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About The Guiding Star Awards


About The Guiding Star Awards


The Guiding Star Award is a monetary award in recognition of those individuals whose approach to work brings a positive influence and empowers our patients and families when they need it most. These are individuals whose dedication to Patient, Client and Family-Centred Care we want to emulate.

There are five awards in total for individuals:

  • Children’s Hospital staff - $1,000
  • Paediatricians - $1,000
  • Children’s Health Research Institute staff - $1,000
  • Thames Valley Children’s Centre staff - $1,000

From the nominations, an overall Guiding Star will be chosen by the selection committee and will be awarded in honour of Dr. Graham Chance who exemplified paediatric Patient, Client Family-Centred Care in Southwestern Ontario for over thirty years.

  • The Dr. Graham Chance Guiding Star Award - $5,000


The top Guiding Star Award is named in honour of a shining individual who championed patient and family-centred care throughout his career.

Dr. Graham Chance

Dr. Graham Chance was a paediatrician and neonatologist across Southwestern Ontario, as well as a professor at Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at Western University. To him, patient and family-centred care was so essential that he not only practiced it, but he led the way to standardize it. Dr. Chance was the driving force behind involving families at the patient bedside, and was the founder of the Perinatal Outreach Program, now known as the Maternal, Newborn, Child & Youth Network.

In the 1960s, the survival rates for premature infants were dim; unlike the optimist outcomes of today. During that time, physicians told families who lost their babies to try again, without offering any emotional support. Dr. Chance knew there must be a better way. He tried a different approach where he helped the mourning families and staff.

There are many more examples of how Dr. Chance’s compassion and dedication to a patient and family-centred approach shaped the way he worked every day. These actions inspired those around him who have shared and carried on his legacy.

In 1979, Dr. Chance was appointed Chief of the Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine and Director of Nurseries at St. Joseph’s Hospital in London, where the city’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit resided at the time. In 2005, he received the Canadian Paediatric Society’s Ross Award for outstanding contributions to the care of children and youth.

Dr. Chance passed peacefully on October 23, 2018. The Dr. Graham Chance Guiding Star Award will honour his legacy in recognition of excellence in the area of patient, client and family-centred care, which he truly epitomized.


Direct patient or client care staff, paediatricians and residents, administrative, support and ancillary staff and researchers who:

  • Exemplify the concepts of Patient, Client and Family-Centred Care through their actions and attitude on a regular basis.
  • Support PCFCC initiatives by providing exceptional support through technology, research, services and other means.
  • Demonstrate leadership in improving the quality of the patient, client and family experience.
  • Recognize the benefit of working in teams to provide PCFCC every time.
  • Recognize that the family is the constant in their child’s life.

Nomination Deadline: Monday, June 1, 2020 at 5 p.m. EST

Submit Nomination