News

A sustained standing ovation greeted the announcement at the gala dinner of the recent National Health Sciences Students' Association meeting at Dalhousie, that Anne Godden-Webster was being awarded the 2016 Dr. John Gilbert Interprofessional Mentorship Award. Anne has been the Interprofessional Experience Coordinator in the Faculty of Health Professions for the past decade.

Anne Godden-Webster with Nursing student Kyle Warkentin, who presented her award. (Wayne Garland photo.)

The award recognizes the significance of mentorship of students as a means of enhancing and sustaining patient-centred primary health care, interprofessional education and collaborative care. The award is intended to acknowledge the recipient's tireless encouragement, support, insight and enthusiasm that have been instrumental to students and their work in IPE.

Nominations were solicited from across Canada, and in the words of one nominator, "I can honesty say that without Anne, DalHSSA or IPE at Dalhousie would not be as successful as it is today. Anne's dedication to interprofessional education is contagious and a true inspiration to enhance collaboration throughout the Health Professions, Medicine and Dentistry Faculties."
 
In addition to working with faculty members at Dal and other universities, and with preceptors in the practice setting, Anne has worked closely with students through activities like the Health Care Team Challenge, the Dalhousie Health Sciences Students' Association, the recent Simulation Saturday event in the CHEB, IPE mini-courses and interprofessional student placements.  

A model of collaboration

Another nominator commented, "Anne Godden-Webster is the model of collaboration; she does NOTHING alone and has an incredible knack for nurturing each individual's strengths and coaxing the right people together to achieve excellent results. She has impacted more people, at more levels, than anyone else I know and will surely leave a legacy of collaboratively inspired students, preceptors, workplaces and researchers".
 
The IPE Mentorship Award is named for Dr. John Gilbert, Professor Emeritus of the University of British Columbia, who was the founder of and leading force behind the Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative which has guided the development of IPE in Canada and internationally over the past 15 years.