Leo Campa

I am pleased to nominate Leo Campa for Distinguished Staff award. Since I began as Nurse Manager of the acute care burn and pediatric unit at Harborview, I have been continually impressed by Leo’s engagement to his job and commitment to the patients he serves. He exemplifies Harborview’s mission to place our patients and families first, and consistently makes their needs his highest priority.

Leo is the meal host for 8E hospital. He arrives to the floor each day bringing energy and joy. He has a smile for everyone he greets. He announces the start of the meal on the overhead system with music, the weather forecast and a happy greeting. He consistently practices AIDET with every encounter. Everyone knows Leo by name, and he is great at remembering patient and family by name. He goes out of his way to ensure that the patient has something they want to eat. I have seen on numerous occasions where he will go get a specific food that sounds good to a patient. He is especially great with our pediatric patients, encouraging them to eat, going out of his way to bring them whatever sounds good.

In addition to doing an excellent job within the job description he has, Leo is an artist, and uses his creative skill to create poster board size cartoons for every pediatric patient that we care for. These patients and family members often cite Leo as an outstanding employee during my daily manager rounds. He will return to the floor after his shift is completed to put on puppet shows for the kiddos, especially when he sees one of them having a tough day.

Leo comes in on his off days to create seasonal poster boards for the floor. They are always done with care and amazing creativity. Currently, our holiday board is covered with Christmas themed movies with the faces of staff in place of the actor’s face. It is funny and engaging, and involves the whole staff, improving the bond the staff has with each other. I believe that Leo has a hand in making this floor a place where staff chooses to stay.

Leo presents himself professionally and treats others with great courtesy and respect. I am relatively new to the burn center, and he has gone out of his way to make me feel like a member of the team. He greets me by name every day. My day is always a little brighter when he is here. The patients will comment as I am making my rounds when Leo is not here, because they miss his bright personality. Leo never has a bad day, he is the most consistently optimistic person I know, because he has such a sunny disposition, he brightens the days of everyone he encounters. I have witnessed many times patients or families absolutely light up when they see him. He is one of those special people that everyone wants to be around.

Leo’s dedication to the burn center and the patients we serve extends to outside the walls of Harborview. He participates as a volunteer each year at the burn camp at Camp Eyabsut, and uses his personal vacation time in order to do this.

Leo deserves to be awarded the Distinguished Staff award. He shows 100% commitment to performing his job at the highest level. He consistently goes above and beyond to make sure the patients, family, and staff feels well cared for. He should be recognized for the outstanding job he does making 8E and 9E a cohesive and congenial working environment.