May 2016
Leisha
Huyser
,
RN, BSN
Dialysis
Pella Regional Health Center
Pella
,
IA
United States

 

 

 

Leisha is a kind, caring, and compassionate individual.She is a full-time mom to 3 young children as well as the manager of our Dialysis unit.She is active in our community, her children's school activities, as well as organizing events for the Dialysis patients.She has organized a summer picnic (away from the unit) where a meal is provided along with games and activities, snacks (compatible with a renal diet) to share with them over the holidays, and contests to inspire the patients to reach certain goals with their treatment or diet.I have seen her work one-on-one with a staff member going through a particularly difficult crisis in their life to ensure their work-life and home-life balance were achieved.
Leisha accepted the leadership position in our Dialysis unit a little over 2 years ago; the unit had been without a full-time dedicated manager for a couple of years prior to that.She immersed herself in the role to develop quality initiatives to better serve the patients as well as the staff.She has a servant heart as the leader.She elevates everyone to be a better nurse by her presence and elevates the standard of care provided in her department.She has great attention to detail, works methodically so that nothing is missed, and her care is thorough and complete.She does all of this with a gentle approach.
Leisha has demonstrated through her leadership to all of the Dialysis staff that the expectation of how to treat the patients as well as each other is with the greatest of respect.She is sensitive to the needs of the patients; many of them have been served by our Dialysis unit for years.She sets high expectations of herself and of her staff making everyone a better nurse or caregiver due to this role modeling.She focuses on what each staff member can do to improve the patients' quality of life.The frequency of dialysis is extremely taxing and creating a setting where patients feel welcomed and embraced by a culture of caring is significant in their wellbeing.In a low key manner, Leisha is able to set an environment where there is a strong sense of trust and where the patients as well as their families feel well cared for.
Our Dialysis unit was recently surveyed by Medicare, which is normally done every 3 or so years.It had been 7 or more years since they had been here for a survey.They expected to find many deficiencies and/or lapses in current regulations.Leisha, during her tenure had done a great deal of preparation for the Medicare Survey.With her confident and calm demeanor, she set a tone that allowed the staff as well as the patients to feel that this was going to be a successful survey.Her attention to detail and diligent prep work in anticipation of this survey led to a successful survey with many outstanding comments by the surveyors.One comment that stood out from them was that they sensed the staff did not seem intimidated or frightened by their presence, they were at ease with what they were doing and how they were doing it.This is in large part due to the leadership style that Leisha conveys and the reassurance she provides to the staff.