Ontario's HWE Champions
The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care appointed two Healthy Work Environments (HWE) "Champions" in April 2009. The Champions are
Rob Devitt, President and CEO, Toronto East General Hospital and
Heather Laschinger, Distinguished University Professor and Associate Director Nursing Research at the University of Western Ontario.
The Champions are responsible for publicly promoting the benefits of HWEs among their fellow leaders and encouraging them to adopt and implement HWE best practices and initiatives in their workplaces.
They will also be assisting and advising the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to develop strategies for the broader implementation of HWEs across the province. The Ministry will continue to work with health care leaders, nurses and other health care workers from all sectors to develop and disseminate a range of resources to create healthy and safe work environments, including a focus on workplace violence prevention.
Champions’ Biographies
Rob Devitt
Rob Devitt is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Toronto East General Hospital (TEGH). Prior to joining TEGH in 2004, Mr. Devitt was the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Peterborough Regional Health Centre where he led the integration and merger of two separate hospitals and secured government approval for the development of a new replacement hospital.
Mr. Devitt has served in a number of capacities on system transformation and change initiatives. He has been a provincially appointed Supervisor, served on a number of provincial advisory committees and is the Past Chair of the Board for Plexxus, a not-for-profit company focused on maximizing non-clinical efficiencies, including supply chain management, transaction finance, and human resources and payroll services, in order to reinvest savings into patient care.
Dr. Heather Laschinger
Dr. Heather Laschinger is Distinguished University Professor and Associate Director Nursing Research at The University of Western Ontario, School of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences in London, Ontario. In 2007, Dr. Laschinger received the Distinguished University Professor Award, Western's highest recognition for a faculty member, in honour of sustained excellence in teaching, research and service during an outstanding scholarly career at the university.
Since 1992, Dr. Laschinger has been Principal Investigator of a program of research designed to investigate the impact of nursing work environments on nurses’ empowerment for professional practice, and their health and well-being. This work has resulted in important contributions to policy-making and program development at various levels of government. In 2003, Dr. Laschinger was awarded the Sigma Theta Tau International Elizabeth McWilliams Miller Award for Excellence in Research, the first Canadian researcher to receive this prestigious award.
Dr. Laschinger, with Professor Carol Wong, recently completed a national study profiling nursing leadership / management structures across Canada. Current projects include a provincial study testing a multi-level model of the impact of unit nursing leadership on nurses’ worklife and mental and physical health and a worklife civility intervention study with Dr. Michael Leiter of Acadia University.
Champions’ e-mail: hwechampions@healthforceontario.ca
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