Here, compassion means award-winning care.
ECU Health Medical Center is a special kind of place. It’s a place where dedication and drive have made us highly regarded – as a flagship teaching hospital featuring a Level I Trauma Center and Comprehensive Stroke Center with the region’s only Neuroscience Intensive Care unit.
It’s the kind of place where a higher level of care has achieved Magnet recognition — twice. It’s a place where ongoing nurse education is prioritized, earning accreditation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. And, ECU Health Medical Center is a place where patients, and their families, can find a true partner in their care.
Magnet Recognition


It’s a huge honor to receive Magnet recognition not once but twice. Magnet recognition is the gold standard for nursing excellence and the highest national honor for professional nursing practice. It demonstrates our commitment to providing high-quality patient care and our continued support of the education and resources nurses need to provide that care.
At ECU Health Medical Center, we provide excellent care not only because our Magnet designation demands it. But because we are committed to providing excellence in nursing for all the citizens of eastern North Carolina.
Benefits to our Patients:
- Greater access to quality care
- Improved satisfaction with nurse communication
- Availability of help and services received
- A safer environment — decreased mortality rates, pressure ulcers and falls.
Benefits to our Nurses:
- Focus on building visionary nurse leaders at all levels
- Commitment to research and quality-driven, evidence-based practice
- A collaborative and engaged culture for nurses and the teams they support
For more information about the Magnet Recognition Program, click here.
Shared Decision Making
Nurses are at the forefront of care here. Which is why we believe in giving nurses the ability to lead and have a greater say how we operate. That’s why we have a number of nursing councils that all nurses are able to apply to join every year for two-year terms. These councils empower nurses to share in decision making where it pertains to their clinical practice and professional development.
- Nurse Executive Council (NEC) – Leadership team comprised of managers, professional development specialist, clinical nurse specialists, administrators and directors
- Nurse Congress – Governing body for nursing councils, providing leadership and direction to the councils
- Nursing Practice Council – Examines nursing practices issues, discrepancies and recommendations for improvements
- Recognition Council – Promotes and recognizes nurses at ECU Health Medical Center
- Night Shift Council – Improves and enhances practice, representation and communication of night shift team members
- Quality/Evidence Based Practice Council – Tracks National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators, nurse survey and patient experience data plus designs innovative improvement strategies
- Unit Based Councils – Governing body within each unit to make decisions related to unit specific practice and challenges
Professional Development

ECU Health Nursing Professional Development is approved as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the North Carolina Nurses Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.
ECU Health promotes lifelong learning of nurses through the delivery of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) activities that inspires human connections, innovation and experiential learning utilizing evidence-based practice with the goal of advancing the mission of ECU Health. Nurses can use contact hours provided through NCPD activities at ECU Health to meet the continuing competence requirements for license renewal.

When what you do matters, where you do it is a big decision.