The Influence of Professional Practice and Magnet Designation in Healthcare Institutions
Tonya Hawkins
Walden University
NURS 6006-1, Issues and Trends in Nursing
January 28, 2012
The Influence of Professional Practice and Magnet Designation in Healthcare Institutions
The healthcare industry strives to seek excellence in patient care. Professional Practice and Magnet are methods to drive advancements in the everyday clinical setting. The purpose of this paper is to explore the changes in healthcare affected by Professional Practice Models and Magnet status.
Overview of the Model or Quality Award
The Magnet Recognition Program was an award designed to recognize excellence in patient outcomes and satisfaction of nurses.
…show more content…
Once a facility obtains Magnet status the journey is continuous. Every four years a re-designation process, takes place to ensure the standards to maintain excellence as a Magnet hospital (McClure, 2005). Magnet status changes hospitals for the better. Increased education, nursing leadership, and nursing retention are just a few examples of the influence of the Magnet model.
Nurses working for Magnet hospitals are encouraged to increase their professional knowledge. Nurses are encouraged to grow as a clinician by participating in clinical ladder programs, obtaining certifications, and pursuing advanced degrees. Magnet status is a designation for hospitals that wish to provide excellent patient care and promote nursing leadership. Many hospitals offer tuition reimbursement to encourage nurses to continue their education to pursue an advanced degree. Clinical ladders offer professional and monetary gains. A local Magnet hospital in Richmond, Virginia offers reimbursement for the cost of certification exams to help their nurses have an opportunity for certification in their specialty. McClure explains that magnet hospitals develop a culture of excellence by demonstrating best practices and involving nurses in decision making and policy development. There is a correlation between the nurse with a higher level of education and certifications in their area of expertise and positive patient outcomes. (McClure, 2005).
The Magnet model
Forces of magnetism, nurse-sensitive quality indicators, which reflect elements of patient care that, are directly affected by nursing practice (Schmidt and McFarlane 2015). These indicators are said to reflect three aspects of nursing care: structure, process, and outcomes. The establishment of Forces of Magnetism (14) by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) 2013 was created to provide the conceptual framework for the Magnet appraisal process. Must of the original design was to differentiated organizations best able to recruit and retain nurses during the nursing shortages of the 1970s and 1980s (Schmidt and McFarlane 2016 and Forces of Magnetism 2018).
The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), through the Magnet Recognition Program aims to raise quality of patient care while utilizing evidence based nursing practice (Jayawardhana, Welton, & Lindroth, 2014). An article published in the Journal of Nursing Administration reports that “application fees, appraiser fees, site visit costs, and document preparation” can range from $46,000 to $251,000 depending on the institution. While there can be some drawbacks to the financial implications of obtaining a Magnet status, it is important to understand why such recognition exists in the first place (Drenkard, 2010). The Magnet certification of the ANCC, encourages nurses to utilize research and evidence base practice to improve the delivery
A clinical ladder program is designed to recognize staff nurses advancement of skill and knowledge without having the nurse leave direct patient
The Magnet Status refers to “a status given to a hospital that meets a set of criteria aimed at measuring its strength and quality of nursing (Nurses, 2015).” Some of the reasons why hospitals want that Magnet status were to create the quality of care back to nurses, making their services important, and investing in them. The Magnet philosophy is about the right staff acuity, nursing skills, and clinical environment. Continuing to strive for excellence is one of the main goals. According to an article, to be a magnet status hospital, you must have nursing resources such as higher education for nurses (Nurses, 2015). This concept benefits nursing positions, the hospital, and patient care.
195). As stated by Birk (2007) American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) standards for magnet classification speaks of applied theoretical framework and articulated philosophy in day to day operations. Landmark and Hickey (2007) states that the components of a magnet environment that will likely contribute to high consensus within the organization are the magnet programs attention on sequences between nursing mission, vision, values, philosophy and strategic priorities and those organizations.
Currently, 6% of hospitals in the United States hold Magnet status (Lowell General Hospital, n.d.). Being a Magnet hospital is an accreditation awarded by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (Lowell General Hospital, n.d.). Such recognition is given to hospitals that aim to focus on quality-patient care provided by nurses (Lowell General Hospital, n.d.). This status is earned and achieved after extensive review, and is good for four years before they are required to meet 35 different areas of focus again (Lowell General Hospital, n.d.). Trinkoff et al. (2010) review the working conditions of hospitals to determine whether Magnet status improves nursing working conditions. The authors of this article come from different areas of expertise as they hold nursing degrees, PhD degrees, ScD degrees, and many others with an educational background in statistics, epidemiology, and nursing. However, the authors fail to study the patient outcomes between Magnet and non-Magnet hospitals and to see if Magnet status has an impact on patient outcomes. They fail to look at the entire picture, as their primary focus is on the working conditions of nurses, and not the patients.
I also agree based onmy research as well the difference between Magnet hospitals vs Non-Magnet hospitals. There is a great deal of differences including higher numbers of autonomy and job satisfaction. AS stated in my post,
After looking through the different websites, and considering what qualities I am seeking in my future profession as a nurse, I found they all hold values I want to experience in my practice. However, the one that caught my attention foremost is the ANCC’s magnet status. According the ANCC’s website, “Magnet Recognition is an organizational credential awarded to exceptional health care organizations that meet ANCC standards for quality patient care, nursing excellence, and innovations in professional nursing practice” (Magnet Model, 2015). Receiving Magnet recognition is not an easy task seeing as only 82 hospitals are recognized. The “magnet model”, a guideline for achieving status as a magnet hospital, includes the components of transformational
With an ever-increasing body of knowledge in the field of nursing, more education is being required to enter the field of nursing. Many healthcare institutions are raising the educational requirements in order to become employed or maintain employment in their facilities. Healthcare organizations are transitioning to hiring registered nurses (RN) who have a higher level of education, such as, a graduate from a Baccalaureate Degree Nursing (BSN) program. The goal of these institutions is to have nurses with a broader array of skills that can meet the growing demands of our patient population. BSN prepared nurses are recognized for their well-rounded skills in critical thinking, management, case management and health promotion versus Associate Degree nurses (ADN)/Diploma nurses that focus on direct patient care.
Magnet recognition is a performance recognition that was started by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (Drenkard, 2010). The recognition is awarded to facilities who have applied and met the requirements (Magnet Recognition and Pathway to Excellence, 2018). The goals of the Magnet recognition are to improve positive patient outcomes while also providing an environment which promotes growth and safety for the nurses (Magnet Recognition and Pathway to Excellence, 2018). The opportunities for nurses that are provided by the Magnet recognition are continued education, promotion of growth by certifications and licenses, recognition of individual nurses, and staff satisfaction (Magnet Recognition and Pathway to Excellence,
In 1994, The University of Washington Medical Center, located in Seattle Washington became the first hospital to be recognized as an American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Magnet designated organization. Since their recognition, the list of such facilities has grown to include approximately 389 hospitals, which according to American Hospital Association Fast Facts on US Hospitals, 2011, comprises about 7% of all registered hospitals in the United States. So what is Magnet status and what does it mean to organizations that become recognized by the ANCC as a Magnet designated organization. This process started back in 1983, a time when the United States was experiencing a severe nursing shortage. A study was conducted by the American Academy of Nursing (ANA) as to why some hospitals were experiencing a high turnover rate of nurses while other
Many healthcare organizations worldwide are striving to achieve magnet designation. Having the magnet title is essential because it recognizes healthcare organizations that act as a “magnet” for excellence by establishing a work environment that identifies, rewards, and promotes professional nursing (ANCC Magnet Designation, 2012). A magnet hospital is considered to be one where nursing provides excellent patient care, where nurses have a high level of job satisfaction, and where there is a low staff
There is a shortage of all health care professions throughout the United States. One shortage in particular that society should be very concerned about is the shortage of Registered Nurses. Registered Nurses make up the single largest healthcare profession in the United States. A registered nurse is a vital healthcare professional that has earned a two or four year degree and has the upper-most responsibility in providing direct patient care and staff management in a hospital or other treatment facilities (Registered Nurse (RN) Degree and Career Overview., 2009). This shortage issue is imperative because RN's affect everyone sometime in their lifetime. Nurses serve groups, families and individuals to foster
Across the United States, hospitals are experiencing a nursing shortage. Yet, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 63,857 students graduated from nursing school in 2015 alone and enrollment is increasing. It seems like a lot of new nurses to fill those vacancies, does it not? Studies show, however, that within a year, about thirty percent of those new graduates have voluntarily left their job (Hillman). Further studies have attributed the high turnover rate to new nurses’ lack of competency to handle conflict, make critical decisions, and function autonomously (Bratt). Many of the new graduates are disappointed with the hospital’s orientation, or lack thereof. Lack of knowledgeable preceptors and lack of nursing staffing in general has led to new nurses being thrown into autonomous function more quickly. Without proper training, these nurses must make sound clinical judgements and provide competent care to patients, which anyone can imagine is stressful. Today, Nurse Residency Programs (NRPs) are being instituted in numerous hospitals as a way to improve new graduate nursing skill, but research shows many other benefits to these programs. NRPs also reduce hospital spending costs, increase patient safety, and most importantly increase new nurse retention rates.
The researchers surveyed 3186 nurses on staff at 56 hospitals; 52 academic hospitals and 4 non-academic hospitals. The researchers compared the results of the nurses’ surveys with information about the location of the hospital (rural or urban), the hospital environment (managerial support, good relationships among team members, the nurses’ involvement in decision-making), the nurses’ educational levels, and the staffing (nurse:patient ratio). The researchers also interviewed nurse managers and leaders to evaluate their input on nurse retention and nursing shortages in a qualitative portion of the study. In the article “Effective strategies for nurse retention in acute hospitals: A mixed method study”, the researchers state “the results show that nurse staffing and the quality of the nurse practice environment (i.e. managerial support of nursing care, good relations between doctors and nurses, nurse participation in decision-making and organizational priorities on quality of care) are significantly associated with intention-to-leave the hospital” (Van den Heede et al., 2013, p. 192). This association is related with increase nurse satisfaction with environment and staffing is related to decreased intention to leave the hospital, or an inverse relationship. These researchers also shed light on the fact that Magnet hospitals have far better nurse retention and nurse satisfaction. Thus, focusing on and achieving a Magnet status can be an effective