Healthcare Organization and Nurses

Magnet Status in Hospitals

Overview of A Magnet Facility

A Magnet facility is defined as a healthcare organization where nurses have a high level of job satisfaction, nursing delivers excellent patient outcomes, and there is low nurse staff turnover rate. A health care organization that manages to attract, and retain top nurses within its facility is defined as a magnet facility. Magnet recognition is the highest and prestigious distinction that a healthcare organization can receive for high-quality patient care and nursing excellence. This is not a prize or an award, but rather it is a performance driven recognition credential that is awarded by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). This is clearly a gold standard in healthcare provision with only 8% of U.S. hospital earning Magnetic status. Earning this status brings internal benefits and external prestige to the healthcare organization. Taking the journey to becoming a Magnet facility results in a striking impact on quality, cost, service, and human resource measures (Fitzpatrick, 2010). Studies have shown that Magnet facilities have a higher percentage of satisfied registered nurses, lower nurse turnover, improved clinical outcomes, improved patient satisfaction, and greater nurse autonomy. In order to earn the Magnet designation, a facility has to meet the 14 standards of the original Forces of Magnetism that were grouped into five components in 2008. The five key components are transformational leadership, structural empowerment, exemplary professional practice, new knowledge, innovations and improvements, and empirical outcomes. Transformational leadership component empowers a healthcare organization to change in order to meet future needs. This requires a clear vision, mission, clinical knowledge, influence, and strong professional nursing practice. Structural empowerment refers to the solid processes and structures developed by leadership to offer an environment that encourages and promotes professional practice. The organization's policies should promote partnerships and strong relationships with other healthcare professionals in order to improve healthcare outcomes. The exemplary professional practice component entails the comprehensive understanding of the nursing role, application of the role with patients, communities, families, and interdisciplinary team. The nursing research Magnet component is referred to as new knowledge, innovations, and improvements. For a healthcare to earn the Magnet recognition, it must demonstrate that it is applying existing evidence, creating new models of care, building new evidence, and it is making a visible contribution to the nursing science. The empirical outcomes component asks healthcare organizations "What difference have you made?"

Healthcare organizations that have the Magnet status have reported improved patient outcomes, and this is a clear indication of how effective the organization is offering patient care. With the Magnet status, a healthcare organization is required to achieve and maintain specified standards, which have a positive effect on the care offered to patients. The increased patient care results in better patient outcomes when compared to organizations that do not have the Magnet status. Nurses are more professional in the performance of their duties, take pride in their work, and are constantly trying to excel in the performance of their work. All this leads to improved care and improved patient outcomes. Without the Magnet status, nurses are demoralized, and most of them only do what is required, they are not motivated to do better, and they are less inclined to take up challenges. The Magnet status pushes for continuous education of the nurses, and this empowers nurses to seek educational opportunities by advancing their degrees or attending conferences (Tinkham, 2013). In most organizations before the Magnet status journey begun nurses used to work their shift and head home. However, this change when the organization begins pursuing Magnet status. The nurses become more involved in their practice, and they encourage each other to go back to school. Magnet facilities encourage nurses to take up patient care assignments and push the nurses to keep up with current practices. This ensures that nurses are well informed and they can make better decisions in the performance of their duties. With a Magnet status, an organization is able to attract and retain highly qualified nurses. The nurses are highly motivated, and they have no desire to resign from their posts. This drive healthcare change in that the organization has qualified and experienced nurses who understand their work and have the ability to make informed decisions based on their continuous learning. It is not easy for an organization to maintain nurses and this mostly affects patient care and outcomes. With a Magnet status, an institution manages to not only attract highly qualified nurses, but also other professionals like physicians and specialists. Physicians also prefer working with nurses who are motivated and understand their roles within a healthcare organization.