2025 Front-line Staff Outstanding Performance Award: Andreia Paulozzi Candido, MSN, APRN, AGCNS-BC

AHHA is honored to present the 2025 Front-line Staff Outstanding Performance Award to Andreia Paulozzi Candido, MSN, APRN, AGCNS-BC, Senior Clinical Nurse Specialist at Providence Alaska Medical Center. This award is one of AHHA's annual Healthcare Champion Awards given to recognize individuals and teams taking progressive and effective steps to improve patient care and outcomes. Each year, awardees are selected from nominations submitted by member facilities across Alaska; we present the awards at our annual conference in September at a special awards luncheon.

Candido became one of Alaska's few certified clinical nurse specialists (CNS) when she joined Providence Alaska Medical Center in 2018. A specially trained advanced practice registered nurse (APRN), a CNS advises hospital leaders and clinicians on implementing system-level change and evidence-based practice to improve patient outcomes and streamline care delivery.

Since joining Providence, Candido has led numerous initiatives to significantly improve patient care and outcomes. She drives clinical transformation by facilitating cross-discipline collaboration, creating a bridge between research, technology and frontline care. In the process, Candido ensures Providence Alaska is keeping pace with the latest clinical evidence, standards and technological advances.

One of Candido’s most impactful achievements is the Daily Device Review Initiative launched in January 2025 to address two of the most common and preventable hospital-acquired infections – catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) and central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs).

Both urinary catheters (called Foley catheters) and central lines involve medical tubing that bypass the body’s natural defenses, increasing risk of infection. Industrywide, CAUTI rates range from 1.68-3.3 infections per 1,000 catheter days, depending on factors like the specific hospital unit and geographic location. About 250,000 CLABSIs occur in U.S. hospitals each year, and a large portion of these (80,000) occur in intensive care units (ICUs).

The best way to prevent CAUTIs and CLABSIs is for patients to not have Foley catheters or central lines. With this in mind, Candido initiated meticulous assessments of all Foley catheters and central lines in hospital patients. She personally evaluates all of them. Every. Single. Day. At Providence Alaska Medical Center, this averages 31 central lines and 26 Foley catheters per day.

By the end of Q1 2025, Candido’s daily device review initiative led to the removal (with physician approval) of 102 central lines and 200 Foley catheters that didn’t meet evidence-based placement criteria. As a result, CAUTI and CLABSI rates plunged below hospital trends and U.S. mean rates:

• CAUTIs were 36% lower than the U.S. mean and 25% lower than PAMC’s total for Q1 2024

• CLABSIs were 42% lower than the U.S. mean and 60% lower than PAMC’s total for Q1 2024
  

As of June 2025, Providence Alaska Medical Center inpatient areas have gone nearly six months without a single CAUTI. These results are so impressive, the Daily Device Review Initiative is now standard practice at all Providence hospitals across the country.

Candido’s initiative brought the nursing and quality teams closer together thanks to her ability to foster a true culture of collaboration among caregivers, nursing leadership, and providers. She’s a partner not a policeman. If providers question or challenge Candido’s recommendations, she responds respectfully with supportive data from the literature. She mentors unit leaders by involving them in the process, meeting with them every morning and copying them on all incident-related reporting.

When Candido started at Providence, her primary areas of focus were Providence Alaska Medical Center’s progressive care unit, renal care unit, and dialysis suite. Today she’s responsible for medical/surgical and intensive care unit policies throughout the entire Providence Alaska Region, and she teaches portions of the PAMC Nursing Institute’s RN Residency and Fellowship Program. Over the years, she’s also organized and led many PAMC task forces and initiatives to improve safety and quality of care for patients and caregivers. Outside of PAMC, Candido is a member of the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists and serves as immediate past chair for the Alaska Clinical Nurse Specialists Council.