Authentic, passionate, one that inspires and guides others, empathetic, and compassionate all describe Leanne as a nurse, a leader, and a person. Dedication to improving nursing practice which ultimately improves patient outcomes is her top priority as she has an unwavering dedication to establishing a culture of quality in nursing practice which ultimately improves patient outcomes.
Leanne has been an organization/systems leader as a co-chair of our CLABSI Committee since 2016. She is not only dedicated to this work in the system but is as equally dedicated to this work in the CCBD. In her role as a co-chair, she leads monthly hospital wide meetings where representatives from each unit discuss CLABSI rates, establish a plan of action to address trends in their unit, and discuss system-wide changes in practice to align with the literature. This committee’s goal is to work on quality and process improvement to decrease the preventable central line infections through the care and attention we give to those lines. I have observed Leanne translate her system wide thinking so eloquently to the nurses at the bedside. She listens with intent and makes the nurse feel like they are the most important person to her at the time.

Leanne most recently mentored a group of nurses who wanted to look at bringing in a new central line vest for securement and protection of tunneled central lines. Using data, Leanne identified that switching our securement vest could help improve our dislodgement of lines, breakage of lines, and increase patient and nursing satisfaction. She mentored these clinical nurses through the literature search and synthesis process to find a superior product than what was currently in use and has since been implemented in the CCBD and throughout the organization.
From the nurse to the patient impact Leanne leads with such grace and compassion. I was with Leanne one day when she had to explain to a mother and father how their child’s Central Venous Catheter cap malfunctioned. This could have potentially caused serious harm to their child. She did so with such grace and compassion. When the mother expressed that she could not sleep at night in fear that it might happen again, Leanne felt their concern and was determined to provide a plan for mitigation that would give the parents comfort and confidence that it would not happen again. As she was intently listening to them, a tear rolled down Leanne’s cheek. I knew then that those parents felt the same compassion from Leanne that I witnessed that day. They knew she would be true to her word, which was to ensure that their child’s safety and quality of care was her top priority. And that she did. Leanne gave some careful thought, sought some guidance from our epidemiology specialist, and returned to the family to share a solution that gave the parents the comfort they needed. Part of the mitigation was to provide this patient with the new securement vest. This had not been rolled out quite yet, but she was able to provide a vest for this patient for the next inpatient visit.
CCBD and the entire organization have been so fortunate to have Leanne’s leadership, as her eloquent style has elevated us to understand the importance of how nursing practice improves the quality of care and patient outcomes provide for our patients every day!