ANCC Magnet certification

[dzadzey, MSN, RN]

The hospital I work at is coming up for ANCC Magnet recertification. In the nearly five years since the hospital was certified I, personally, have yet to see any tangible benefit. Our staffing levels are still marginal as is our pay, and our benefits are worse than marginal, especially our health insurance which is execrable.

Has any one working at a Magnet hospital had a different experience?

[dcarriv]

i have friends who work at magnet hospitals, but still in the same health system as i do. nothing has changed where they work. they just have everything on paper that satisfies the inspection comittee, but they have nothing better than i do.

[Zookeeper3]

I worked at on once, it was pure heaven. The hospital CULTURE was that the nurse spent the most time at direct patient care, therefore they were the primary member of the team. All ancillary services were set up to support nursing...

- central delivered supplies stat

- pharmacy always delivered meds including narcs

- dietary passed trays, put supplements away and managed fridge temps.

- pharmacists went to codes with a med box and handed out the meds and documented them.

- Physicians were repremanded for unprofessional behavior to nurses

- Manager surveys were done I think every six months... too many legitamite complaints from staff and they were put on a corrective action plan.

It was wonderful. I can't recall any staff making negative or behind the back comments about each other, it wasn't done.

So yes, in one magnet facility it made a huge difference, or is it because the facility had it's priorities straight, it got magnet status?

[nicurn001]

Zookeeper3 I dearly wish all hospitals were the same as the one you discribe instead of the war zones most are run by Tete Richards ( unfortunately cant put the french accents on that) who do not care how battle fatigued their staff are as long as the profits keep rolling in .

[Teresag_CNS]

The original research done on magnet hospitals showed that hospitals with the magnet characteristics had lower nurse turnover. The Magnet Program is not a guarantee of job satisfaction, quality of nursing care, or any outcome other than turnover. Numerous studies done since the Magnet Program was implemented have failed to demonstrate consistent differences between magnet and non-magnet hospitals. In my opinion, that's because the program was not based on studies showing better quality, nurse empowerment, job satisfaction, or any other outcomes that we would like to see. I do think the structural elements of a magnet hospital, i.e., nurse participation on staffing committees, quality of care committees, and so on, can be very important. However, many hospitals achieve this without magnet designation, and some magnet hospitals slip back into their old ways after achieving designation.

[Chico David, BSN, RN]

Magnet designation is three things first and foremost:

1. A way to generate income for the ANCC - the agency that awards magnet status.

2. A way to give nurses the illusion of empowerment while diverting them from the path of true empowerment through unionization and collective action.

3. A recruiting tool.

That is not so say that some magnet hospitals are not nice places to work - there surely are cases where managers take the message seriously and really try to make a difference. But that's an incidental side effect, not the core purpose.