Dr. Vanessa Burkoski named recipient of the 2019 Nursing Leadership Award

March 20, 2019

The Canadian College of Health Leaders is proud to announce that Dr. Vanessa Burkoski, Chief Nursing Executive and Chief, People Strategy, at Humber River Hospital (HRH), has been named recipient of the 2019 Nursing Leadership Award.

Dr. Burkoski has been a visionary leader for developing HRH’s Patient Safety Plan, and the roadmap for HRH’s journey to high reliability. Through her executive leadership and strategic direction, HRH recently achieved Exemplary Status through Accreditation Canada. She has demonstrated her vision for quality patient care, innovation, and leadership in nursing in a variety of ways. Dr. Burkoski has been instrumental in advancing HRH evidence-based practice through the creation of engaged Reinventing Patient Care Councils where teams have incorporated patient and family advisors to work together with staff on locally driven quality improvement initiatives.

Her innovation with patients and families is particularly evident in the last two years where patient and family advisors co-authored many posters for presentations. To support scholarly capacity, she also launched the HRH Annual Scholarly Practice Day, where all innovations and scholarly activities are recognized, and findings disseminated to teams.

The Nursing Leadership Award builds on the themes of patient centered care and leadership, and honours those who demonstrate an ongoing commitment to excellence in these areas.

This award is sponsored by Baxter. Baxter touches the lives of millions of people around the world every day. Their products and therapies can be found throughout hospitals and clinics – from the ER to the OR, from the pharmacy to the ICU – as well as advancing patients’ care in their homes.

This award is part of our CCHL National Awards Program and will be presented at the Honouring Health Leadership event on June 9, 2019 in Toronto prior to the 2019 National Health Leadership Conference (NHLC).

For further information and/or to arrange an interview, please contact:

Christian Coulombe
Director, Marketing and Communications
Canadian College of Health Leaders
613-235-7218, ext. 213
ccoulombe@cchl-ccls.ca