LeAnn Thieman, CSP, CPAE

Nurse Retention Expert & Co-Author of Chicken Soup for the Nurse’s Soul

LeAnn Thieman

● Biography

Like you, nurse recruitment and retention expert LeAnn Thieman, author of the Chicken Soup for Nurses Soul series and creator of SelfCareforHealthCare®, understands the challenges facing healthcare givers today.

Do you recruit them by offering sign-on bonuses?
Do you retain them by giving them donuts or days off?
Do you recognize them once a year during Nurses or Hospital Weeks?
Or is there a smarter way so they take better care of themselves– and even better care of your patients every day?

With over three decades of in-the-trenches nursing experience and 18 years helping hospitals and organizations recruit and retain caregivers, LeAnn has a different, dynamic, yet simple approach.

Unlike other programs, LeAnn’s are based on the proven principle that caring for the caregiver is the answer. One who is strong of mind, body and spirit will give better patient care, resulting in better patient outcomes, which will increase patient satisfaction scores and reimbursements.

Referred to as “the best retention tool we’ve ever had,” LeAnn fuses true stories and life balance strategies to impact audiences in an intense and intimate way. They march out renewed, reinvigorated, and recommitted to improving their professional and personal lives and serving on a deeper level of excellence. LeAnn works with the best forward thinking hospitals committed to caring for their staff as the key strategy in preparing for the looming nursing shortage.

LeAnn’s story of being “accidentally” caught up in the Vietnam Orphan Airlift in 1975 engages and inspires people. “I’ve never nearly cried or laughed so hard!” they proclaim as they learn her tools for coping in the war zones of their everyday lives. An ordinary person, she struggled through extraordinary circumstances and found the courage to succeed during her daring adventure of helping to rescue 300 babies as Saigon was falling to the Communists. LeAnn’s penetrating conversations and expertise have been featured around the globe in on BBC, NPR, PBS, FOX News, Newsweek Magazine’s Voices of the Century issue, and countless radio and TV programs. She writes regular columns for NurseTogether.com, Caregiving in America, and The Best of Aging magazines.

LeAnn’s 15 books have inspired, motivated, and changed the lives of millions of readers. It began with This Must Be My Brother, her incredible Operation Babylift story. After it was featured in Chicken Soup for the Mother’s Soul, LeAnn became one of Chicken Soup’s most prolific writers.

Her devotion to thirty years of nursing made her the ideal co-author of Chicken Soup for the Nurse’s Soul, which hit the New York Times Bestseller list! She went on to author Chicken Soup for the Nurse’s Soul, Second Dose; Chicken Soup for the Christian Woman’s Soul; Chicken Soup for the Caregiver’s Soul; Chicken Soup for the Father and Daughter Soul; Chicken Soup for the Grandma’s Soul; Chicken Soup for the Mother and Son Soul; Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul 2, Chicken Soup for the Adopted Soul, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Living Catholic Faith; Chicken Soup for the Soul, A Book of Miracles and Chicken Soup for the Soul, Answered Prayers.

Her latest, SelfCare for HealthCare, Your Guide to Physical, Mental and Spiritual Health is a dynamic component of her transformational SelfCare for HealthCare initiative.

LeAnn is among fewer than ten percent of expert speakers worldwide to have earned the Certified Speaking Professional designation and in 2008 she was inducted into the National Speakers Association’s Speaker Hall of Fame, further motivating people to say, “I’m going to live my life differently after hearing you today.”

LeAnn Thieman

● Featured Keynote Programs

Chicken Soup for the Nurse’s Soul: SelfCare for HealthCare

Most nurses didn’t choose their professions because of the great hours, pay, and working conditions! LeAnn Thieman reminds them why they did choose the nursing career…and why they stay. Her new SelfCare for HealthCare® initiative and keynote, teaches them specific tools to care for their minds, bodies, and spirits. She helps reduce burnout (63 percent of hospital nurses score high in burnout. High levels of burnout adversely affect patient outcomes and satisfaction); boosts morale (36 percent of nurses are dissatisfied with their jobs); increases nurse retention (20 percent of nurses intend to leave their jobs within one year.) All leaders agree that a nurse who is strong physically, mentally, and spiritually will deliver better patient care, resulting in better patient outcomes and customer service, higher satisfaction scores, and ultimately, reimbursements. The best way to care for the patient is to care for the nurse. By sharing stories from her best-selling Chicken Soup for the Nurse’s Soul, and her own 30+ years at the bedside, LeAnn teaches selfcare strategies while she uplifts and honors nurses and champions their daily contributions and sacrifices. Renewed and recharged, they sign on and stay longer, which bolsters nurse recruitment and improves retention, patient care, and the hospital’s bottom line.

Balancing Life in Your “War Zones” or Lessons from 100 Babbling Bawling Babies!

100 little babies lay three and four to a cardboard box, strapped in the belly of a gutted cargo jet. Saigon was falling to the communists – and LeAnn was caught up in the Vietnam Orphan Airlift. An ordinary person, she struggled through extraordinary circumstances and found the courage to succeed. Believing we all have individual “war zones,” LeAnn shares photos and life-changing lessons learned from that adventure. She draws parallels between the “war zones” in Vietnam to the “war zones” in our professional and personal lives today…too much to do, too few resources, too many regulations! This poignant, yet humorous, presentation inspires audiences to balance their physical, mental, and spiritual lives; truly live their priorities, and make a difference in the world. In the end, LeAnn applauds them as the heroes!

Each One Reach One Nurse

Engaging employees in recruiting and retaining staff builds better teams and increases satisfaction and retention. If every nurse helps hire and/or keep one nurse, we can end the shortages. In this interactive session, LeAnn shares proven strategies from her Each One Reach One Nurse initiative, giving over 150 concrete tools for retaining and recruiting nurses, then brainstorms more ways to find and keep outstanding nursing staff.

LeAnn Thieman