Beacon Award

I was part of the team that applied for Beacon in my unit. We ended up getting Silver. I'm not really sure that there's a benefit, other than bragging rights.

It is an overwhelming process, but we broke the application up and 1-2 people took each section. We gathered the information needed to answer the questions from that sections and then sent it all to 1 person who put it all in paragraph form (that way the application has the same "voice" all the way through). It took months to get this done, but it was worth it, especially since we were the only unit for many miles who had the award. Also, the initial process is a lot, but the reapplying is so much easier because you basically just have to edit/update your previous application.

We were able to significantly increase our number of CCRN nurses by hosting a CCRN review course (our local AACN chapter also helped pay for it). It was so worth it. I took the class and it was very helpful. We had over 20 RNs pass the exam after this.

I like the idea of hosting a CCRN review. I also think the further benefit isn't something that can be directly measured. For example, increase staff satisfaction, increase patient satisfaction, safer environment, decrease pressure ulcers,etc. Much of this are things we are doing anyway but tweeking things always helps. We are just starting the process so there are a lot of unknowns for us. The application seems so overwhelming.

It's important to remember that both the Beacon award and it's facility-wide big brother Magnet are not awards for nursing staff, they are awards that nursing staff advocates for their nursing management and hospital administration to receive for providing an excellent nursing work environment. The advantage for staff nurses, is that it gives you criteria that you can use to encourage management to maintain or improve things like clinical support, ongoing education, work environment issues such as workload, etc.

I think I agree for the magnet part especially. The beacon award is a little different though, don't you think? It is on a unit to unit basis and is really dependent on the staff of that unit. Our journey to beacon is staff driven. I am an advocate because it celebrates the hard work that we are already doing and it is a stand alone for our unit. In other words, it doesn't matter how the rest of the hospital performs, if our unit meets criteria, we get the award. Is that how you understand it?

Beacon is basically a unit specific magnet award, it's basically the same criteria as magnet. Like magnet, it rewards management for creating a good work environment for nurses and good patient care, and as a result is expected to be driven by nursing staff. It's basic purpose is to give nursing staff a way to encourage and maintain a good patient care environment by giving management a measurable initial and ongoing assessment of their work. It celebrates the hard work that your management is doing, not the nursing staff.

Our CTICU has the Beacon award and now our hospital is trying for Magnet. I always say, we already DO great work, now it is time to write it all down to make it "official". I have a friend who left one Magnet hospital and would only take another job at another Magnet hospital.