Leslie Jones
Registered nurse/clinical educator
Community: Peace River
A registered nurse from Peace River who began her career assigning patients to clinic rooms, collecting lab samples and doing cleaning tasks and laundry, has become one of the area’s most treasured and trusted health professionals.
Leslie Jones was recently nominated for a Rhapsody Rural Healthcare Heroes Award, an annual award established by RhPAP to recognize rural healthcare providers that demonstrate superior commitment to their patients, healthcare team and community.
Jones was instrumental in helping create a collaborative environment among physicians, nurses and patients when the Peace Region Primary Care Network (PRPCN) was formed in 2007. Today, the PCN has merged to become the Borealis PCN and Jones works as a nurse educator and clinical assistant. She continues to embody support and mentorship and the ability to evolve with changes to the benefit of patients and colleagues.
“We knew our nursing support program was successful when patients on Leslie’s team began to comment that ‘they didn’t need to see the doctor, they just needed to talk to Leslie,’” notes Lana deBoon, clinic manager at Peace River Medical Clinic Ltd.
The work Jones does as a liaison between patients and doctors helps free up time for more patients.
“She can usually … guess what I am going to do but knows when to ask me for my answer and to check with me if she is uncertain,” writes Dr. Karen Lundgard, in her letter of support for her clinical assistant.
“I could not do medicine without her.”
Dr. Kathryn Wood first met Jones as a medical student. A decade later, she relies on Jones’s work as a clinical assistant in her family medicine practice which includes prenatal/obstetric care, women’s health and gastrointestinal consults.
“Leslie really exemplifies the irreplaceable role that a nurse can have in caring for patients,” says Dr. Wood.
“She builds relationships with patients even over just a few visits with them and many of my patients look forward to seeing Leslie probably a bit more than they look forward to seeing me. “