{"id":146473,"date":"2025-12-03T21:33:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T02:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=146473"},"modified":"2025-12-03T21:33:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T02:33:08","slug":"jefferson-healths-highly-specialized-nursing-s-e-a-l-team-expanding-to-the-lehigh-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=146473","title":{"rendered":"Jefferson Health\u2019s Highly Specialized Nursing S.E.A.L. Team Expanding to the Lehigh Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elite program to support Jefferson Health\u2019s Lehigh Valley hospitals and empower nursing talent<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

(Dec. 3, 2025)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Jefferson Health is expanding its successful Nursing S.E.A.L. Team to the Lehigh Valley region. The Nursing S.E.A.L. Team was built on the concept of an elite team of special forces. It stands for Service, Excellence, Advocacy and Leadership. Nurses in the program are full-time colleagues who are deployed to work in various departments, including medical-surgical\/ telemetry, critical care and emergency services. Jefferson\u2019s S.E.A.L. program demonstrates leadership in addressing workforce challenges that echo issues seen across the country, while giving nurses greater flexibility and diverse experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cS.E.A.L. Team nurses will float among hospitals throughout Jefferson\u2019s Lehigh Valley region, including our neighborhood hospitals,\u201d says\u00a0Sarah Rinker-Puentes, RN, Patient Care Manager, Nursing S.E.A.L. Team<\/strong>. \u201cEvery 2-6 weeks, S.E.A.L nurses are deployed based on a review of operational needs to ensure staffing resources align with patient care demands across the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jefferson Health launched the Nursing S.E.A.L. Team in 2022 with 25 registered nurses. The program expanded in 2024, and with the Lehigh Valley region addition, will soon be comprised of 236 experienced nurses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognize how newer generations of nurses value broader clinical exposure,\u201d\u00a0says Daniel Hudson, MSN, RN, CENP, Senior Vice President Nursing Operations, CNO Ambulatory Nursing, Jefferson Health.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re matching these preferences with this program, while ensuring we meet our patients\u2019 needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with improved flexibility and staffing, the program since its inception has contributed to a reduction in the reliance on agency nurses, resulting in a greater than 75 percent drop.<\/p>\n

\u201cJefferson Health has continued to receive positive feedback from S.E.A.L. Team nurses, which has prompted this program\u2019s expansion to the Lehigh Valley,\u201d says\u00a0Kate FitzPatrick, DNP, RN, Chief Nurse Executive Officer, Jefferson Health.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cJefferson\u2019s Nursing S.E.A.L. Team is part of the organization\u2019s comprehensive strategy for nursing workforce optimization. Additional initiatives include the\u00a0Virtual Nurse Program<\/u><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Nurse Emeritus Program<\/u><\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cProfessionally, I have become a more well-rounded nurse,\u201d\u00a0Eric-Scott Purnell<\/strong>\u00a0says about joining the S.E.A.L. Team. \u201cWorking with such a wide variety of patients, clinicians and colleagues has helped me grow immensely. Personally, I am happier and less stressed, as the flexibility of scheduling has made it easy to maintain my life outside of work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lehigh Valley region is recruiting a total of 86 registered nurses for the Nursing S.E.A.L. Team. The first cohort of nurses begins orientation in December and will be deployed in January. Interested candidates can apply for S.E.A.L or other nursing positions by visiting\u00a0Jefferson\u2019s\u00a0Careers Page<\/u><\/a>\u00a0and searching: \u201cmultisite.\u201d<\/p>\n

About Jefferson<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jefferson is reimagining health care and higher education to create unparalleled value throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey. More than 65,000 people strong, Jefferson is dedicated to providing high-quality, compassionate clinical care for patients; making our communities healthier and stronger; preparing tomorrow’s professional leaders for 21st-century careers; and creating new knowledge through basic\/programmatic, clinical and applied research.\u00a0Thomas Jefferson University<\/u><\/a>, home of Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Jefferson College of Nursing, and the Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce, dates back to 1824 and today comprises 10 colleges and three schools offering 200+ undergraduate and graduate programs to more than 8,300 students.\u00a0Jefferson Health<\/u><\/a>, nationally ranked as one of the top 15 not-for-profit health care systems in the country and the largest provider in the Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley areas, serves patients through millions of encounters each year at 32 hospital campuses and more than 700 outpatient and urgent care locations throughout the region.\u00a0Jefferson Health Plans<\/u><\/a>, through Health Partners Plans, Inc., is a not-for-profit managed health care organization offering a broad range of health coverage options to more than 370,000 members for more than 40 years.<\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nPriscilla Turbitt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elite program to support Jefferson Health\u2019s Lehigh Valley hospitals and empower nursing talent\u00a0 (Dec. 3, 2025)\u00a0\u2013 Jefferson Health is expanding its successful Nursing S.E.A.L. Team to the Lehigh Valley region. … Continue reading Jefferson Health\u2019s Highly Specialized Nursing S.E.A.L. Team Expanding to the Lehigh Valley<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142100,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/jefferson-a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146473"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=146473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/142100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=146473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=146473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=146473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}