Any Magnet facility nurses here?

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Specializes in Med/Surg/Oncology.

I was wondering if you could tell if your work environment is conducive to nursing, do you have high job satisfaction, etc? I do not work at a Magnet hospital but received a job offer from one. Just how different is it?

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I work in a system that is just that. I see absolutely no benifit. It all looks good on paper, in the news (advertised as one of the best in yadda, yadda yadda ). When it comes to the trenches, it's really the same. Kind of reminds me of a family in a upper class neighborhood that has everything, house looks good, everyone belongs to the best society clubs, drinks the best bottled water, has a housekeeper, gardner etc,,,,, but behind closed doors the faimily is falling apart.

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Specializes in Cardiac/Telemetry, Hospice, Home Health.

Here is a link that I think is fairly objective coverage of magnet status. My facility is such however I am too new to have a say one way or the other.

http://www.nursingadvocacy.org/faq/magnet.html

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

Please do not be fooled by the Magnet logo. My hospital applied for Magnet and the surveyors came in October. We are still waiting for word on whether we are accepted or not. The whole magnet campaign was nauseating, because we were being basically intimidated to lie about things that we are clearly not doing, the DON is usually unavailable and the working conditions were not improved. I have friends that work for Magnet hospitals that are miserable. There were no real changes, according to them; in fact, quite a few of the nurses are trying to leave these phony hospitals because at times, you get tired of the B-S.

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I think it's a mixed bag. I've worked at two Magnet hospitals that were anything but... retention was a joke, nurses were treated terribly, the staffing ratios were atrocious. Except when they were being surveyed, of course. Then it was business as usual. A couple of others were run of the mill; not bad, not great.

The hospital I'm working now has applied for its first Magnet survey (will happen sometime next year, so thankfully I won't be around lol). However, I'm at a loss as to why they even want to go through the hassle. The staffing ratios are incredible, the (majority of the) staff is content and treated well, turnover is low and retention is high. From what I understand, they've been this way for years. I guess they just want that silly logo to hang in their lobby.

Pagandeva is right. It really doesn't matter one bit. If the hospital is good, Magnet isn't going to make it any better. And if they're a rotten place to work, Magnet isn't going to magically make that disappear either.

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Here is a link that I think is fairly objective coverage of magnet status. My facility is such however I am too new to have a say one way or the other.

http://www.nursingadvocacy.org/faq/magnet.html

Excellent.

Some critics, including the California Nurses Association and the Massachusetts Nurses Association, have argued that the Magnet program is primarily a hospital promotion tool that resembles the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations in its seemingly incestuous relations with hospital management.

Frankly, the Center has heard from a number of nurses who are unhappy with the changes at their hospitals since the award of magnet status, and we have not heard from many who are happy. One report was that the nurse who had led the drive for magnet status was fired soon after the hospital received it, and that the magnet reforms quickly began to unravel. Others have said that their hospitals reverted to short-staffing and excluding nurses from decision-making processes soon after receiving magnet certifications. Such reports support the claims that some hospitals are treating magnet status mainly as a promotional tool, and that the program is not effectively monitoring compliance.

They pretty much nailed it.

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Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.

My hospital has been Magnet certified many years running.

Before I moved here I asked some nurses what they thought: "oh we researched that in school and it is just a bunch of hoops people have to jump through"

Well where I work I do notice we have a few more little worksheets on each patient, but I also notice that we have big Magnet supported conferences that are informative and give nurses a chance to present loads of information, we have meetings that allow us to see how we are doing and what is coming up.

I have never heard a nurse on my unit say "ugh this Magnet crap sucks".

I feel Magnet is a very integral part of our organization and I feel proud of the fact that we have it.

I also believe, as with most things, this program is really what your facility/unit/staff do with it.

Tait

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.
Excellent.

They pretty much nailed it.

Some of the recommendations presented by the Center for NursingAdvocacy, I totally agree with 100%. Others, I feel are unrealistic (e.g. 50% of the hospital's Board of Trustees have to be nurses.) While nurses are the largest group of employees within most hospitals, we have to recognize that other people also need to be represented on the Board -- including the community served by the hospital.

I believe those recommendations make for a good "opening bid" in a negotiation, but we have to be prepared to find some "middle ground" if we are going to successfully negotiate with those outside of nursing for better working conditions.

Thanks for the link. I hadn't visited their site for some time and it was good to get a reminder of the group's existence.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
My hospital has been Magnet certified many years running.

Before I moved here I asked some nurses what they thought: "oh we researched that in school and it is just a bunch of hoops people have to jump through"

Well where I work I do notice we have a few more little worksheets on each patient, but I also notice that we have big Magnet supported conferences that are informative and give nurses a chance to present loads of information, we have meetings that allow us to see how we are doing and what is coming up.

I have never heard a nurse on my unit say "ugh this Magnet crap sucks".

I feel Magnet is a very integral part of our organization and I feel proud of the fact that we have it.

I also believe, as with most things, this program is really what your facility/unit/staff do with it.

Tait

You are very fortunate that your facility has had high standards to begin with. In a case like that, sure, I say to advertise and show off your talents. You all have great deals to be proud of. Meanwhile, the hospitals that are trying to showcase, yet, harass, threaten and intimidate their nurses into lying...why bother? :barf02:

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
i was wondering if you could tell if your work environment is conducive to nursing, do you have high job satisfaction, etc? i do not work at a magnet hospital but received a job offer from one. just how different is it?

i've been working in magnet hospitals since the mid-90s. it looks great on paper, but high job satisfaction? no way! is nursing respected within the institution -- doesn't look that way to me. the environment doesn't seem to be any different than any non-magnet facility where i've worked and the turnover seems to be higher.

our hospital is going for magnet recertification early this year, and they have posters up all over the place touting what a wonderful place it is to be a nurse. yet most of their proclamations are false! "low turnover", "great communication" "supportive management" "self governance" and "clinical ladder" on our unit, anyway, are pretty much just jokes. i don't know if other units in our hospital are any better off, but here, it's just lip service.

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My facility is currently on the "Magnet Journey'" I have been interested in hearing from any nurses working in a Magnet hospital....whats in it for me. Sounds good on paper but what is the reality.:jester:

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Specializes in CVICU.

Our hospital got this about a year and a half ago because other area hospitals were doing it, and our CEO wanted us to look better. Well let me tell you, nothing has changed that I've noticed. We have a fancy "Magnet" thing, but that's pretty much it. We still are not really encouraged to seek certification in our areas even though that's part of the Magnet thing. There are only 3 CCRNs in our ICU and they are finally starting to discuss starting a CCRN class. To my knowledge, they are not offering to reimburse us for the test yet.

It's not like it's horrible working at my hospital. In fact, for the most part I am extremely satisifed. I just think the whole Magnet thing is mostly a kiss @ss designation, and from what I've seen, it doesn't really affect the nursing staff.

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