Hospital Magnet Status Magnet Status

Hospital Magnet Status

Magnet Status is a prestigious award that is granted by the American Nurses' Credentialing Center (ANCC), which is an affiliate of the American Nurses Association. This award is granted to hospitals that satisfy a specific set of criteria that measures the strength, quality, and robustness of their nursing program. In essence, a magnet hospital is one in which nursing delivers excellent care beyond expectations, a place in which nurses have a high level of job satisfaction, low turnover, and a fair and appropriate grievance process. Nurses in magnet hospitals also have input into processes and procedures, are valued as members of the medical leadership team, and have decision-making authority for patient care. Overall, the more open the communication between doctors, the administration and the nursing staff, the better the chances of magnet status. The view from the ANCC is that magnet certification implies excellence within the field of healthcare and a particularly impressive and fulfilling nursing environment (ANCC, 2011).

Steps -- The ANCC model is a roadmap for organizations that seek magnet recognition by organizing fourteen forces of magnetism/leadership into 5 model components (see Fig.1) that include: transformational leadership, structural empowerment, exemplary professional practices, KII Modelling (Knowledge, Innovation and Improvement), and Empirical Quality Results.

Transformational Leadership -- The leadership models and theories of the past few decades, regardless of their intent, cannot hope to bring stabilization and growth to the modern healthcare paradigm -- the field is simply too complex.

Structural Empowerment -- The toolkit of the magnet certification is used in a positive way to strengthen relationships, partnerships, and practices within the organization and community, vendors, and other professional organizations.

Exemplary Professional Practice -- Mode and models of care are emphasized to the point of exceeding best practices and moving towards exemplary professional practices. The magnet organization has a comprehensive understanding of the role of nursing, and the application of that role within all stakeholder parameters.

KII Model -- Knowledge, Innovation, and Improvements are all important building blocks for the modern professional organization as well as ways to uncover and contribute to the ethical and professional responsibilities necessary to remain a top-notch care provider.

Empirical Quality Results -- The magnet process not only asks the organization: what do you do, but more importantly, why do you do it, how do you do it, and what differences have you made by doing it? This empowers the organization from within and allows greater empirical study in a continuous loop (ANCC, Model Components, 2011).

Principles -- The driving force behind the magnet program is to ensure excellence in the healthcare model and allow organizations that have committed themselves to partnerships in nursing to be rewarded.

Characteristics - While characteristics between magnet organizations vary, there are several criteria that help the committee make its decision and can be seen as the more statistically typical magnet hospitals. The following are some of the basic criteria that give us a picture of a more typical magnet organization:

Average Daily Census = 288

RN Turnover

RN Vacancy Rate

Average Length of RN Tenure >10 years

% of RN Decision makers with advanced degrees > 50%

Other national credentials >50%

Nursing staff with at least a BA >50%

APN Nurses 25-30%

Organizational commitment to nursing

High Customer Satisfaction Rate

(See: http://www.nursecredentialing.org/CharacteristicsMagnetOrganizations.aspx)

Changes for Nurses - Most of the recorded changes for nurses are in both perception of their jobs, their ability to actually effect change, and a broader vision of authority given to them. There is a recurring loop -- nurses are happier and patients get better care; the better the care given the more all stakeholders feel pleased and can contribute to the overall benefit of the organization (Havens and Aiken, 1999).

Benefits & Research Basis for Magnet Care- Most of the literature focuses on five major benefits for healthcare organizations that achieve magnet status.

Attract and retain top nursing talent -- organizations that have achieved magnet status tend to have far less turnover than those who do not. The research postulates that this is due to several factors, among which the nurses' ability to actively participate in the organization and higher than average job satisfaction scores (Jones and Gates, 2007).

Improve patient care, safety, and customer satisfaction -- Because nurses are happier, have more advanced training, and are allowed to robustly participate in the organization's operations, patient care is improved, there is a higher nurse to patient ratio, greater emphasis on avocation and safety, and higher customer satisfaction numbers with an increase in quality (Hines and Yu, 2009).

Foster a collaborative culture within the healthcare organization -- Magnet organizations, but their very nature, foster more collaboration between physicians and nurses, nurses of all stages of their career, and nurses and other departments. The idea of team building and collaborating across disciplines that builds staff engagement is sometimes difficult to quantify, but nevertheless an important aspect of the magnet process (ANA, Case Studies, 2010).

Advance nursing standards and practices -- Best practices in nursing are clearly advanced with a magnet organization, finding decreased mortality rates, improved effectiveness, and a decrease in many preventable outcomes (Aiken, et.al., 1994).

Grow the business and improve fiscal success -- There are active and robust reasons for the organization to adopt magnet status as well. Using magnet status as a marketing tool increases press and media coverage and allows the public to see what levels the organization has achieved in quality nursing care. Reduction in staff turnover is a huge savings, and the better the reputation for the healthcare organization, the easier it is to hire (and retain) top talent in all parts of the organization. With nursing as the foundation for care, a magnet certification carries status (ANCC, The Business Case, 2010).