Galyna Breslavets, Humber River Health

It is with great pride that I nominate Galyna Breslavets for the Hospital News Nursing Hero Award. Galyna is a transformational nurse leader whose impact extends far beyond the walls of the Operating Room. As the OR Manager at Humber River Health, she leads with both strategy and soul—balancing complex operational demands with compassion, grace, and empathy. Her ability to inspire, empower, and elevate others makes her not only a nursing hero, but a nursing visionary.

Galyna has been a driving force behind the successful implementation of the High-Efficiency Hip and Knee Procedural Throughput (H-HPT) Model, a groundbreaking initiative that has redefined how surgical care is delivered at HRH. Under her leadership, the OR, Surgical Day Care (SDC), and MDRD teams achieved:

• Operational savings of $489K over 16 surgical days, with an increase of 192 completed cases.
• A 50% reduction in hospital waste and linen usage, supporting green healthcare.
• A 3x increase in OR room utilization—all without additional funding.
• Shortened length of stay, optimized surgical trays, and standardized anesthesia protocols that improved patient recovery and outcomes.

But beyond the numbers is Galyna’s human-centered leadership. She coaches new leaders with patience and wisdom, creating an environment where people feel safe to grow and innovate. She mentors with empathy, ensuring new managers and frontline staff feel supported, respected, and empowered. Her door is always open—whether to discuss a quality improvement idea or to support a nurse through a tough day.

Galyna is also the reason why so many on her team choose to stay. Her emotional intelligence, calm demeanor under pressure, and ability to unite diverse disciplines under a shared vision have cultivated a positive, high-performing culture in one of the most fast-paced and high-pressure environments in healthcare.

She treats every patient, family member, and colleague with dignity and respect, ensuring no one ever feels like “just a number.” Galyna’s leadership during high-acuity surgical days, staffing crises, and complex cases consistently reflects her commitment to excellence, accountability, and compassionate care.

Her work has not only improved patient flow and access to timely surgical care but has also been recognized regionally and provincially. Other hospitals have adopted the H-HPT model after site visits to HRH, and Galyna’s contributions have informed broader discussions at the Toronto Region Surgical Recovery Tables—proving that her leadership has influenced healthcare beyond her organization.

Galyna Breslavets is not only a nurse. She is a builder of teams, a mentor to many, and a trusted leader. She represents everything that is noble, forward-thinking, and courageous about nursing today. Her legacy is not just in surgical metrics—it’s in the people she’s inspired and the lives she’s touched.