Leadership Awards

The 2022 Call for Nominations is now closed. Thank you to everyone who submitted a nomination!

Every year, Children’s Healthcare Canada honours individuals who exemplify personal dedication, professional achievement, and commitment to the healthcare community. We believe the health of children and youth is dependent on leadership in each of the roles of patients, parents, caregivers, and organizations. To recognize, support, and promote these leaders for their tremendous impact and leadership within and beyond the child health sector, Children’s Healthcare Canada has established the Leadership Awards.

Why should I nominate someone?

It’s a great way to recognize the value of someone’s contributions to their community or workplace.
It’s good to sing about the unsung heroes.
It’s a fantastic way to show your gratitude for someone’s efforts and dedication.
Recognition is FREE.

Key Dates
June 13, 2022: Call for Nominations opens
July 15, 2022: Nominations for 2022 awards program closes
Late September: Winners are notified
November 29, 2022: Awards will be presented at the 2022 Children’s Healthcare Canada Awards Ceremony at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa, ON.

Nomination Categories

Patient and Family Leadership Award
The Children’s Healthcare Canada Award for Patient & Family Leadership was created to recognize outstanding leadership by a patient (current or former), parent or caregiver who has served to improve the patient and family experience for those accessing pediatric health care in Canada.

This award will be presented to an individual who has exemplified courage, commitment, and resilience by donating their time and emotional energy to promote systemic change at a local, regional and/or national level.

Individual Leadership Award
The Children’s Healthcare Canada Award for Individual Leadership was created to recognize outstanding leadership by an individual who has dedicated his or her career to improving the health and well-being of children and youth in Canada through health promotion, policy initiatives and/or increased public awareness.

This award will be presented to an individual who has exemplified leadership, creativity and initiative to promote positive change and long-term improvement for the health and well-being of children and youth.

Organizational Leadership Award
The Children’s Healthcare Canada Award for Organizational Leadership recognizes the leadership of an organization, a foundation, or a corporation to enable the best healthcare for Canada’s children and youth. The recipient organization has demonstrated leadership to inspire change and innovation that has had significant and lasting impact on the pediatric healthcare system(s), and/or populations served.

This award also recognizes the value an organization places on partnerships and collaboration within the healthcare community.

Leadership in Online Media
The world of media is evolving. We consume information from many sources, not just traditional print, radio, or television outlets. The Children’s Healthcare Canada Award for Leadership in Online Media was created to be inclusive of all types of reporting and to recognize outstanding journalism, reporting, editorial or blogging that increases awareness of Canadian pediatric health issues, or the role Children’s Healthcare Canada members play to enable the best healthcare for Canada’s children and youth. In addition to mainstream media stories, this award is now open to stories, posts, and campaigns run on social media platforms that have made a difference the past year, bringing reliable child health issues to attention of the public in more novel ways.

*NEW* Family-Centered Care Award
The Children’s Healthcare Canada Award for Family-Centered Care was created to honour teams who have set in place innovations that improve the human experience in healthcare. This award will highlight and recognize innovations that include the four (4) concepts of family-centred care:

Dignity and Respect: Health care practitioners listen to and honor individual and family perspectives and choices and incorporate individual and family knowledge, values, beliefs and cultural backgrounds into planning and delivery of care.
Information Sharing: Health care practitioners communicate and share complete and unbiased information with individuals and families in ways that are affirming and useful. Timely, complete, and accurate information is shared with families to support effective participation in care and decision-making.
Participation: Individuals and families are encouraged and supported in participating in care and decision-making at the level they choose.
Collaboration: Individuals, families, health care practitioners, and health care leaders collaborate in policy and program development, implementation, and evaluation; in facility design; in professional education; and in research; as well as in the delivery of care and have made a change to how patients, residents, clients, their families, and communities experience healthcare services.

Demonstrable improvements in or impact on culture, quality, safety and/or financial indicators will be used to determine the recipient of this award.

Nominators must quantify the impact of the eligible teams’ innovations and actions in the following areas:

Patient experience and culture of inclusion: This can include, but not be limited to organizational structures that engage and support patients, caregivers and
families, use of electronic tools or media to support continuous engagement with patients, caregivers and families as well as organizational processes that elevate the collaborative efforts of patients, caregivers, families, staff and communities in the planning and delivery of care;
Training and development of staff, clinicians, Medical Staff, patients, caregivers and families to support a culture of innovation and excellence in the planning for and delivery of high-quality patient and family centered care;
Quality of care over a minimum of 12 months. This would include tangible performance or process improvements in clinical outcomes (e.g., hospital or facility acquired infections, falls, length of stay (LOS), alternate levels of care (ALC)), performance outcomes (e.g., patient experience rates) and other indicators that would demonstrate quality improvements (e.g., enhanced foundation revenues, decreased workplace injuries); and
The extent to which a high-performance patient experience aligns with all other aspects of the healthcare system (e.g., the satisfaction and engagement scores of staff, clinicians, and medical staff).