Origin

The Dr. Vanessa Burkoski Scholarship was established in 2023 in Vanessa’s memory by her family, the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO), friends and colleagues. The scholarship is awarded to an undergraduate nursing student who has demonstrated excellent academic achievements and policy/advocacy, in the third or fourth year of the BScN program.

Honoree Background

Dr. Vanessa Burkoski will be remembered as a passionate advocate for evidence-based practice and for engaging, healthy, and scholarly practice environments in nursing.  She envisioned health professionals who maximize their contribution to patient quality and safety and improve organization and system outcomes.  Vanessa spoke truth to power and stood by her principles, no matter the consequences, demonstrating courage and integrity.

Dr. Vanessa Burkoski joined Toronto’s Humber River Health as Chief Nursing Executive in September 2016 until her retirement, brought about illness, in 2021.  Vanessa was part of the executive leadership, providing strategic advice and nursing expertise on a wide range of nursing and broader health-care policy issues.

Earlier, from 2011 to 2016, she served as a top executive at a major Ontario hospital centre, where she was accountable for the overall leadership, strategic direction and management of professional practice, quality and patient safety.  According to a newspaper report, her position as Chief Nursing Executive was terminated “because of her public opposition to the Ontario-wide trend of replacing registered nurses with less-qualified health care workers”.  At the time, Vanessa was serving as past president of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, and on May 9, 2016, she helped host a Queen’s Park news conference releasing the association’s Mind the Safety Gap report that argues that the declining role of RNs in health care must be reclaimed to ensure increasingly acute patients get the care they need in hospitals and at home.

Earlier, from 2007-2011, Vanessa had served as Ontario’s Provincial Chief Nursing Officer.  She was the longest serving CNO providing strategic policy advice to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.  She was responsible for conceptualizing and facilitating the implementation of a wide-range of evidence-based, innovative program and policy initiatives such as the Personal Digital Assistant program, Ontario Nursing Workforce Alliance, and Long-Term Care – Emergency Mobile Response Program.

Dr. Burkoski was a registered nurse and a nurse practitioner.  She held a BScN, MScN and Doctorate in Health Administration.  She was an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Windsor, an Adjunct Academic Appointment in Nursing at the University of Western Ontario, and at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto. Dr. Vanessa Burkoski received in 2023 the Order of Ontario, the province’s highest civilian honour for excellence and achievement in a field and leaving a lasting legacy in our province.

Award

The award in the amount of $2,000 will be given to one undergraduate nursing student, each year.