Memorial Hospital Pembroke Nurse Celebrates 50 Years of Caring at Facility

She has worked in the same building longer than many of her colleagues have been alive, but that doesn’t phase Laurie Maas. As the hit song from early in her career says, the longtime nurse just ‘keeps on truckin.’

Maas, clinical manager of the Intensive Care Unit at Memorial Hospital Pembroke, has been a nurse for more than 56 years and has provided care at the facility since 1975. It was then Pembroke Pines General Hospital and wouldn’t be acquired by Memorial Healthcare System for another 20 years.

“50 years at this location is a remarkable accomplishment, but, if you know Laurie, it’s not surprising,” said Felicia Turnley, CEO of Memorial Hospital Pembroke. “She has nursing in her DNA and has always embraced serving patients, families, and the local community.”

Maas, a mother to eight children, graduated from the Cape Cod Hospital School of Nursing in 1969, about the time men were first walking on the moon. Of the most recent 30 years with Memorial, she says its family friendliness to both patients and staff is what she values most. It’s a culture that Maas and her husband, Ed, a former healthcare CEO, contribute to each Thanksgiving by providing a holiday meal to ICU staff that have to work through the night.

“Laurie loves her team, and they say she is the glue that holds things together,” said Ed Maas.

As far as the inevitable question about how long she plans to continue in the clinical manager’s role, Maas says she is blessed with good health and still enjoys working with patients and coworkers, which she expects to keep her going for the foreseeable future.