyond her role as the HealthCare Executive covering the DeviceWorks solutions for the East region of the United States. While Vicki’s job requires regular travel, she consistently goes above and beyond to assist other team members and regularly volunteers for travel assignments that take her away from her family on weekends and even holidays. She continues to support the DoD projects which she supported in a prior role because of her dedication to providing high quality care to our returning servicemen and women. While Vicki is a skilled technical resource and has a vast amount of knowledge related to our solutions, she is always a nurse first. She is the first person on the team to send kudos or appreciation to other team members for a job well done. She regularly downplays her own accomplishments in favor of others. Although Vicki has a special needs grandson that was born with congenital CMV, she demonstrates an abundance of love and caring for members of the team as they go through personal things or health care issues. Vicki has taken on the cause of CMV education as one of her many and has a personal mission of ensuring that the public is properly educated so she can prevent more children and their families from being impacted by this terrible disease. She selflessly volunteered her story for the CHC 2012 theme “It’s Personal” although her natural inclination is to be a more private person. While Vicki is an associate on my team, it is my privilege to work with her every day. She makes our team better and stronger through her vast amount of kindness, love and caring and through demonstrating every day what it means to be a Cerner nurse and a DAISY.