Saint Elizabeth Health Care, Toronto Public Health and Women’s College Hospital are proud to announce the Top 30 Rising Stars Project, an exciting and innovative opportunity for nursing professionals. The project brings 10 nurses from each of the three organizations together for a customized leadership development program.

The Top 30 Rising Stars Project invests in leadership succession for the future and is an opportunity to address two major issues in health care: shortage of emerging leadership talent and an aging nursing workforce. This project is well-aligned with the organizations’ philosophy of leadership at all levels, lifelong learning and the creation of a progressive and supportive work environment.

The program, which had its inaugural session on June 11th, will run to March 2009 and will include: a six day customized learning program with the Schulich School of Business; a variety of “stretch opportunities” within the participating organizations; and a web-based mentorship program enabling the candidates to have access to mentors from a variety of settings and areas and mentorship by colleagues from a variety of sources depending on the learning goals of the participants.

The program has been made possible with generous funding support from the Nursing Secretariat, Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and HealthForce Ontario along with the participation of Schulich School of Business, York University and Longwoods Publishing. The project has the potential to be applicable to other professions and roles in the future, as well as benefitting the community at large.

About Saint Elizabeth Health Care:
Celebrating 100 years of excellent service in home and community-based health care,
Saint Elizabeth Health Care has been an active participant in the development and delivery of community health care since 1908. With an original staff of only four nurses, SEHC has grown today into an award-winning organization and not-for-profit leader employing nearly 4,000 staff and offering a full range of in-home nursing, supportive care, rehabilitation and specialty services and delivering 3.3 million visits annually. SEHC also offers education and consulting services nationally and internationally to support health organizations and the people they serve.
For more about us and our 100th Anniversary, please visit www.sehc.ca/100

About Toronto Public Health
This year marks the 125th anniversary of Toronto Public Health (TPH). In that time, TPH has been keeping people healthy by preventing the spread of disease, promoting healthy living and advocating for conditions that improve health. TPH serves a population with constantly evolving assets and needs - one that includes large communities of marginalized and vulnerable people and a strong tradition of community organization and activism.

About Women’s College Hospital
For the past 100 years, Women’s College Hospital has been dedicated to a single mission: groundbreaking advances in women’s health. Women’s College collaborated in the invention of the Pap test. It opened the first provincial cancer detection clinic and Ontario’s first regional Sexual Assault Care Centre. It delivered the nation’s first test-tube quintuplets and was the first hospital in Ontario to use mammography. Today, Women’s College is focusing on the one of the most important and unrecognized healthcare realities. When it comes to health, women and men are not the same. Sex and gender differences – that is, differences in physiology and social roles – mean that women have different healthcare needs. That’s why Women’s College Hospital is conducting leading-edge research and providing state-of-the-art services around women’s health. As Ontario’s first and only ambulatory care centre and a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Toronto, Women’s College is committed to ensuring that women’s unique needs are profoundly understood and brilliantly treated.

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For media inquiries please contact:
Andria Louca - Media Relations Advisor
905-968-6538
alouca@saintelizabeth.com