Chicken Soup Author, Nurse Retention Expert

Nurses inspirational speaker LeAnn Thieman helps hospitals and organizations recruit and retain caregivers, with her different, dynamic, yet simple approach.

Like you, nurse recruitment and retention expert LeAnn Thieman 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 20 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 August, 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.”

Most Popular Topics:

Chicken Soup for the Nurse’s Soul, Second Dose
or “I Didn’t Even Stop to Go to the Bathroom!”

Most nurses didn’t choose their careers because of the great hours, pay, and working conditions! LeAnn reminds them why they entered the profession – and why they stay, positively impacting nurse retention and nurse recruitment. By sharing Chicken Soup stories, and those from her own 30 years of nursing, LeAnn encourages, uplifts and honors nurses and champions their daily contributions and sacrifices. By encouraging them to balance their lives, she offers nurses a “care plan” to care for themselves as they care for others. With love and humor, LeAnn re-energizes them with hope, health, and healing during these challenging times, inspiring them to continue their compassionate service. It’s estimated to cost $50,000 to recruit and train a new nurse. LeAnn’s presentation increases retention – and costs less than most sign-on bonuses! When she spoke to graduating nurses at a hospital recruitment event, over 50 percent signed up that day!

Each One Reach One: 20 Nurse Retention and Nurse Recruitment Strategies to End the Nursing Shortage

Engaging employees in nurse recruitment and nurse retention builds better teams and increases satisfaction. If every healthcare giver helps hire and/or keep one worker, we can end the shortages. Interactively learn LeAnn’s proven strategies for recruiting and retaining nurses and brainstorm more ways to find and keep outstanding staff.

What’s This Generation Coming To?

LeAnn’s first job, at the age of 20, found her working with an “old” nurse (she had to be 50!) who lovingly called her BRAT. LeAnn, in turn, called her POSTEN, short for Poor Old Sick and Tired Elderly Nurse! In this fun, entertaining, highly educational session, you’ll learn traits of the four generations of nurses and identify ways you and others can relate to, cope with, and even appreciate the differences. By doing so, nurses will decrease blame and resentment in the workplace and will improve cooperation,productivity, retention, and ultimately, patient care.

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

“100 babies in open cardboard boxes, strapped in the belly of a gutted cargo jet!” It was 1975, Saigon was falling to the communists, and LeAnn was “accidentally” caught up in the Vietnam Orphan Airlift. Today, she applies life-changing lessons from her Airlift experience to the “war zones” of our every day lives – too much to do, too few resources, too much stress! How do we cope? In this poignant, yet humorous presentation, LeAnn motivates audiences and shares tools for life balance, living priorities, and making a difference in the world – and finding peace in their war zones.

Chicken Soup for the Caregiver’s Soul or “How Long Can I Keep This Up?!”

While rewarding, care-giving requires tremendous emotional, physical and spiritual stamina, making burnout an everyday challenge. In Chicken Soup for the Caregiver’s Soul LeAnn offers remedies by encouraging caregivers to care for themselves as devotedly as they do for others. By sharing stories from Chicken Soup for the Caregiver’s Soul and her own life experiences she fills caregivers with hope, courage, and strength and honors them for the difference they make in the world.

Light A Single Candle

A sign above a pediatric burn unit in Vietnam read, It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness. LeAnn reminds audiences they don’t have to fly into a war zone to make a difference in the world. No effort is too small. By lighting our single candles, we make a difference and set the world aglow with our goodness. By identifying, exploring, and sharing our gifts, we receive more than we give.

You’ve Got To See It To Be It!

Scientific studies prove positive thinking and visualization promote mental, physical, and spiritual health. By sharing medical research and her Airlift experiences, LeAnn empowers audiences to improve their health by improving their attitudes. A former childbirth educator, LeAnn teaches how labor tools – breathing, relaxation, positive thinking and visualization, and management of time, – apply as we “labor” through everyday life.