News

Awards of Distinction

Awards, News

March 28

Watch for the 2024 Awards – COMING SOON!

Employee Award Categories

Each award is open to one employee across Good Samaritan.

Mission Award

The mission award recognizes an employee who best exemplifies extending Christian hospitality in a meaningful and creative way. They embody the organization’s mission statement.

Criteria

This employee:

  • Demonstrates Christian values in actions and decision-making
  • Demonstrates integration of Good Samaritans identity as a faith-based, not-for-profit care organization in their actions and decision-making
  • Advocates for vulnerable and diverse populations
  • Fosters an inclusive approach to team and community

Congratulations to the 2023 Mission Award Winner, Myrna Johnson, one of our RAI Coordinators.

“Myrna upholds GSS’s Christian values by being honest and sincere. She is fully dedicated to GSS and the residents that she serves. She strives to provide the site with information and ongoing support and does her best to achieve the goals set for the site.”

Vision Award

The Vision Award recognizes an employee who continually supports our vision of growing in strength, excellence, and creativity in caring for others.

This employee:

  • Seeks innovative approaches to care and accommodation excellence
  • Is actively involved in quality and safety outcomes improvement
  • Champions quality and safe care and work environments
  • Demonstrates practice excellence in their respective role

Congratulations to Lindsey Jones, LPN at Good Samaritan Hillside Village in Salmon Arm, for winning the 2023 Vision Award.

“Lindsey orchestrated wound rounds with our health authority wound care nurse specialist and spent hours designing a tracking document to ensure accurate vaccination information was passed to our pharmacy vaccine team. She took on our Quality initiatives and triple-checked each chart to ensure it met Quality standards before our audits… which we passed with flying colours!”

Healthy Relationships Award

The Healthy Relationships Award recognizes an employee who works in supportive partnerships and opens their heart to others by affirming their goodness and potential. They make it a priority to develop and foster every relationship they are a part of.

Criteria

This employee:

  • Shows respect to others
  • Is eager to partner in shared responsibilities
  • Communicates openly and sincerely
  • Shows compassion to all
  • Upholds dignity and encourages the growth of everyone around them
  • It makes those around them feel truly part of the Good Samaritan family
  • Actively promotes the work of Good Samaritan

Congratulations to Kathryn LeVoir, an Associate Care Coordinator at Good Samaritan Mountainview Village in Kelowna, BC, for winning the 2023 Healthy Relationships Award.

“Kathy is genuinely kind, caring and interested in others. She is welcoming and positive and has an open, honest way of interacting with her team, residents and their families. Kathy displays kindness, respect and patience when facilitating our care conference meetings. Kathy handles complaints/criticism with poise, grace and professionalism.”

Hospitable Environments

The Hospitable Environments Award recognizes an employee who provides safe, comfortable communities that inspire involvement and where people experience a sense of caring, belonging, and purpose.

Hospitable Environments are created by:

  • Putting people first before tasks
  • Providing home-like surroundings
  • Providing safe, non-threatening environments
  • Building and maintaining community connections

Criteria

This employee:

  • Promotes safe living to residents, staff, guests and peers and continuously searches for safer ways to improve the lives of those around them and share their ideas
  • Promotes home-like surroundings for residents and families
  • Develop new partnerships and engage stakeholders in an effort to improve the resident and client experience.  
  • Exemplifies teamwork and effective communication in everything they do

Congratulations to Tito Bernadino, a housekeeper at Good Samaritan Delta View Care Centre in Delta, BC, for winning the 2023 Hospitable Environments Award.

“Tito brightens the residents’ and care staff’s days with his affable nature. He always has a moment to hear and assure residents when they are experiencing distress or want to do something nice for a fellow resident or staff member.”

Servant Leadership Award

The servant leadership category recognizes employees who continually demonstrate the core values of the Good Samaritan through exemplary servant leadership qualities. These leaders give of themselves in service to others by acting with courage in a trustworthy and ethical manner.

Servant Leaders are

  • Accountable for all their actions
  • Demonstrate integrity
  • Are good stewards of resources
  • Serve others without self-interest

Criteria

This employee:

  • Leads by example and inspires leadership through action and results.
  • Demonstrates accountability for their actions and decisions.
  • Leads by managing resources efficiently and devising plans that reflect the current and future needs of those they serve.
  • They know the resources they have been entrusted with and work towards improving services with them. 
  • Excels in open and honest communication with others.
  • Believes in continuous learning and assisting in the growth of others.

Congratulations to Sandra Fillatre, Regional Administrative Assistant for Northern Alberta, for winning the 2023 Servant Leadership Award.

“Sandra leads by example and inspires others to step up and demonstrate leadership through her actions and results. Her dedication and commitment to her work are evident in the positive impact she has had during external partner audits. She consistently goes the extra mile to ensure that audit preparatory tasks are complete and supports are in place for care home leaders.”


Team Award Categories

  • Each award is open to one team across Good Samaritan.
  • Administrative and operational teams, including interdisciplinary teams, are eligible.
  • A team must consist of a minimum of 3 people.

Resident/Client Experience Award

The resident/client experience award recognizes a team that has implemented a change or made an improvement to how residents/clients and their families experience healthcare services. This team continually prioritizes all aspects of person-centered healthcare service delivery to stay focused on those we serve.  Demonstrable improvements in or positive impact on culture, quality, safety and/or financial indicators will be used to determine the recipient of this award. 

The winner of the 2023 Resident/Client Experience Award is the team of Chaplains:

  • Curtis Collins
  • Dallas Hjorth
  • Dean Shingoose
  • Gretchen Johnson
  • Kayley Kerr
  • Laird Borst
  • Lois Punton
  • Robert (Bob) Korth
  • Shelly Norris
  • Shirley Carleton
  • Vikki Mars
  • Wendel Ritz

“The Chaplains team transition from pastoral care providers to clinical chaplains has been instrumental in enhancing the spiritual care services offered within our organization. By being members of the Interdisciplinary Team (IDT) and embracing a holistic approach to care, the chaplains have expanded their role to provide spiritual care to all residents, families, team members, volunteers, and community partners. This transition has not only improved the accessibility of spiritual care but also fostered a culture of inclusivity and support for individuals from diverse backgrounds and faith traditions.”

Quality Improvement Award

The quality improvement award recognizes a team that has relentlessly focused on driving quality improvement.  This team is a strong advocate of quality improvement: leading, influencing, motivating and engaging others in improvement efforts with an unwavering focus on improving outcomes for resident/clients. This team has implemented a quality improvement initiative(s) focused on a single issue, resulting in a measurable, positive impact on Good Samaritan.

The winner of the Quality Improvement Award is the Southern Alberta Maintenance Team:

  • Garden Vista – Mike (Michael) Welsh
  • Lee Crest – Jacob Creed and Joe Creed
  • Linden View – Tim Ashe and Christine Murphy
  • Park Meadows Village – Bob Meller and Ed Mangahs
  • Prairie Ridge – Spencer Rose and Decon (Reece) Shaw
  • South Ridge Village – Rocco Votta and Stuart Roth
  • Vista Village – JJ (John) Lynk and Colin Chancey
  • West Highland Centre – Leroy Zoeteman and Kevin Harris

“The Southern Alberta Regional Maintenance Team consistently drives forward quality improvement projects in the region to ensure the residents are comfortable and happy in their homes. Many of these projects are behind the scenes and are not visible to staff and residents, but they require tireless work from the maintenance staff.”

Congratulations to all the 2023 winners! This is truly a great accomplishment and testament to your dedication and contribution to Good Samaritan.

News

Our Recreation & Volunteer Manager, Bruce Devereux, wins the 2017 BC Care Providers Association Innovation of the Year Award

Announcements, Awards

January 12
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We are all so proud of Bruce Devereux who will be the recipient of the BC Care Awards 2017 Innovation of the Year for his work at Christenson Village in Gibsons, BC.  A long list of community partnerships has helped Bruce bring his passion for film and audio recordings to projects that engage the 140 residents of Christenson Village in creative pursuits.

In 2012, Bruce worked with local musician Steve Wright on Across the Lines, a project that helped residents create “beautiful sounds” using iPads and iPhones. Those sounds were turned into a professionally produced CD, which also features improvisation by local musicians and poetry reading and storytelling by Christenson Village residents.

Through a second partnership, Christenson Village residents produced and narrated three short video documentaries that became part of a smartphone app produced by the Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives with local funding. In collaboration with Museum Manager/Curator Matthew Lovegrove designed Time Travel Sunshine Coast, which later won two prestigious awards. (Heritage BC & Interpretation Canada Awards) Tourists use the app to take walking tours of BC’s Sunshine Coast.

A third collaboration with Gibsons’ Deer Crossing The Art Farm makes use of Anne Basting’s TimeSlips story creation process to help Christenson Village residents create original and imaginative stories. This creative care partnership with The Art Farm resulted in the formation of “The Imagination Network”. In 2015 their campus of care was a featured studio stop during Gibsons’ annual Art and Culture Crawl. Christenson Village was the first care community ever to participate in the festival, which opens about 150 artistic settings to the public. The Imagination Network comprised of Christenson Village and Deer Crossing the Art Farm has now added Douglas College Therapeutic Recreation and UBC Theatre departments as partners and collaborators. Future goals include the creation of a theatrical production that is co-written, co-produced, and co-performed by people with dementia in collaboration with professional artists, caregivers, and community members.

While “The Imagination Network” is inspired by the work of University of Milwaukee Theatre Professor Anne Basting, a pioneer in the creative care movement, Bruce and his partners feel they are taking a unique approach within BC to creativity and care. Bastings spearheaded the development of TimeSlips, a ritualized story creation model for people with the lived experience of dementia. As a certified TimeSlips facilitator Bruce has been using this method for the past 4 years to generate over a 100 stories written by residents with dementia.

Using the creative material generated by those with dementia, and seeing them as co-collaborators in the creative engagement process we are adding value to the collaboration while building community. The process of creation is important, but we view the relationship building between residents, family, staff, and community as the cornerstone to every project.

Congratulations Bruce!

News

Our Chaplain, Vikki Marrs, wins the BC Care Award for the 2016 Innovation of the Year

Awards

March 9
Vikki and Minister

The Good Samaritan Society is very proud of our Chaplain, Vikki Marrs, who recently won the BC Care Award for the 2016 Innovation of the Year for two of her unique innovations that she implemented at two of our care homes in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, Hillside Village and Pioneer Lodge.

Her first innovation was the creation and implementation of a Support Booklet for residents and their families. The booklet is designed to communication the limitations of complex care versus care in a household environment and address some of the transition issues that happen when a person comes into care and everything is new and unfamiliar. As well, the booklet highlights some of the associated feelings that can surface due to this life change, and provides some basic tools and suggestions for supports where necessary.

Her second innovation was the creation of an artificial doll that looks like a real baby, and has been successfully used by front-line staff to deal with residents that have challenging behaviour.

The Good Samaritan Society would like to congratulate Vikki, who is a true leader in the field of seniors care. Your actions and dedication help us achieve our ever important mission to Extend Christian Hospitality through a continuum of care to those in need or at risk, regardless of race or religious belief.

News

Our Educator, Darcy Shenfield, receives the Rita McGregor Excellence in Nursing Education Award

Awards

March 9

Darcy Shenfield, Educator at The Good Samaritan Society, was the 2015 recipient of this award from Norquest College and is featured in the Winter 2015 Care Magazine which is published by the College of Licensed Practical Nurses of Alberta. Darcy is a 27 year employee currently working as an Educator and her passion is in educating our staff on how to care for those living with dementia. Click here to read the article which is on page 15. We are so proud of you Darcy!