Local resident Sherry Janzen, CEO of Salem Home, was recently chosen to share her story of success and innovative thinking in the industry.

The Healthcare Insurance Reciprocal of Canada (HIROC) has a podcast series called Healthcare Change Makers. This relatively new series showcases different people in the medical world who have showed strong changes in a leadership role.

Janzen was featured in the most recent episode titled: "Sherry Janzen, CEO of Salem Home, and the Value of Listening and Learning to 'Read the Air' in an Organization".

In the podcast, Janzen explained that she began to question how things were done early in her career as a healthcare aide and recreational director in an old-folks home in Saskatchewan. She felt that here was a different way to take care of the elderly, noting the residents were woken up at 6:00 a.m to prepare for breakfast at 7:30 a.m. Janzen was told by her superiors, "Well, that's how we've always done it," regardless if there was another way that might be better. Janzen noted, "It was all about the staff. It was not about the people who lived in the nursing home."

Since becoming the CEO of Salem in 2004, Janzen admits that her leadership style has relaxed over the years. She indicated her style changed from a driving force to being open and saying, "Just go do it", allowing for a more relationship-centered style of care.

Janzen's real hope is that podcast will highlight how well the residents are cared for Salem.

"If you can find meaning and purpose in their [the patients] day, the use of those medications are minimized," Janzen noted the relationships between the employees and the residents are very important, helping reduce the medications for things like anxiety and stress.