Christopher Lightle is by far one of the best (if not the very best) charge nurses I have ever had the pleasure of working alongside. Chris is highly compassionate, encouraging, and enduring. His patience is seemingly never-ending. Chris is in the possession of the ability to support, comfort, encourage, educate, and lead his team with a definite element of professional friendliness while simultaneously being willing and able to appropriately address staff issues as needed. This ability to balance the encouraging milieu of a hospital unit while maintaining a level of professional management is something very few individuals ever achieve. I sincerely hope Ascension realizes the treasure that they have in Mr. Lightle.

To give some examples of the quality and caliber of leader CL is, I am able to relate multiple instances when he has taken new admissions from the ED when he was functioning as charge nurse rather than taking or "stacking" patient assignments in such a way that if the charge nurse needs to take an assignment, it is a patient that is already settled in for the shift.

On top of that, should he need to pick up patients throughout the night, he does not cherry-pick the patients that are the "easy" ones that are independent and not needing. any nursing assistance. Chris will take the patient that is awkward in location for an assignment or that is too heavy for a struggling nurse. He will assess the needs of his unit above his own and proceed from there, all while fulfilling all his other duties. Should there be a time where Chris does not get the opportunity to take a patient assignment because apparently, he sincerely prefers nights where he can be charge and help his unit by simultaneously engaging in 1:1 patient care, you will find Chris doing something else to help. This will either be in the form of seeing a unit of blood needs administered and though the nurse is not struggling with their assignment or time management, Chris still recognizes that he is able to do this task and enable his team to accomplish even more. Or, this could be in the form of taking a nurse server and restocking it just because it needs to be done.

Finally, one of my favorite strengths Chris possesses is that of his pursuit of knowledge. Worded like this, it may sound strange, but that is because it is more than a pursuit for just himself. If, as in those situations described previously, Chris is unable to find a task to immediately help his unit, he can be found working on unit education needs or researching things he himself wishes to know more about. Chris is a highly educated individual but he is unafraid to say he does not know something and will actively seek out the knowledge and/or resources he needs to remedy any deficit. He is known on the unit as an amazing starting point for any questions or concerns and his follow-through is impeccable to my knowledge. Chris, to me, is the very definition of a quality charge nurse, leader, individual, student, and teacher. He is the personification of "Nurses Inspiring Nurses."