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Awards

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Judith Oulton Receives Jeanne Mance Award
Judith Oulton received Canada's most prestigious nursing prize, the Jeanne Mance Award, for her impact on the practice of nursing in Canada and internationally. Originally from New Brunswick, Oulton has maintained strong links to her home province, both professionally and personally. She obtained her bachelor's degree in nursing in 1975 and a master's degree in education in 1979 from the University of New Brunswick. Following a few years of clinical practice in various hospitals in eastern Canada and teaching at the University of New Brunswick, Oulton made her mark in the New Brunswick Health Department as Director of Strategic Planning, and as Executive Director of both the Canadian Nurses Protective Society and the Canadian Nurses Association.

CNA also presented five new awards representing the five domains of nursing. The recipients of these awards are:

• Marion Clark, Prince Edward Island - Order of Merit for Policy
• Diana Davidson Dick, Saskatchewan - Order of Merit for Education
• Margaret Farley, Saskatchewan - Order of Merit for Clinical Practice
• Linda McGillis Hall, Ontario - Order of Merit for Research
• Carolyn Tayler, British Columbia - Order of Merit for Administration

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Saint Elizabeth Health Care Wins Health Care Safety Award
Saint Elizabeth Health Care was recently the first recipient of the Canadian College of Health Service Executives' new award to recognize a leading healthcare organization that is committed to improving safety within the healthcare environment through leadership, culture, best practices, innovation and change management. Saint Elizabeth's Client Safety and Quality Management Team is one of the most successful initiatives the organization has developed to ensure that evidence-informed decision-making takes place at every level throughout the organization, from front-line staff to the Senior Leadership Team and board of directors. The Senior Leadership Team has delivered numerous safety initiatives, including a Hand Hygiene Campaign and adoption of state-of-the-art technologies for documentation, with the goals of decreasing the level of risk for clients in the community and of continuing to improve client outcomes in the future.

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Ryerson University Names School of Nursing
Ryerson University has named its School of Nursing in honour of Daphne Cockwell, recognizing her family's ongoing support for Ryerson and its Master Plan development. Jack Cockwell, Group Chairman of Brookfield Asset Management, is a member of the Ryerson University Board of Governors. His family has made lifetime contributions of $11.5 million to the university, including a recent gift of

$5 million directed to the School of Nursing.The Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing is named after Mr. Cockwell's mother, who started her career as a nurse. It is Canada's first university nursing school to be named for a nurse. The family's most recent gift will be used as capital funding towards a new facility for the Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing that will be developed within the framework of Ryerson's recently completed Master Plan.

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Government Renews Funding for Canadian Patient Safety Institute
The Canadian government recently announced renewed funding of up to $8 million a year, over the next five years, to the Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI) to continue providing leadership and building a culture of patient safety and quality improvement in the Canadian healthcare system. Since it was established in December 2003, the CPSI has worked to foster collaboration among governments, regulatory bodies and stakeholders and to develop effective patient safety strategies, frameworks, tools and practices.

The CPSI has laid important groundwork to advance patient safety. The Safer Healthcare Now! campaign has engaged some 830 healthcare teams across the country in reducing preventable injuries or deaths in hospitals. The recently released Canadian Disclosure Guidelines represent the commitment to protect patients' right to be informed in case of an adverse event.

Over the next five years, in collaboration with its network of national and regional partners, the CPSI will build on these successes and focus on four key areas: education, research, tools and resources, and interventions and programs. It will continue to promote patient safety as a focus in health sector education and training, and to facilitate the development of curriculum competencies. The CPSI will also enhance patient safety research capacity, provide tools to foster accountability, improve patient safety practices and processes and develop pan-Canadian programs to enable timely implementation of patient safety practices.

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First Canadian Scientist Wins $470,000 Kyoto Prize
Tony Pawson, a distinguished scientist at Mount Sinai Hospital's Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, was one of two Canadians awarded the prestigious Kyoto Prize, Japan's equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Dr. Pawson was cited for his groundbreaking work on how human cells communicate with one another. His work has improved our understanding of many diseases, including cancer, diabetes and immune disorders. The Kyoto Prize is the latest in a long list of honours that Dr. Pawson has received for his work, including CIHR's Michael Smith Prize and the Gairdner International Research Award. The other Canadian winner was Dr. Charles Taylor, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at McGill University. The Kyoto Prize is administered by the Inamori Foundation, established in 1984 by businessman Kazuo Inamori.

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Nova Scotia Increases Nursing Seats
Two-hundred twenty-six more nurses will be trained in Nova Scotia this year with the approval of $3.4 million for university and community college nursing seats. The provincial budget included funding for 46 baccalaureate nursing seats at universities and 180 practical nursing seats at Nova Scotia Community College.

There will be 16 more seats in the Bachelor of Nursing program at Cape Breton University in Sydney: 25 at Dalhousie University in Halifax and five at Dalhousie's Yarmouth campus. Nova Scotia Community College will receive funding to create seats for 30 more students at each of the following campuses: Truro, Cumberland in Springhill, Kingstec in Kentville, Burridge in Yarmouth and Pictou in Stellarton. There will also be funding for 15 more students at the Waterfront Campus in Dartmouth and Marconi Campus in Sydney.

About $350,000 in additional funding has been provided to Dalhousie's Halifax and Yarmouth campuses, and to Cape Breton University for enhancements to labs and facilities to accommodate additional students.

The nursing program at Cape Breton University was offered jointly with St. Francis Xavier University until this year, and is now an independent program. St. FX's nursing program is operating at full capacity after an increase of 75 seats between 1995 and 2003.

The $3.4-million investment brings the province's total annual budget for nursing seats to $11.4 million. Training of the 226 nurses will begin in September.

The collaborative care model is the result of the Model of Care Initiative in Nova Scotia. It is a joint project of the District Health Authorities, IWK Health Centre and the Nova Scotia Department of Health to design a more patient-centred, collaborative approach to delivering care. It was a recommendation of the Provincial Health Services Operational Review, accepted earlier this year.

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Top 30 Rising Stars Project
Saint Elizabeth Health Care, Toronto Public Health and Women's College Hospital are proud to announce the Top 30 Rising Stars Project, an exciting and innovative opportunity for nursing professionals. The project brings 10 nurses from each of the three organizations together for a customized leadership development program.

The Top 30 Rising Stars Project invests in leadership succession for the future and is an opportunity to address two major issues in healthcare: shortage of emerging leadership talent and an aging nursing workforce. This project is well-aligned with the organizations' philosophy of leadership at all levels, lifelong learning and the creation of a progressive and supportive work environment.

The program, which had its inaugural session on June 11th, will run to March 2009 and will include: a six day customized learning program with the Schulich School of Business; a variety of "stretch opportunities" within the participating organizations; and a web-based mentorship program enabling the candidates to have access to mentors from a variety of settings and areas and mentorship by colleagues from a variety of sources depending on the learning goals of the participants.

The program has been made possible with generous funding support from the Nursing Secretariat, Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and HealthForce Ontario along with the participation of Schulich School of Business, York University and Longwoods Publishing. The project has the potential to be applicable to other professions and roles in the future, as well as benefitting the community at large.

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Appointments

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New CNA President Installed
Kaaren Neufeld, RN, MN, is the 43rd president of the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA). Neufeld assumed her two-year term during the association's centennial anniversary. She is Chief Quality Officer, Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and Assistant Professor, Faculty of Nursing at the University of Manitoba, and also serves on the board of directors of the Canadian Patient Safety Institute. Neufeld has governance-level experience in several national initiatives, including an executive position at the Academy of Canadian Executive Nurses and as a member of the National Advisory Committee on SARS.

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Shamian Named President-Elect of CNA
Dr. Judith Shamian, President and CEO of VON Canada, was acclaimed the new president-elect of CNA's board of directors. Dr. Shamian has influenced Canadian nursing through her contributions to professional and governmental organizations. From 1999-2004, she was Executive Director of the Office of Nursing Policy at Health Canada. She is known for her administrative leadership, mentorship and scholarship. She has been principal investigator for and contributor to a multitude of nursing research projects related to professional issues at the provincial, national and international levels. Her leadership has been instrumental in influencing and developing professional policy to advance the agenda of nursing and patient care, and in promoting healthcare at the micro, meso and macro levels. Dr. Shamian leads by example and is well respected for her grounding in nursing practice.

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New Scientific Directors at Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Dr. Nancy Edwards was recently appointed Scientific Director of the CIHR's Institute of Population and Public Health (IPPH). Dr.Edwards is a Professor in the School of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences and in the Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine at the University of Ottawa. She is also Senior Scientist at the Institute of Population Health and Elisabeth Bruyère Research Institute,

and Academic Consultant for the City of Ottawa's Public Health Services. She was the inaugural Director of the Population Health doctoral program at the University of Ottawa, and currently holds a Chair in Nursing funded by the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Government of Ontario. Over the years, Dr. Edwards has been appointed to a variety of board positions in Canada and internationally.

Dr. Morag Park was recently appointed Scientific Director of CIHR's Institute of Cancer Research. She is a James McGill Professor in the departments of Oncology, Biochemistry and Medicine at McGill University, where she serves as Director of the Molecular Oncology Group at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC). Dr. Park is a member of the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec, réseau cancer. She was Associate Director for Fundamental Research at the MUHC and a member of the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance advisory committee, and has served on and chaired research review panels for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance and the National Cancer Institute of Canada.

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Smart Systems for Health Appointment
William Albino, CEO of Smart Systems for Health Agency (SSHA), has announced Chris Renaud as Vice President, Strategic Planning and Architecture. Renaud brings over 20 years of senior IT and health sector experience to SSHA. Most recently, he held the position of CIO, Health Services Information and Information Technology (I&IT) Cluster, Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. Previously, he held IT delivery positions at the vice presidential level and has led a number of innovative strategic initiatives and alignment of I&IT with business directions and process change to improve service delivery.

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BC Physician to Head International AIDS Society
Dr. Julio Montaner, Director of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, part of Providence Health Care, has been appointed president of the world's leading independent association of HIV/AIDS professionals. Montaner assumed the prestigious position of President of the International AIDS Society (IAS) at the conclusion of the XVIIth International AIDS Conference in Mexico City on August 8, 2008. His presidency will span a two-year term, after which he will hold the title of Past President for two years.

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Saskatchewan Announces Change in the Senior Public Service
Dan Florizone, former CEO of the Five Hills Health Region, joined the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health as Deputy Minister on August 1, 2008. Mr. Florizone brings excellent credentials as well as strong health sector experience to this important role.

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