Magnet Application...Again!!!

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

I attended the Nurse Practice Council meeting two days ago, and one of the administrators mentioned that our hospital (who did not receive accreditation two months ago after investing 2.4 million dollars on a sorry champaign) is considering applying, yet again!

My mouth literally hit the floor and my eyes must have looked like I had Graves Disease as I heard that our CEO wishes to have a luncheon with nurses to 'get their input' (translate that to we are doing it, like it or not). First off, when we received the news that we didn't get the accreditation, our DON did not have a meeting, send an email or even hint a peep at why we didn't get it. We barely saw this woman during the past 10 years I was employed there. Administration held ridiculous Magnet Marathons, meetings and stressed us to the max. Meanwhile, favoritism and horizontal workplace violence is prevalent. One RN went into the computer record of another nurse and spread the information throughout the hospital, a CNA gets caught on camera hitting a patient holding her baby three times in the face and was only suspended for 30 days. No one is interested in Magnet, was barely interested in JCAHO, are overworked and overwhelmed.

I think that Magnet has caused more separation between nurses than brought them together. LPNs were virtually ignored in this process, except for crowding a room, only BSN nurses are actually being recognized, but there are not many of them in this hospital and quite frankly, I was sick of the whole hoopla. In fact, I was so disgusted that I eased out of my chair and walked out of the meeting. If this happens, this won't be a collective decision between management and nursing-it will be forced down our throats again.

I am an LPN that wants to contribute to positive outcomes in patient care. I take time to learn as much as I can and I am an articulate person. I am happy with what I do, and do not intend to become an RN. When Magnet came, I was asked to greet them with one of the RNs. I said everything that the script called for, toured the clinic with them, answered all of their questions. But, once I said that I am an LPN, they openly snubbed me. Personally, I don't need this. I don't see how or why they would waste their time or ours, and the thought it of even thinking about this makes me nauseous. I want nothing to do with this, since, I don't fit their criteria, I don't feel that I will benefit anything.

Thanks for listening to me rant. I hope they don't mandate me to attend this luncheon since I am a committee member (in fact, I plan to ease out of this committee now that I have heard this).

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Maybe they only missed it by a few points, rather than fail miserably and it's worth them moving forward after investing so much.

But without employee buy in, it's doomed.

[graceomalleyRN, RN]

Pagandeva, your post is disturbing on SOOOOoooo many levels.

1. A hospital that has video evidence of a CNA assaulting a patient with an infant in her arms and does not a) fire her and b) turn her over to the authorities is condoning criminal behavior. No Magnet approval is going to make that right. Who in the heck is driving the bus there?

2. They waste over $2 M on a campaign that is a failure and are going to invest more in this project? Isn't the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?

3. It seems downright sadistic to make you part of the greeting party when this body looks down on not only LPN's, but RN's without a Bachelor's -- who passed the exact same NCLEX as the BSN. And I say this as a BSN student.

LPN's work HARD, I know I had one as a roommate when I was young. Who do they think supports their hallowed BSN's? Do they think BSN's could do everything expected of them without the teamwork of other nurses and aides?

Which brings up another point: who ends up doing the work once LPN's are out of the picture? Won't these extra duties fall to the RN's who are already trying to keep up with all their assignments? So, how does having an RN (excuse me, BSN) with too much on her caseload improve patient care?

This subject really concerns me for all the nurses who passed NCLEX via a diploma program or AD. It seems to me that the Magnet programs are disregarding a lot of experienced nurses.