Judith Shamian's Health Care and Home Care Blog

The system works. Within three weeks, my husband had an MRI, CT scan and the entire spectrum of tests to help “stage” the illness.  Staging helps the medical profession determine how far the cancer has spread so they can decide on the treatment plan or, to be more precise, know the next set of questions ...

During the last few weeks, I have been asked to talk to two different groups about my career and lessons learned.  While my first reaction was “What is there to tell”, I agreed to speak to both a class of doctoral students and a group of mid-career nurses. As I prepared the presentations, I interestingly ended ...

So many of us women make the choice to enter the world of motherhood and when we do, are inundated with anecdotes, stories and advice from others about the wonderful experiences you will share with your child.  But the stories go quiet when the time comes to reenter the workforce. So here is my story. First, ...

We talk a lot about the need to transform our  health care system in Canada.  I often talk about the fact that we do not get good value for money.  Based on Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data, Canada has the sixth highest per capita health costs of 34 member countries. This means ...

A real frustration for me is the seeming frequency with which a vitamin, drug, health procedure or common practice, for example, is discredited after years of being accepted and even promoted. To the average consumer, both medical advice and current health practices sometimes seem to change with the wind. This includes things like use of ...

As I shared in a previous blog, my husband and I went together to his first appointment with the oncologists, who were great in taking time and answering questions.  We both had the opportunity to ask questions and receive answers, so I assumed we were on the same wavelength.  I later discovered that the message ...

As a President and CEO, I have had my share of board meetings. As someone who has served on multiple boards and currently chairs the Canadian Nurses Association, I can honestly say no one board is the same as another, although there are some basic principles.  As both a CEO and chair of a national ...

Feeding our Future: VON Windsor’s school nutrition program will serve up nearly seven million healthy snacks and meals to students across South Western Ontario this year. By guest bloggers, VON staff Stephanie Segave and Jon Jewell So what are the pressing needs of our communities? Certainly, we need to care for the sick, elderly and vulnerable ...

It has been a couple of weeks since my husband and I found out that his lymphoma is back.  The 72 hour wait to see the oncologist was the hardest.  Different people deal with stress in different ways.  I need to know what we dealing with and listen to experts, followed by my own research. ...

My husband’s appointment was scheduled for 10 am.  I was scheduled to fly from Toronto to Ottawa at 7 am that morning but I always say to my team that family comes first.  After a brief hesitation, I decided to practice my motto and delayed my flight so I could go with my husband to ...