By Don Sadler
If variety is the spice of life, Leigh Ann Bartlett’s nursing career is as hot as a ghost pepper. Leigh Anne’s nursing career began in 1995 on a Progressive Care Unit at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Health Wayne, formerly Wayne Memorial Hospital, in Goldsboro, N.C.
“I worked there for a couple of years on swing shifts,” she recalls, “but when I planned to get married, I realized the schedule didn’t allow for much work-life balance. So, I applied for a staff nurse position in the operating room. The OR is one of those areas where you either love it or hate it – and I realized pretty quickly that I loved it.”
After several years in the OR, Leigh Anne expanded her scope into nurse case management and discharge planning, focusing on orthopedic and surgical population. In this role, she implemented protocols and best practices, always striving for improvement. “That’s where I began to understand the ‘big picture’ of healthcare,” she explains. “Of course, we’re here to care for patients, but hospitals are also businesses, and we must be good stewards of our resources.”
In 2006, Leigh Anne returned to East Carolina University to pursue a master’s degree in nursing administration, which she completed in 2009. The following year, she became nurse manager of the surgical joint and replacement unit at Wilson Medical Center. After two years, she transitioned to East Carolina University (ECU) Health Duplin Hospital as director of patient care services, overseeing a wide range of departments in a rural community hospital in eastern North Carolina.
In this role, she led multidisciplinary teams across women’s care, surgical services, and central sterile processing. She also launched an outpatient oncology and infusion clinic and served as program director of the 25-bed inpatient behavioral health unit. She, also, served as the chair of the perioperative leadership team for the large healthcare system while she was there. Her team at Duplin received the AORN Go Clear Award under her leadership.
Despite her broad experience, Leigh Anne’s passion has always remained in the operating room and perioperative specialty. Her commitment led her to active involvement in the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN), where she served as Chapter President of Coastal North Carolina (2015-2016), Council Treasurer (2016-2019), and Council Secretary (2019-2021) along with many other roles at the local and state level. She has also served as the chair of the AORN Leadership Specialty team, and in 2025, she was elected to the national AORN Board of Directors.
“My involvement in AORN has been instrumental in advancing my career,” she says.
Currently, Leigh Anne is the director of surgical services at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Health Johnston, two community hospitals serving Smithfield and Clayton, North Carolina. “This role is really where my passion lies and allows me to lead in areas that I am really passionate about – perioperative nursing and services,” she says.
The most rewarding part of her job is teaching and mentoring other nurses. Leigh Ann served as a system mentor for new nurse leaders at ECU health and graduated from the hospital’s Enriching Leadership Program.
“One of my biggest challenges is knowing when to let go because we’re very lean,” she says. “Work-life balance is important for everyone so as nurses we need to know when to step away so our jobs don’t completely consume us and take up too much family time.”
One of the highlights of Leigh Ann’s career was when ECU Health Duplin Hospital received the AORN Go Clear Smoke Evacuation Award (Gold Level) in 2020. She’s currently involved with the North Carolina National Legislative Forum, helping get smoke evacuation legislation passed in the state.
“The bill unanimously passed the House and is headed to the Senate, so hopefully it will be signed into law this year,” she says.
Looking ahead, Leigh Ann is excited about the potential of artificial intelligence to help deliver better care for surgical patients.
“I’m hoping it will enable us to pull away from the computer a little more and focus more on our patients,” she says. “But we’re going to have to be very strategic about how AI is used from a legal standpoint to make sure we’re all protected and that all team members trust it. Nurses need to understand that AI isn’t there for a punitive reason – it’s there to uncover opportunities for us to grow and improve patient safety.”
Leigh Ann expects perioperative nursing to continue to evolve and change in the future, especially with advancements in robotics and minimally invasive surgery.
“How much more will we be moving to an outpatient setting and what will this look like?” she asks. “We’re going to have to remain strategic about this because the outpatient setting isn’t always optimal. There’s a time and place for both settings and hospitals can learn from outpatient facilities when it comes to providing more efficient patient care.”
Outside of her formal job duties, Leigh Anne has served in her community as a volunteer nurse for the mobile medical unit ERT team at The Bridge Church, where she and her family worship. She is also a 10-year member of The Bridge Church’s American Kentucky Mission Team.
Her family loves to camp along the East Coast, sometimes bringing their two dogs: an English bulldog and a Maltipoo. And Leigh Ann’s daughter Paige is pursuing a nursing career.
“She’s very interested in perioperative and possibly pursuing a career as a nurse anesthetist, so I’m really excited about this,” says Leigh Ann.
