How Magnet Hospitals are destroying Nursing

Nurses Activism

Published

  1. My Magnet Hospital

    • 17
      Has safe staffing ratios
    • 25
      Has unsafe staffing ratios
    • 16
      Hires too many inexperienced nurses
    • 12
      Hires enough experienced nurses

46 members have participated

1. 80 to 20 ratio of BSN to ADN

a. Approximately 40% of RN's are BSN, therefore, not enough domestic BSN's available.

b. BSN's are being imported from foreign nursing mills.

c. Foreign nurses will work for far less than domestic nurses.

2. Domestic BSN hires are mostly fresh grads with zero experience.

a. New BSN's are willing to work for far less than experienced BSN's/ADN's.

b. New BSN's aren't sensitive to staffing ratios.

c. New BSN's accept more acute/critical patients than they can safely provide care for.

And the list could go on. I'm sure you guys can add more items

Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

Wow, I work for a Magnet facility and I can only say our place has changed for the better. We now have a voice in what goes on, we have a Nurse Senate in place that we can take issues to and they are discussed with the proper people. It put staffing, scheduling, etc guidelines in place and hold the floors to it. We do have the BSN ratio, but we are lucky enough to have good tuition reimbursement (which our senate fought for). We have no foreign nurses brought in. We are competitive in our pay and benefits even though we are a county institution.

Right now we are in a budget crunch and our nursing VP and senate are fighting to limit how many nursing jobs we will lose, most of the docs back it up too, esp it being a teaching facility, they rely on the nurses.

I guess it depends on the place and how it is used.

I work at a magnet hospital and as a new nurse I'm very sensitive to staffing ratios! Seven patients who are all fall risk, bed ridden, and/or incontinent and NO NURSING ASSISTANT! And then having to work 40 hrs/wk!

Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.

OP Are you an ASN nurse?

Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.

I am going for my BSN (I'm a second-term nursing student). I work at a magnet hospital, and BSN nurses are preferred because of the high volume of applications that hospital receives. Requiring a four-year degree helps HR weed through the applications.

Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

[h=3]

enferm clin. 2008 jan–feb; 18(1): 35–40.

[/h]robyn b. cheung, linda h. aiken, sean p. clarke, and douglas m. sloane

center for health outcomes & policy research, university of pennsylvania school of nursing, philadelphia, estados unidos

[h=3]nursing care and patient outcomes: international evidence[/h]

...studies have repeatedly found that the practice environment in which nurses work is a determining factor in nurse and patient outcomes. these studies find that the distinguishing attributes of magnet hospitals are present in where nurses have high levels of job satisfaction and have low levels of burnout where the practice environment is poor, nurses working in hospitals with good work environments have the benefit of adequate staffing and patients in these hospitals have better outcomes.magnet hospital accreditation is the best evidence-based initiative to improve nurse practice environments and patient outcomes and has been shown to transform the nurse work environments in the us, the uk, armenia, and russia19,20. the process of magnet recognition involves implementing 14 evidence-based standards. a detailed plan of the process toward improving the nurse practice environment can be found at: http://www.nursecredentialing.org. replicating the magnet hospital model has proven to be successful in any country regardless of differences in financial and delivery systems because nurses are committed to excellence and leaders are willing to lead. the potential benefits to spain are enormous.

to summarize, the study findings reviewed here provide convincing evidence of the crucial role that staffing ratios, and administrative and managerial support play in the quality of patient care and patient outcomes. in spite of vast differences in resources and national system design, the same associations were found again and again across many countries, providing compelling evidence across the globe that nurses and countries are facing very similar challenges. the challenges that nurses face and the solutions to nursing shortages and poor quality of care are common across countries, making the case that nursing is indeed a global community. high levels of job dissatisfaction and burnout contribute to the global shortage of nurses. hospitals with employment policies that favor highly educated nurses, staffing policies that account for patient acuity and recognize the contributions to quality that registered nurses make, and organizational policies that support nurses in their decision making, are the common attributes of hospitals where nurses will want to work and patients will have good outcomes. the magnet hospital program is a model that has been proven to transform work environments.

[h=3]nursingcenter: the cno/roi factor of accreditation[/h]

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[td=width: 30%]dawn chiarenza rn

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[td=class: li-txtcontent, width: 70%] nursing management

january 2011

volume 42 number 1

pages 26 - 31

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[/table]

...the significance of magnet-recognized organizations and their effect on quality of care are noted throughout healthcare literature. the national center for nursing quality indicators® (ndnqi) obtains specific patient quality data from many different types of healthcare facilities, including magnet hospitals. ndnqi notes that data obtained from magnet facilities have lower fall rates and lower pressure ulcer rates than non-magnet organizations.4 the overall mortality within magnet hospitals is often noted as lower than national average.5-8 not only are there fewer cases of mortality, there are also fewer complications and more favorable outcomes, resulting in shorter length of stay.9 further, nurses believe themselves as providing higher-quality nursing care to their patients: in a secondary analysis of aggregated data from more than 10,000 staff nurses from 34 hospitals, both magnet and non-magnet facilities note significant difference in their perception of quality. with a quality care question of "very high quality," magnet hospital staff nurse respondents noted 48.6% agreement, whereas non-magnet staff nurse respondents noted 32.2% agreement.10 thus, quality of care isn't only perceived as better in magnet hospitals, but extensive research and literature confirms these findings....

Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Why you should consider working at a Magnet hospital : Nursing2011

Career Magnetism | MinorityNurse.com

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
OP Are you an ASN nurse?

I don't think the OP is bashing of BSN nurses..and I happen to think a ASN or diploma with 30 years experience can nurse the pants off the new BSN graduate. I am reluctant to enter this discussion because I do not agree with the masses.(insert couch to hide under here) and I don't want to argue. All I have is opinion and first hand experience .........I don't think "Magnet" is anything nut a bunch of hype...brought fourth by the ANCC and their groupies to create a revenue generating process that tight fisted administrators/CEO would buy into.

Grant it....it's creative and it works (generating money that is), but I am not so sure it has overall improved working conditions of RN's at the bedside. Do I have proof? No not really but working at Manet facilities the nurses B*^#h just as much as those at non Magnet facilities or union facilities. I have NOT overall seen any changes in staffing (as a manager supervisor) even though their staffing plan or matrix calls for it they just always work "short" and the management tells the staff there is a shortage of nurses and the managers are told there is a freeze (personal experience). The managers have become as scripted as everyone else and to keep their jobs they obey their given rhetoric......they do as they are told.

The OP posted legitamite sources and the sources were trashed. I am a firm believer that data can be investigated and manipulated to project whatever the writer wishes it to convey.....JMHO and personal experience. I think Magnet is great in theory....so is The JC....in theory, they get annoyed with themselves and their "ideas" when they take themselves serioulsly.(again personal knowledge and therefore just an opinion)

What I have found is that it's easy to talk the talk......but its much harder to (and they don't) walk the walk. If more was focused on actual action and changes they'd have the for a piece of paper tha allows entry into a club. Peace

Specializes in Long Term Acute Care, TCU.
I am going for my BSN (I'm a second-term nursing student). I work at a magnet hospital, and BSN nurses are preferred because of the high volume of applications that hospital receives. Requiring a four-year degree helps HR weed through the applications.

I agree that BSN should be the entry level degree for Nursing. I am an ADN and will be going back for my BSN. However, ADN's pass the same NCLEX as BSN's and are equals as far as being a floor nurse.

Experience and certifications should have more weight than degrees. "Magnet Status" and "Nursing Shortage" are nothing more than buzz words to lower the pay and benefits of RN's by saturating the market.

Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
The OP posted legitamite sources and the sources were trashed. I am a firm believer that data can be investigated and manipulated to project whatever the writer wishes it to convey.....

That's pretty much the bottom line. I'm just such a nerd I think it's actually fun to see where things come from and to what degree (if at all) they obfuscate a political agenda with a truckload of verbiage. My issue wasn't so much the Magnet vs non- Magnet as what seemed to me to be ascribing personal characteristics to BSNs (foreign, new grads etc) that were unfair and unsubstantiated.

Wording like "nursing mills" and suggesting foreign nurses as a whole are willing to endure substandard working conditions, knowingly take on assignments they are unqualified to handle and as a whole will not speak up because they are "desperate" to pay off loans is a different issue altogether for me.

I work for a magnet hospital. I think its great. Magnet to me seems mostly focused on our patient outcomes and how good of a job we NURSES do. And of course I would like to work at a hospital where the nursing care given to patients is proven to be great! I think magnet also looks at staffing and if its too bad the hospital can't be awarded magnet status. I also have not researched what I'm about to say but I really feel like more people are graduating with their BSN at least in my area anyway. My hospital is encouraging ADN to go back to school but its not mandated. However, I think by 2015 they say they will no longer hire ADN but I feel like that is plenty of time to encourage new ADN students to go for their BSN. Hospitals in my area that are not magnet are aiming to hire only BSN, so it is not just magnet hospitals.

Specializes in Pediatric Hem/Onc.

My facility got Magnet status about 3 years ago, right before I started as a PCA. A lot of the nurses on my floor said they were dissatisfied with conditions once it happened. Granted, this coincided with the economy tanking so it might be the Magnet related changes and budget crunching initiatives combined.

Personally, I find all the "extras" to be....tedious. I have to do a new grad residency research project - and get my shifts covered if there's a scheduling conflict with the mandatory meetings - over my first year and I think it's pointless. I'd rather get the clinical time in my first year, but that's just me. You feel pressured to join committees and give extra time beyond your FTE every week. I shouldn't be made to feel bad because I only want to give 36ish hours a week.

Specializes in Med Surg - Renal.
I agree that BSN should be the entry level degree for Nursing. I am an ADN and will be going back for my BSN. However, ADN's pass the same NCLEX as BSN's and are equals as far as being a floor nurse.

Experience and certifications should have more weight than degrees. "Magnet Status" and "Nursing Shortage" are nothing more than buzz words to lower the pay and benefits of RN's by saturating the market.

My magnet hospital employs about 15% of myADN graduating class and does a fantastic job of training, supporting, and furthering the career development of all the nurses employed there.

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