Second Annual Awards Punctuates Long Term Care Week
[Markham, ONTARIO] – Their exemplary leadership and innovation has earned four nurses an Ontario Long Term Care Association (OLTCA) award.
Lee Manor registered practical nurse (RPN) Susan Dixon, Riverview Manor RPN Lori Wallace, Vermont Square registered nurse (RN) Deniese Johnson and Centennial Place/Moira Place RN and nursing consultant Linda Bayly were all honoured at the second annual Nursing Leadership Award ceremony, held October 28 at the OLTCA fall symposium.
The awards punctuated Long Term Care Week, another OLTCA initiative with the theme of ‘Advancing Long-Term Care Through Innovation.’
Dixon was honoured, in part, for her continuous search for enhancements, mentorship, respect and support of staff and celebration of progress as her home’s Resident Assessment Instrument Minimum Data Set co-ordinator.
She says innovation has made it easier “to integrate multiple facets of traditional nursing with new skills, new technology and equipment,” resulting in a “leap forward to better all-round care for residents.”
Dixon, like her fellow honourees, says the award belongs to the entire team at her home. She also calls the award a highlight of her seven-and-a-half-year career in long-term care.
Sponsored by 3M Health Care, the award consists of $2,500 to support each recipient’s continuing professional development.
Johnson, who worked in an acute-care setting before joining long-term care about 10 years ago, says she feels “blessed and humbled” by the award.
Nursing is her calling, she says, and working in long-term care became her passion. She says it’s an art not acquired “by academic study, but by your experiences with your colleagues and the residents and the families that you work with”.
OLTCA president Lois Cormack says the honourees improve the quality of residents’ lives and the working environment in member homes through their vision, passion and determination.
Established last year to mark the OLTCA’s 50th anniversary, the awards “continue to recognize and support the tremendous nursing leadership that is the backbone of the care and services” member homes provide.
Christina Bisanz, CEO of the OLTCA, says long-term care nurses “play a unique and critical role” as care-planning and delivery leaders and front-line managers of day-to-day relationships with various stakeholders, including families.
“I’ve witnessed the value of this leadership as I toured more than two dozen of our member homes across Ontario this year,” she says.
“I’ve also witnessed nurses in the role of long-term care innovator, developing strategies that help to improve the quality of care and services we provide to residents and establishing partnerships, programs and research initiatives that further entrench our sector as a full partner in Ontario’s health-care field.”
An external panel of nursing association and academic representatives and 3M Health Care professionals reviewed the award nominations from OLTCA member homes.
Heather McConnell, associate director of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario’s international affairs and best practice guideline program, and Dawn Beaubien, Business Manager - Alternate Care Markets, agreed the quality of the 23 submissions was phenomenal.
About the Ontario Long Term Care Association
OLTCA represents the not-for-profit, charitable, private and municipal operators of 428 long-term care homes that provide care and services to some 50,000 residents throughout Ontario. OLTCA’s expertise in long-term care is rooted in over five decades of industry leadership. The association and its members pride themselves in providing an innovative, solution-oriented approach to advanced care and services that meet the changing needs of aging Ontarians.
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For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:
James Bigg, Edelman Public Relations
Tel: 416-849-2496 / james.bigg@edelman.com
Michelle Gradini, OLTCA
Tel: 905-470-8995 ext. 39 / mgradini@oltca.com