LeighAnn Mazzone, MSN, RN, the nurse manager of the Penn Presbyterian Medical Center Emergency Department, was at home one Saturday afternoon last April when an alert came in about an incoming trauma patient: another victim of gun violence. This time, it was a child.
After making sure the patient’s age – 6 years old – wasn’t a mistake, Mazzone headed back into work. She wanted to offer emotional support for her staff, who had already shown such fortitude navigating the pandemic’s first year at the same time that gun violence was rising to record levels.
“Seeing traumas everyday certainly affects people in many ways, but when you see pediatric trauma, it’s a whole different story. It affected everybody,” Mazzone said. “I remember sitting with one of my unit clerks and he was crying. … Thankfully, the child did well, but the way it impacted everybody was really overwhelming.”
The Presby ED received two more pediatric gunshot victims last spring, and Mazzone was always there with a listening ear or a shoulder to cry on. Her leadership during an especially challenging time earned her the inaugural John Flamma Award for Excellence in Clinical Practice & Mentorship by Penn’s department of Emergency Medicine.
Mazzone, who began at Presby as an ED nurse 20 years ago, supervises approximately 150 nurses, technicians, unit clerks, and an assistant nurse manager. She said she tries to be the manager that she would want for herself.
In a nomination letter, ED nurse Julie Van Duyne, BSN, RN, called her boss “one of the most incredible leaders in the hospital.”
“Seeing that we were struggling as a department, LeighAnn not only found the time to meet individually with any nurse or tech that needed to talk, but she arranged for monthly meetings with a counselor to engage with any staff member that wanted to attend,” Van Duyne wrote. “She is our rock, our leader, and the glue that holds our department together.”
The award was established in honor of John Flamma, MD, an emergency medicine attending physician who will retire in June after 34 years at PPMC, nine of them as department chief.
“He’s the type of clinician that cares deeply about his patients, the community that he serves, and his colleagues. LeighAnn has similar qualities of leading by example, kindness, empathy, and willingness to do whatever it takes to support her team,” said Mira Mamtani, MD, MSEd, an associate professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine and chair of the ED awards committee.
Flamma said he couldn’t be happier to see the award go to Mazzone, whom he considered a confidante during his term as chief. “She truly is a gem of the ED,” he said.
Mazzone said Flamma’s compassionate leadership influenced her own management style. When he was chief of Emergency Medicine, he, too, would often return to the hospital after-hours to support the staff – picking her up on the way.
“He mentored so many of us,” Mazzone said. “To be the first person to get this was a huge honor.”