Vivian and Mary Tellis-Nayak named Culture Change Champions
The Illinois Pioneer Coalition is pleased to announce that Vivian (V.) Tellis-Nayak, PhD, and Mary Tellis-Nayak, RN, MSN, MPH are the recipients of the 2019 Illinois Pioneer Coalition Culture Change Champions Award. This dynamic duo is being recognized for their ongoing support of the Illinois Pioneer Coalition, commitment to person-centered care and quality in the long term care community.
Mary, a nurse by trade, has focused the majority of her professional career on promoting the importance, of all the nursing roles in long term care, with a focus on direct care givers. She authored several groundbreaking sets of standards for dementia care units, sub-acute care, and person-centered care. Vivian, a renowned long-term care researcher, quantitatively proved that Directors of Nursing (DoNs) and Nursing Home Administrators (NHAs) are directly related to skilled nursing care center quality performance. He also provided the first quantitative proof that quality in skilled nursing centers has a positive impact on financial revenue and that DON and NHA turnover are the single best predictors of poor quality and revenues. Together they authored "Return of Compassion to Health Care" and continue to advocate nationally promoting person centered care, performance improvement and challenging everyone to recognize the value of compassion in healthcare.
The Culture Change Champion award is presented to individuals or teams that have committed themselves to the principles and values of the Culture Change. These values include: knowing each person, relationships is the fundamental building block of a transformed culture, promoting growth and development of all. The award winners embody the beliefs that community is the antidote to institutionalization and that we as a society should always do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Vivian Tellis-Nayak and Mary Tellis-Nayak will be recognized for their past decade of support to the Illinois Pioneer Coalition at their 15th Annual Summit on Wednesday, March 6.
This event will be held in Naperville at the Northern Illinois University. For more information about the Culture Change Champions Award, please visit the Illinois Pioneer Coalition, Summit 2019 web page at illinoispioneercoalition.org/summit.