Why Choose Us

We Are Magnet®

This means we are one of the best health networks in which to be a nurse. Find out why we are a magnet for nurses.

We are honored to call ourselves a Magnet hospital. But, what does it really mean to work at a Magnet hospital? The American Nurses Credentialing Center gave us this honor - the highest recognition of nursing excellence - after we submitted our application and evidence and after Magnet appraisers spent four days in our hospital, observing and interviewing our staff.

Magnet designation at Lehigh Valley Health Network means…

Close collaboration with a team of doctors, pharmacists, therapists, technicians and support staff to ensure great care for patients.
Caring for patients in one of the best health networks in the country. We are the only hospital in the Lehigh Valley region to hold the Magnet designation, administered by the American Nurses Credentialing Center.
Patients are our highest priority and the motivation and inspiration behind our successes.
Opportunities for professional growth. You can present at regional and national conferences and receive scholarships for continuing education or advanced nursing degrees. There’s also support to participate in nursing study tours and medical missions and opportunities to hear national health care leaders speak about current issues affecting nursing.
Recognition of your achievements through award programs, bonuses for achieving certifications and more.
Learning from nurses, eager to share their years of experience with you.
Having a strong voice in making decisions that affect your working environment.
A flexible schedule. We take into account the special needs of you and your family.
Opportunities to mentor students and new graduates, helping them explore the world of nursing.

According to the American Nurses Credentialing Center, which administers the Magnet Recognition Program®, a Professional Practice Model is the overarching conceptual framework for nurses, nursing care and interdisciplinary patient care. It is a schematic description of a system, theory or phenomenon that depicts how nurses practice, collaborate, communicate and develop professionally to provide the highest-quality care for those served by the organization. The Professional Practice Model illustrates the alignment and integration of nursing practice with the mission, vision, philosophy and values that nursing has adapted.

The care delivery system is integrated within the Professional Practice Model and promotes continuous, consistent, efficient and accountable delivery of nursing care.

Shared governance model

You have the autonomy to create the work environment you desire.

Imagine working at a place where your voice is heard, where you are part of creating an environment where you are challenged, fulfilled and happy to work. This is a reality at Lehigh Valley Health Network.

As a nurse here, you’ll have the opportunity to participate in your unit’s and the hospital-wide shared governance model. This means you’ll have a say in making clinical decisions that impact nursing practice, quality, evidence-based practice and research, professional excellence, collegial review and recognition and unit operations. You’ll be encouraged and given the time to participate on councils focused on these areas. At other hospitals, administrators run these committees. But here, your managers serve as your mentors and help you get the resources you need.

The conceptual framework for the shared governance model at Lehigh Valley Health Network is based upon current research on organizational behavior, inherent within the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Magnet Recognition Program® model. The specific Magnet model components and associated concepts are:

Transformational leadership – Wherever nursing is practiced, there are structures, processes and expectations for staff nurse input and decisional involvement.
Structural empowerment – Nurses are involved in self-governance and decision-making structures and processes that establish standards of practice and address issues of concern.
Exemplary professional practice – Nurses create patient care delivery systems that delineate the nurses’ authority and accountability for clinical decision-making and outcomes. Nurses have significant control over staffing and scheduling processes and work in collaboration with interdisciplinary partners to achieve high quality patient outcomes. The autonomous nurse makes judgments about how to provide care based on the unique needs and attributes of the patient and family.
New knowledge, innovations and improvements – Nurses are educated about evidence-based practice and research, enabling them to appropriately explore the safest and best practices for their patients and practice environment, and to generate new knowledge.

These core values and beliefs not only serve as the underpinnings of the shared governance model, they also prompt the identification of key components of care delivery nurses and their colleagues are empowered to effect through decisional involvement. These key decisional components are:

Clinical practice
Quality
Evidence-based practice and research
Professional excellence
Collegial review and recognition
Operations

The shared governance model is operationalized within the organization as a whole, as well as individual departments/patient care units. A councilor structure is utilized at both the organizational and department/unit level. Development of the model is an evolutionary process, with continual maturity and refinement of the conceptual framework and key decisional components occurring on an ongoing basis.

Another way your voice is heard is through the R.N. Advisory Council. You’ll be able to share your thoughts with your council representative who will relay your issues and ideas to the senior vice president for patient care services. In the past, the R.N. Advisory Council has tackled issues such as how to recruit new nurses and retain our colleagues. Ideas born out of this council include the weekend program which allows you the option to work full-time while going to school or caring for your children and salary incentives to continue your professional development.

Advancement opportunities

At Lehigh Valley Health Network, you have the opportunity to advance your nursing career. Whether your career goal is a promotion or changing your specialty, we’ll help you achieve it.

Moving up

Staff nurses often are promoted to management positions. You can continue to care for patients at the bedside while taking on managerial responsibilities, such as staff schedules, staff education and staff mentoring. To help you get to the next level, we also offer you mentoring and leadership training. Some promotions may require additional education. We offer scholarships, tuition reimbursement and other opportunities to help you go back to school.

Changing your specialty

We want to make sure you are in the position that’s right for you. We offer internships and specialty courses in areas including critical care, progressive care, medical-surgical, operating room, neonatal intensive care, emergency care and pediatric critical care for R.N.s. You are able to develop and apply your clinical knowledge and skills while receiving full salary and benefits.

Latest technology

You may have heard the terms, “high tech” and “high touch.” We believe they go hand-in-hand when it comes to giving patients the best care. At Lehigh Valley Health Network, you will use the most advanced technology so that you can spend more time giving your patients the bedside care they deserve. In fact, each year we invest more than $10 million in new technology and innovation . Learn how this technology can help you spend more time with patients and ensure your patients are safe.

High tech meets high touch

Electronic medical records

Our electronic medical records system allows nurses to spend more time with patients and less time writing in charts. Known as our “electronic bedside charting system,” it automatically records patients’ vital signs in real time and alerts you when something rises or falls. It’s working so well that our nurses have an additional hour (per 12-hour shift) to spend with patients at the bedside. The system also includes patients’ diagnostic test results, lab work and medications.

Around-the-clock care for critical care patients

Critical care nurses are helping to monitor patients around-the-clock with “tele-health” technology. From a high-tech, off-site control room critical care nurses and intensivists monitor patients at different hospitals and intensive care units through out the night, assuring the highest level of care 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They use high-resolution audio-visual systems that allow clinicians to see the patient and talk with other doctors, nurses and family members in the patients’ room. They also use the electronic medical records system, which captures and transmits patient’s vital signs in real time to the off-site control room. Clinicians are alerted to serious changes in a patient’s condition so they can act immediately to address the problem. The electronic charting system also eliminates much of the bedside paperwork, allowing nurses to spend more time with patients.

This technology provides an added and higher level of care to help detect problems earlier and provide treatment faster. In turn, it reduces complications, shortens hospital stays and saves lives.

Medication bar coding

Our medication bar coding system ensures patients get the right dose of the right medication at the right time. You just scan the patient’s medication and identification bracelet. The data is transferred to our pharmacy, as well as our electronic medical records system.

Computerized physician ordering

To reduce time and handwriting errors, physicians electronically enter all patient orders, including prescriptions and diagnostic tests, right at the bedside into a handheld computer. This helps nurses fulfill patients’ orders more quickly and more accurately.

Electronic paper in the emergency department

An electronic documentation system in the emergency department allows nurses to input patient information into a computer, eliminating handwriting errors and creating more accurate, detailed records. When a patient is discharged from the emergency department, she receives a printout of her prescriptions, discharge and medication instructions. If she’s admitted, nurses send the patient information to the unit in which she is being admitted.

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Why Choose Us