I feel very honored to work with Leslie who is passionate, humble and empathetic and truly displays caring and compassion for her patients and families. Recently I was fortunate enough to see her work in action. She was discharging one of her patients, who had a renal transplant. Leslie ensures that patients have their medications filled prior to discharging from the unit. On this occasion, the patient was on some medications that are not stocked in the pharmacy. Instead of having the patient discharged and sent to another pharmacy who may or may not have had the medication needed, she used her leadership skills and took the extra steps to collaborate with the transplant MD regarding the discharge medications. The transplant MD came to 8E and saw the patient and arranged to have the medications brought to him prior to discharge. He thanked the nurse as he stated "Transplant patients cannot go home without these meds in hand, thank you for calling me." It was a great example of nurse/physician collaboration working together to ensure patient safety was maintained.

This patient was also on scheduled insulin and as Leslie was ensuring that the patient and/or wife could draw up and administer the insulin, she noticed they both had trouble drawing up the correct amount. When she noticed neither one of them were safe in the procedure, she contacted the physician for an insulin pen which they could manage. Her excellence was demonstrated in ensuring this patient was a safe discharge. Her Compassion and Respect of the patient and wife led to her critical thinking skills to ensure he would be safe in medication administration at home. Her pushing to get the correct insulin is an example of stewardship, as the family would not have been able to use the insulin in the vials.

Leslie treats every patient as if they were a family member. She is an excellent patient advocate and has great communication skills with all team members. I would not have known about her excellent work, had I not heard the conversation between all disciplines. She is very humble and sees nursing as her calling day in and day out. To her it's just another day, but to her patients, she is their angel. She is also our unit practice co-chair and is instrumental in leading the team to improve departmental processes, including patient safety initiatives. Leslie is a dedicated, compassionate nurse who deserves the DAISY Award.