An occupational therapist who helps patients reach their goals. A doctor who always find the time for comfort and clarity. A registered practical nurse with a fine attention to detail. A volunteer who sparks joy through community and games. A clinical operations leader who makes patients feel safe and welcomed. An interdisciplinary group that tackles sustainability and patient care needs through innovation. These are the winners of the Our Shared Values Awards and Spotlight on Sustainability at Providence Healthcare.

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Amy Leung, Occupational Therapist on B3 Stroke and Neuro Rehabilitation

Winner of the Human Dignity Award for an individual or team who affirms that every person has sacred value and is worth of respect.

In her role as a veteran Occupational therapist, Amy brings her own unique brand of humour and creativity to the job and seems to be the person on the unit who is able to engage even our most withdrawn or complex patients.

She famously hates too much attention or work colleagues trying to hug her, but for her patients she will always do what it takes to find that light in them. 

We have seen her singing hymns or classic songs with patients to get them sitting up and active for longer than they thought they could be, or coming down the hall with a patient to a marching band song that was the perfect thing to get her taking big steps down the hall.

Not only do patients love her, but her colleagues on the unit do too. She is sought out for advice on how to come up with creative ways to solve everyday problems on the unit or for treatment on cases that are not straightforward. Her treatments are always very patient goal oriented, and the more specific the goals, the more fun she has. 

She has helped some of our uniquely talented patients achieve their goals. One was a chef who cooked a gourmet tasting menu in the home ADL training suite during his rehab journey, another was an Elvis impersonator who was regaining the fine motor skills to apply her makeup independently and do a performance on the unit. 

Amy ensures that each of her patients feel their voice is heard regardless of their financial or health status.

Natalie Mamen, Physician on A3 Stroke and Neuro Rehabilitation

Winner of the Compassion Award for an individual or team that enables health and healing by understanding each person’s needs and by providing care with kindness and sensitivity.

Dr. Mamen takes the time to thoroughly understand each patient’s medical and social history, actively listen to their stories, and treat each person as a unique individual.

She reviews medical reports and transfer notes to learn about the medical team and the care provided to the patient. She seeks to answer complex questions including the prognoses for patients with terminal diagnoses.

Dr. Mamen balances urgency and compassion well. She diligently writes down orders and swiftly navigates the hallways to communicate with EMS picking up an unstable patient.

She always finds time to comfort the daughter of an elderly patient who just turned palliative, offering a clear overview of what to expect and explaining medical complexities in simple language for better understanding.

Recently, Dr. Mamen helped a palliative patient connect with family members abroad over video calls while the patient was still verbal. Thanks to Dr. Mamen’s support, the patient’s daughter happily reminisces about her dad’s final days with gratitude, leaving no place for regrets.  

Dr. Mamen readily apologizes if she has made a mistake and is quick to reflect and change course to provide excellent care to our patients.

She is also very gracious in her words and consistently supports and celebrates team achievements- especially when the A3 team successfully coordinated the international discharge of a patient with complex care needs but wanted to return to her home country due to a lack of supports here.

When a colleague leaves Providence, Dr. Mamen participates in farewell activities and goes out of her way to make sure the person feels valued and appreciated.

Sanda Teyhill, Registered Practical Nurse in the Houses of Providence

Winner of the Excellence Award for an individual or team who strives to achieve the best care and quality through innovation and continuous improvement.

Sanda cares about her residents and her colleagues and is always an excellent mentor to others.

Sanda is very patient and spends lots of time answering questions. Her explanations are detailed and worded in a way that takes into consideration the resident and the family’s knowledge level.

One example of Sanda’s excellence was with a palliative care resident with poor intake. The attending physician prescribed an IV continuously at 500 ml/hour for hydration.

After two hours of being on IV hydration, the resident’s medical condition had not improved, it actually became worse.

The other staff on the unit suggested to declare end of life care. But Sanda called the physician and suggested that perhaps the resident had fluid overload causing their shortness of breath and tachycardia. The physician listened to Sanda’s suggestion and discontinued the IV and prescribed diuretic medication to the resident. The resident’s medical condition improved and the resident’s shortness of breath subsided.

Another example was when Sanda asked an RA to assist their resident who was in need of help. Sandra handled the situation calmly and professionally with the philosophy that the resident is the number one priority. She simply replied to the RA ‘your resident needs you’ and then she stayed with the resident until the RA came.

Sanda shows great leadership. She collaborates with the interdisciplinary team to ensure we provide the best care for residents. She always strives to address concerns, trial solutions and evaluate to see whether they are effective or not.

Owin Perumpulli Arachchige, Volunteer in the Houses of Providence

Winner of the Community Award for an individual or team that embraces diversity, trust, joy and teamwork to fulfill human potential.

Gentle, fun, and funny are adjectives often used to describe Owin. The result is that residents look forward to seeing him, which is so valuable for our residents who do not have many other visitors or family as it helps alleviate their feelings of loneliness. 

One resident told me how Owin’s “hilarious” attempts to speak her native language of French with her  not only makes her laugh but also demonstrates that he thinks about and celebrates her lived experience.

Owin has taught the card game Uno, as well as other card and word games, to at least 10 residents and a fellow volunteer. This inspired the start of Uno night, which happens every Friday. It is the event residents look forward to each week.

They acknowledged that before Owin started to volunteer two years ago, there wasn’t as much of a sense of community and engagement among residents. Now they socialize with each other even when Owin is not there.

Owin also visits the Uno Night participants in their room before he leaves to say good night!

Helping people come together through an enjoyable, weekly shared experience is one way that Owin compassionately fosters joy and hope in our residents.

Owin impresses me, especially when I reflected on the fact that Owin just recently celebrated his 16th birthday with the residents of the Houses on the actual day much to their delight!

Tiffany Nicoloff, Clinical Operations Leader of A5 and B5 Orthopedic Rehabilitation

Winner of the Inclusivity Award for an individual or team that fosters an inclusive, welcoming environment where everyone is treated equitably and without judgment.

Tiffany ensures that all of the patients in the program receive quality care without judgement.

Recently a patient with a history of substance use was admitted with uncontrolled pain. This patient was routinely found self-injecting nonprescription substances to help control his pain.

Rather than passing judgement, Tiffany worked tirelessly with the team, the patient and other specialty navigators to ensure his pain was addressed in order to prevent the need for the patient to self-administer. Additionally she provided the patient with safe injection options if required.

The patient provided tremendous feedback that he never felt judged and he felt his care was never negatively impacted based on Tiffany’s mentorship to the staff. Tiffany included several members of the expanded care team to build care and transition plans that went above and beyond to ensure the patients’ needs were met.

In another example, Tiffany worked with two Indigenous patients, and she regularly engaged with Jenny, Unity Health’s Indigenous Wellness Specialist. Jenny’s expertise of Indigenous resources, paired with Tiffany’s knowledge of the patients’ care needs, helped the team to explore discharge destinations specific to Indigenous populations so that both patients could have their physical and cultural needs met. Both of these patients were successfully discharged.

Reflecting on these patients, Tiffany was able to realize that the staff could benefit from more culturally sensitive information about the Indigenous population, and as a result there is a plan in place to provide further education to staff to ensure that the whole unit is able to provide care that incorporates Indigenous culture.

Spotlight on Sustainability

Unity Health is committed to preserving and protecting the environment. Sustainability plays a key role in health care, and the new Spotlight on Sustainability celebrates the role that staff, physicians, learners, volunteers and partners play in delivering world-class care, while improving the field of sustainability.

The recipient of the Spotlight on Sustainability is the Compassionate Equipment Recycling Program, established under the leadership of the Health Disciplines Practice Team in collaboration with the Houses of Providence and Maintenance and Plant Operations.

Residents in Long Term Care often have mobility equipment prescribed to them, including power wheelchairs, manual wheelchairs, walkers, and seating systems.  When they pass away, this equipment is often donated to their Long Term Care home by families who no longer need it.  

However, without a designated person to give this equipment to and a process to ensure it is safe and clean, the equipment languishes and is eventually bound for landfill.

At Unity Health, we have many patients across our three sites who are in desperate need of wheelchairs and walkers and have no way to afford this equipment. 

Building on the legacy mobility equipment recycling work of our three sites, Unity’s Health Disciplines Practice Team collaborated with the Houses of Providence and Maintenance & Plant Operations to create a Unity Health wide Compassionate Equipment Recycling Program – CERP for short.

The Houses of Providence provides the donated equipment. The Providence Maintenance and Plant Operations Team do safety checks on the equipment and perform preventative maintenance and cleaning. They store the equipment and move it across the sites. 

Infection Prevention and Control was consulted to ensure that equipment could be safely cleaned for re-use. The Health Disciplines Team collaboratively developed and oversees the process including an inventory for clinicians across the sites to be able to access the equipment and to gift it to patients who need it.

The result is a program that offsets a large amount of otherwise functional and expensive equipment from being discarded in landfill.

In addition, the program supports patients in need with donated equipment and supports patient flow and safe discharges with the provision of this equipment that patients can have in hospital and take home with them at discharge. 

Photo Gallery

Mission Day was celebrated at Providence Healthcare on Jan. 28 to thank the staff, physicians and volunteers for the ways in which they live our shared values each day. Festivities included welcome gifts, mass, chair massage and the Our Shared Values Awards presentation. Here are some photos from the day.

By: Olivia Lavery

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