Ballad Health honors a select group of team members each year with the Scott and Nikki Niswonger Servant’s Heart Award, the organization’s highest honor. These recipients have been recognized by their peers for displaying the heart of a servant by going above and beyond the normal call of duty in helping others at work and in the community. Over the coming weeks, Ballad Health will feature the 2024 Servant’s Heart Award winners through videos, stories and photos — and has opened the nomination process for the 2025 awards.
Velvet Vanover, RN, manager of Ballad Health’s clinical education department in the Northern Region, has made a lasting mark on clinical education in the region.
Velvet is a dedicated nurse who has held a variety of nursing and education positions in the last 40 years. In that time, she has given generously and sacrificially to her patients, her fellow team members and her profession in countless ways.
Over the years, Velvet has hired, oriented and trained many team members who continue to contribute to care at our hospitals and throughout the Appalachian Highlands.
She challenges her educators with accuracy, consistency and imaginative creativity as they weave their way through the everchanging world of nursing. She keeps up with the most current skills and educational information and encourages the use of technology, role play, case scenarios, hands-on experience and skill presentation in instruction and training.
She has also been involved with organizations outside the hospital setting that influence the educating of nursing students and the safety of vulnerable children.
With an immense wealth of knowledge, Velvet is an amazing source of information helpful to those in her department and beyond.
Integrity and compassion are ever-present in Velvet’s work, and she encourages, demonstrates and creates teamwork in those she works with.
Velvet’s work is guided by her Christian faith and her relationship with God. Her kindness, generosity and passion are captured through the sacrifice of time she gives beyond what her job description calls for. She daily cares for the educators within the department as if they were family.
Nominate someone for 2025!
Do you know someone who has the heart of a servant and deserves recognition for their great work? If so, nominate them for the 2025 Servant’s Heart Award through the nomination form that is now open through Tuesday, Dec. 31!
