by: Tammy Lummus
Some people call their profession a job. Others call their profession a way to pay bills. Then, there’s Sean Landreneau. She’ll tell you right off the bat that her career as a nurse practitioner is a mission field. To be more specific, it’s her mission field and one that she has loved being a part of for almost thirty years. Sean is a beloved nurse practitioner currently working at North Caddo Medical Center in Vivian, Louisiana. With her retirement date quickly approaching, friends, and colleagues strongly believe that she deserves recognition for her unparalleled service to the people of north Caddo Parish. Sean Landreneau’s story is definitely one for the books because she has literally poured her heart and soul into what she was called to do.
Sean Landreneau grew up in Watson, Louisiana, a small town in Livingston Parish. She says that from a very young age, she felt as though she was created to serve others. “I’ve always believed that God called me to be present, to care for people, and to do so with compassion and love.” So, to answer her calling, Sean graduated from Southeastern Louisiana University in 1985 with her RN. For the next nine years, she diversified her career, as an RN, working in the emergency department, trauma, and the operating room. She then went on to obtain her master’s degree in nursing from Northwestern State in 1996. This degree gave her the license to serve as a family nurse practitioner for the people of Arcadia, LA. Sean recalls that she loved her job in Arcadia. “I spent some very happy years there,” she remembers. She smiles and adds that she wasn’t looking for a job and, as a single mom, she had absolutely no intentions of uprooting her two children only to move to an unfamiliar town. However, the Lord has been known to work in mysterious ways. Those mysterious ways came in the form of Dr. John Haynes and Dr. Stephen Taylor of Vivian, LA.
To this day, Sean grins and says that she has no earthly idea how Dr. Haynes an Dr. Taylor got her name, contact information, or why they picked her as a their nurse practitioner. Nevertheless, Sean joined the medical duo in 2003 and became an employee at the Medical and Surgical Clinic. She is proud to say that under the two famed, small-town physicians, she learned from the best. They shared their experience and vast knowledge of rural healthcare with Sean, and through this process, she came to love the people of Vivian and northern Caddo Parish. Sure, there were long hours and late nights for her, the doctors, and the rest of the staff, but teamwork literally made the dream work. A lot of good work was done and patients were cared for in person and behind the scenes. When insurance and all that comes with that became big business, Sean says, “If a treatment plan or medication wasn’t covered, Drs. Haynes and Taylor would just look at me and say, ‘This is what my patient needs. Find a way to make it happen’ and I did.” The nurse practitioner says that she will always consider it a gift to have gained such knowledge and experience from the doctors. Simply put, Sean says, “Jesus, others, and yourself, in that order, are what the doctors taught me.”
Just like a lot of working women, only half of Sean’s job was done when her day as a nurse practitioner was over. At the end of a day she took her nurse hat off and her mom hat on. There was dinner to prepare, homework to be done, and running children all over town to their extra-curricular activities. Sean says, more than once, that she was blessed with good kids. She admits that parenting, especially as a single mom, was sometimes challenging, but never hard. She says that she expected her kids do well in school and to be at church every time the doors were open. Both her daughter and son were always compliant with her expectations. They seemed to understand the job that their mom was called to do and respected her for it. With all humility and gratefulness, Sean also says that she could have never raised her children as a working, single, mom without her village. When a patient appointment at the clinic ran late, there were many times that Sean had to call on different people from Trinity Heights Baptist Church and ask them to pick up kids from one activity and transport them to another. She is certain that church people (aka her village) helped her raise her kids and she is forever grateful. Sean’s village children grew up to be well-adjusted adults that she is very proud of. Her son is currently a software engineer in Wake Forest, North Carolina, and father to Sean’s oldest grandchild. Her daughter is a stay-at-home mom in Austin, Texas, with a baby due in February.
In 2008, the Medical and Surgical Clinic was acquired by North Caddo Medical Center and is now known as Vivian Medical & Surgical. Sean Landreneau has continued her career as a nurse practitioner there and absolutely adores the people of Vivian and its surrounding areas. “North Louisiana is a great place to live and there are amazing people here,” she says proudly. Because she has become an integral part of the small, tight-knit community, she is easily recognized and is sometimes stopped in the aisles of the local Walmart. Patients will personally tell her of how her medical treatment has improved their quality of life. Others see her at hometown restaurants and approach her just to say hello. Sean says that she never minds seeing her patients out in public because she gets to see the impact she has made on her patients outside the walls of NCMC. That impact means everything to her.
Over the years, experience has taught the nurse practitioner that people have a lot of different needs when it comes to the healthcare , but often times, those same patients have needs that go far beyond the issues that modern medicine can solve. This is where Sean believes that the heart of her mission begins. “Some people need a listening ear and prayer more than anything else,” she says. With this direct quote, Sean remembers a particular female patient that was down on her luck a few years ago. The young lady was worried and scared because she had just discovered an unplanned pregnancy. The patient admitted to Sean that she was seriously thinking about an abortion. Sean says that she didn’t judge the young woman, but took her hand right there in the exam room and prayed for the patient and her unborn child. She prayed that God would be present in the decisions that were about to be made. After the appointment, Sean did not see the woman for a few years. She was told that the patient had moved away from Vivian. Then one day, without an appointment, the same young woman showed up at the clinic with a toddler. She told Sean that the toddler was the unborn child that was prayed over in the exam room. Sean says the woman drove miles to show her the proof of her prayers. It’s the nurse practitioner’s daily walk with the Lord that has afforded her such opportunities and miracles; ones that she will never forget.
Sean also says that she has been in a room with a patient whom she treated for simple sinus infection symptoms. “As I turned and opened the door, I felt the Holy Spirit nudge me.” She quickly turned to the patient and asked him if that was the only thing he came in for. Not knowing exactly why, she went on to ask her patient if he had any other symptoms not connected to his sinus issues. Staring at her for a few seconds, the man admitted that he was having more unrelated symptoms that he had hesitated to mention. After a full medical work-up and additional testing by Sean, the patient was found to have kidney cancer. Thankfully, the cancer was caught early and was cured. The man still lives in Vivian and is very active in the community. Sean smiles as she considers the “accidental” findings of her patient not accidental at all. “I’ve been shown favor by God. My medical decisions for patients have been affirmed more times that I can count.” There is a long list of patients who are thankful and alive because of Sean Landreneau’s faith.
The much beloved nurse practitioner could literally write a book on all she has seen as far as patients, experiences, lives saved, and the love of a calling that she so graciously chose to care for others. Vivian, LA will not be able to replace such a faithful servant of its people. North Caddo Medical Center’s CEO, David Jones, is well aware of this. He said of Sean, “She is the hardest working, most caring provider that I’ve ever worked with. The patients love her. She was just meant to take care of people.” Sean’s collaborating provider, Dr. Jody Chance, whom she admires so much, stated, “Ms. Landreneau has spent her career putting patients first with care, kindness, and a true dedication to making a difference. As Sean retires, we celebrate not just the years she’s worked, but the lives she’s touched and the positive impact she’s had on everyone around her.”
January 31, 2025, will be Sean Landreneau’s last day at North Caddo Medical Center. She said that with the urging of her children and a lot of prayer, it’s time to hang up her stethoscope. Her next step will be moving to Austin so she can be closer to her daughter and new grandbaby. After her move to Central Texas, she already has plans to volunteer her medical services in homeless and immigration shelters because she’s not the type person that can just sit on her laurels. She believes that it is time for her mission field to change from the rural healthcare of north Louisiana to the indigent population of Austin. “The people in these shelters need healthcare just like everybody else and it will give me the opportunity to make a difference in their lives by sharing my faith with them.” It is evident to all those that have ever had the pleasure of knowing her, working with her, or being raised by her that Sean Landreneau’s cup surely does run over. For that, she gives praise to God who orchestrated a journey that will include a lasting impression on a little place called Vivian.