Pippin Ashton, RN, BSN

Pippin Ashton is a role model for excellence in nursing leadership. She has a passion for creating a caring and empathetic culture while consistently driving improvements in nursing care that contribute to high-quality patient outcomes. As a transformational leader, Pippin’s influence has been exemplified during the last year as we are all working to stabilize the nursing workforce. Pippin has developed exemplary programs to support staff development, which has strongly influenced our nurse retention, decreasing our RN turnover from 22% to 10.5% over the last 3 years. Pippin leads the Structural Empowerment team, which developed a career pathway program. This program provides a model where staff can start building their knowledge and skill base in preparation for transfer to another specialty department. Pippin has also facilitated an internal career fair, allowing our nurses to explore career opportunities in our specialty clinical departments, leadership, and education. Pippin promotes specialty certification in all areas and leads a team that has one of the highest participation rates in our professional enrichment program (career ladder), a testament to the support and opportunities she provides to elevate her nursing team.

Pippin is a strong patient and staff advocate. Her patient satisfaction scores are some of the highest in our organization and well above the national average in most areas. She leads one of the highest functioning shared governance committees within our organization and promotes nursing empowerment by engaging her nurses in shared decisions that impact our policies, procedures, and processes at the point of care. Pippin truly inspires her team to achieve extraordinary outcomes. Pippin and her team have improved care for the patient with postoperative delirium and led the charge in driving down the hospital-acquired C. diff. rates. Both projects were recognized and asked to be presented at the Association of California Nurse Leaders annual conference.

Pippin works tirelessly to make improvements and create efficiencies that will either directly improve the care of our patients or will support the staff in improving the care of our patients. With Pippin, the patient’s needs are always the top priority. Pippin continues to contribute to performance improvement initiatives to improve care, including piloting several programs to improve discharge efficiencies. Pippin communicates high expectations for her team and walks alongside them to achieve a shared vision. She drives significant change within our organization by motivating her team, resulting in increased performance, satisfaction, and engagement. She is an inspiration as a mentor and role model to other nurses and enhances the professional image of nursing. Pippin understands that our relationships with our patients, our colleagues, and ourselves are essential in professional nursing.