Meg Doherty Appointed to Massachusetts Public Health Council

NORWELL, Mass. - Dec. 13, 2013 - PRLog -- Governor Deval L. Patrick recently announced his appointment of Meg Doherty, RN, ANP, MBA, a Norwell resident and CEO of Norwell VNA (NVNA) and Hospice to the Commonwealth’s Public Health Council. The governor voiced his appreciation to Doherty for her willingness to serve, adding her “experience and sound judgment will contribute substantially to the Council.”

Meg Doherty, a nurse practitioner, has led NVNA and Hospice for over 25 years, taking it from its early days serving Norwell from the basement of town hall to its standing now as one of the top 500 homecare agencies in the country.  NVNA and Hospice is the only independent, nonprofit homecare agency on the South Shore and the only homecare agency in Massachusetts to be named to the HomeCare Elite of top agencies in the country for eight successive years.

Over the past 13 years, Doherty has guided an expansion of the agency into over 27 communities on the South Shore and added hospice and private care services to meet the continuing care needs of patients in the region. In 2011, she coordinated the connection to Cancer Support Community of Massachusetts under the NVNA Foundation umbrella to ensure its viability in offering free services and support to people impacted by cancer. This fall, NVNA and Hospice opened the first hospice residence on the South Shore in Hingham, after years of collaboration and planning with the non-profit Campus of Caring.

In addition to her leadership of NVNA and Hospice, Doherty has taught both undergraduate and graduate nursing programs and has been on the clinical faculty at the Institute of Health Professions at Massachusetts General Hospital, Northeastern University and Boston College.  She is a Visiting Scholar at the William F. Connell School of Nursing at Boston College and guest lecturer at University of Massachusetts/Boston School of Nursing.  Ms. Doherty was a member and former Chair of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Board of Registration in Nursing for eight years. An academic text author, she has written numerous journal articles and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Visiting Nurse Associations of New England and Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts as well as Norwell’s Public Health Board.