A Culture of Excellence
Located in the beautiful and historic seaside community of New London, Connecticut, Lawrence & Memorial Hospital is a 280-bed, nonprofit, award-winning health care facility serving approximately 250,000 people in eastern Connecticut, western Rhode Island, and Fishers Island, New York.
Lawrence & Memorial Hospital has earned a well-deserved reputation as one of Connecticut’s most contemporary health centers, offering the latest in technology and the highest quality of care.
Total Benchmark Solution, a private health care consulting company, recently ranked Lawrence & Memorial among the top 100 hospitals in the nation for health care quality. In 2008, consumers in a National Research Corporation survey also voted the hospital as one of 206 hospitals nationwide with the best quality and image in its region for the fourth consecutive year.
ADVANCED PATIENT-CENTERED CARE
Lawrence & Memorial Hospital’s progressive culture provides patients with a full range of acute care and related diagnostic and therapeutic services. It also offers a broad range of preventive health programs to the community.
Centers of excellence include the region’s only newborn intensive care unit, new imaging center, physical rehabilitation, neonatal intensive care unit, theCommunity Cancer Center, emergency services, family-centered maternity services, endocrinology, cardiology services, occupational health center, and Connecticut’s second-largest hospital-based employee assistance program. The hospital is a Joslin Diabetes Center affiliate, and its health care system includes the Visiting Nurse Association of Southeastern Connecticut and Hospice Southeastern Connecticut.
Lawrence & Memorial is the only hospital in eastern Connecticut to receive state permission to offer emergency angioplasty. The hospital has also achieved certification from the Joint Commission as a primary stroke center. Lawrence & Memorial’s award-winning 16-bed inpatient rehab center was one of only two hospital rehabilitation units in the state to receive certification from the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). Lawrence & Memorial has begun its journey toward Magnet hospital status.
TEAM NURSING FOSTERS LEADERSHIP
Nurses at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital are treated with respect in an environment that is challenging, supportive, and nurturing, and fosters a true work/life balance. At Lawrence & Memorial, nurses are leaders that make a difference for their patients at the bedside.
In 2008, 10 Lawrence & Memorial nurses were awarded the Nightingale Award for Excellence in Nursing.
The hospital believes in a team nursing concept of care, which allows nurses to have significant input in how they care for their patients. Team nursing takes a holistic approach to meeting patient needs, where nurses meet daily with patients to set goals. This nursing model increases patient satisfaction, promotes continuity of care, improves communication between all members of the health care team, and allows for more effective use of resources.
Nursing practice incorporates shared governance and unit-based practice councils that encourage staff involvement in decisions involving patient care. The most recent Press Ganey score for patient care is 92 percent.
MULTIPLE OPPORTUNITIES FOR EDUCATION, ADVANCEMENT
Nurses at Lawrence & Memorial enjoy a wide range of generous benefits, including a 401(k) with employer match; tuition reimbursement; on-site child care; on-site credit union; free parking; 24-hour cafeteria; bonus programs; health, life, and dental insurance; the hospital’s own employee beach on Long Island Sound; and much more.
The hospital’s 12-week orientation for new nursing graduates is customized and preceptor-based. The program combines classroom and hands-on clinical training. Graduate nurses meet each week with their preceptor and set goals leading to transition to their assigned unit.
Lawrence & Memorial offers a unique program with Three Rivers Community College whereby preceptors are trained in the classroom and online. A Three Rivers faculty member oversees the program in which four preceptors train two nurses each to become preceptors.
Lawrence & Memorial also offers a number of other programs to further the education and advance the careers of its nurses. The hospital recently hired a coordinator of health professions development and career advancement to serve as an internal guidance counselor to help employees in career development.
The hospital recently initiated a career advancement program that provides funding to educate six employees for various positions, including as registered nurses. Lawrence & Memorial also provides a limited number of scholarships for students enrolled as juniors or seniors in BSN programs and additional scholarships for employees enrolled in allied health fields.
The hospital’s Clinical Partner Program allows student nurses entering their last year of a nursing program to work under the direct supervision of a registered nurse during the summer. The program allows student nurses to gain experience working in an acute care environment to build skills and confidence, and ease the transition into the work setting.
Other opportunities include a professional nursing scholars program, which provides full scholarships to BSN students.
Nurses wishing to work in a warm, supportive, and team-oriented environment should consider joining Lawrence & Memorial Hospital.