Jefferson Health’s SEAL Nurses Aren’t Navy, But They’ll Go Where the Call Is Called

Jefferson Health’s SEAL Nurses Aren’t Navy, But They’ll Go Where the Call Is Called

Hospitals across the country are struggling to recruit and retain experienced nurses in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Jefferson Health is no exception.

In January 2023, the system had more than 1,000 nursing positions open, and administrators knew they needed to take action to keep nursing schedules full.

So they created an elite team of nurses who could be deployed to any of the system’s 13 hospitals in the Philadelphia area. They made the job attractive by offering higher pay and more stable schedules, while branding the group as an exclusive, highly skilled group. Jefferson’s SEAL Team, named after the Navy special operations unit, helped maintain staffing levels as the system recruited new nurses.

Most hospitals fill last-minute vacancies with traveling nurse teams, teams of nurses who are sent to wherever they are needed in the facility. But these positions can be unpredictable and aren’t always appealing. And Jefferson wants to deploy nurses to multiple hospitals, not just one location.

Jefferson’s SEAL nurses rotate between hospitals within a 40-mile radius and are assigned six-week schedules, rather than getting a new assignment at the start of each day. They make more money than ward nurses and have an average of nine years of experience, while seasoned nurses across the country are leaving the bedside.

Jefferson says this system-wide resource is a solution to scheduling issues while also helping retain and rehire experienced nurses. In two years, the team grew to 150 nurses—and the total number of openings at Jefferson dropped from 1,000 to fewer than 300. “Gosh, that sounds good,” Eric Purnell, a longtime critical care nurse, recalls thinking when he heard about the SEAL team recruitment.

He was one of Jefferson’s first recruits to the SEALs in 2023. The job appealed to him because it offered enough change to keep him ready without feeling lost.

“I like to move around,” he says. “It keeps me fresh as a nurse.”