biography

Leslie Stickley, RN, C, HCMHT,
Associate Director, Bedside Harp™

Leslie began her journey with Bedside Harp in the Spring Session at Bucks County Community College in 2003. Finding the description of Edie's Beginner I "Learn to Play the Folk Harp" put her feet on the path of fulfilling a lifelong dream to play the harp and she has never looked back. Leslie entered the Fall 2003 Certification Class at Bucks, received her certification as a Hospital-Certified Harp Therapist in 2004 and as a Hospital-Certified Master Harp Therapist in 2005. She has close to 300 hours playing time at the bedside in hospitals, nursing homes and private homes and adds to this total weekly. She incorporated harp therapy into her practice as a volunteer Parish Nurse, playing for hospitalized and homebound parishioners, and into her music ministry as a church organist.

Playing the harp also opened up other career opportunities and Leslie plays weddings, viewings, funerals, private parties. If it fits into her schedule, she will play! She has been fortunate enough over the past 2 years to be given the opportunity to play in venues such as The Franklin Institute and The Philadelphia Museum of Art — all because she took that first step in 2003.

Leslie began teaching new interns how to document for the medical setting as part of the Certification Modules in 2004. In October 2005 she began teaching Beginner Harp classes. She currently teaches at Bucks County Community College, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick and in Bensalem, using Edie's beautiful "Great Room" for weeknight classes and the Buck's County Harp Circle rehearsals.

While this sounds like enough, Leslie, a Registered Nurse of 29 years, is the Director of Nursing for a Nursing Home in South Philadelphia, and plays her harp there too at every opportunity. The residents call her the "harpnurse". Leslie does public speaking and harp therapy presentations for church groups, Parish Health ministry programs and medical groups. She believes passionately that our music helps the stressed medical staff as much as the patients and families we play for. In fact, one year she was presented as a "Mother's Day Gift" to the Peri-Operative Nurses Association at a quarterly meeting at Lehigh Hospital to assist with stress reduction.

Leslie has been a Bucks County resident for 23 years and has 3 young adult children at home, all of whom encouraged her along this journey and are very tolerant of her trying out new repertoire for them. She is slowly working on earning a Bachelor's degree through Thomas Edison State College, and despite all this, is always available for questions, concerns or support.