Do Hospitals Get Prestigious National Awards for Poor Nursing?

[d'cm]

A member of my family was recently admitted to the hospital to have a procedure to repair a heart problem.

The hospital was brand new, and it had been honored as a Magnet by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Wow, I thought: The nursing must be outstanding.

During the 5-day hospital stay, I witnessed some of the most unusual nursing practices that I had seen in my 40-year career.

Read complete Article: Do Hospitals Get Prestigious National Awards for Poor Nursing? | Medpage Today

[AJJKRN]

His basic premise in incorrect, Magnet isn't an award for excellent nursing care, it's an award for hospitals that provide a good work environment and good support for patient care, but it doesn't evaluate the quality of the nurses.

True as this may be, even though my works website tells a different tale to laypersons via their website, the Magnet surveyors do take the chosen ones (staff nurses) out to dinner with each recertification and ask what they think of their work environment/employer.

Full disclosure, I do think Magnet can be a good thing when used appropriately...just like a firearm...it really depends on the person(s) intent and education/familiarity.

[xoemmylouox, ASN, RN]

From my recent experience in acute care I can tell you that bedside nurses with years of experience are a rarity on the floor. Most have left or have been shut out to save money on pay. Most nurses on my local hospital floors are new grads. In fact we are currently short on preceptors due to having so many new grads to train. I have only been at my hospital since June of 2017 and some days I am a resource for those with even less acute care experience. THAT is mind blowing and scary.

[MunoRN, RN]

True as this may be, even though my works website tells a different tale to laypersons via their website, the Magnet surveyors do take the chosen ones (staff nurses) out to dinner with each recertification and ask what they think of their work environment/employer.

Full disclosure, I do think Magnet can be a good thing when used appropriately...just like a firearm...it really depends on the person(s) intent and education/familiarity.

And that's basically what Magnet is, a group of surveyors asking staff nurses if they're happy and well supported, as well as evaluating the characteristics at a hospital that would likely produce happy and well supported nurses.

I would also agree that Magnet can be worthless to staff nurses, or quite useful, it all depends on what the nursing staff does with the opportunity. I've worked at places where nurse practice councils have deliberated about how to make their administrators and work environment sound better than they are so they can get Magnet, because they think it's an award for nurses. Magnet is an award to dangle in front of hospital administrators to encourage them to do a better job, if it's not utilized that way by staff nurses and nursing councils then it's pointless.

[TriciaJ, RN]

And that's basically what Magnet is, a group of surveyors asking staff nurses if they're happy and well supported, as well as evaluating the characteristics at a hospital that would likely produce happy and well supported nurses.

I would also agree that Magnet can be worthless to staff nurses, or quite useful, it all depends on what the nursing staff does with the opportunity. I've worked at places where nurse practice councils have deliberated about how to make their administrators and work environment sound better than it is so they can get magnet, because they think it's an award for them. Magnet is an award to dangle in front of hospital administrators to encourage them to do a better job, if it's not utilized that way by staff nurses and nursing councils then it's pointless.

I used to work at a Magnet hospital. The whole point is that it is such a wonderful place to work, it attracts the brightest and the best.

Which nurses get interviewed by the Magnet people about their workplace? Do they get to go up to random nurses and ask questions? No. The nurses to be interviewed are hand-picked by management. Of course they pick malleable new grads and coach them beforehand.

Nurse practice councils, staffing committees, etc.? All hijacked and run by management. So the workplace looks egalitarian.

The whole thing is a naked emperor.

[WestCoastSunRN, MSN, CNS]

I don't work for a Magnet hospital. I do work for an inner city trauma one teaching hospital. It's not perfect but it's far far from what this guy is describing. But to read the comments makes it seem like this is happening Everywhere, USA. I work in a highly specialized area with better-than-average patient ratios. I wonder how much that protects my unit from this kind of thing. How widespread is this really?

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

I have been out of acute care beside nursing since 2000. Worked in ambulatory care surgical center, one connected to an acute care hospital. The other an independent ambulatory clinic. Didn't see anything like this in ambulatory care? So far all responders have agreed with the original posters point of view.

If bedside nursing is really this bad why aren't nurses shouting it loudly here on Allnurses or elsewhere that bedside nursing is a fake, a sham, a joke. Telling all family and loved ones to please, please, never go to a hospital?

I pray it is just a little over board. If it is 100% accurate I agree with your assessments,....I will never allow myself or a loved one to be admitted to a hospital!

I didn't see anything like this any unit where I've ever worked, either. Not even any place I've been floated to. The only reason I didn't leap in to disagree earlier is that I've been busy all day. I'd say it's overboard. Perhaps quite a lot overboard.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

His basic premise in incorrect, Magnet isn't an award for excellent nursing care, it's an award for hospitals that provide a good work environment and good support for patient care, but it doesn't evaluate the quality of the nurses.

Nor does it accurately evaluate that good work environment or good support for patient care.

[gemmi999]

I do wonder about critical thinking in nursing. It seems to me that a lot of the autonomy in nursing is being taken away, and after the autonomy goes, the critical thinking follows. Two incidents in my ER in the past week speak to this, to me.

1) We had a resp. distress pt. desat to the 50s. I asked the primary RN if there was an IV line/if he was concerned about the oxygen. He said: "There's no order for an IV and RT is at bedside" and then sat down and didn't go check on his patient. He felt no concern over a patient with an oxygen saturation of 50% because there was no active order for an IV and he did not have the autonomy to place an IV without an order. I asked the doc, got the verbal, and with the help of another RN we got an IV.

2) We had a patient complaining of arm pain; primary RN stated we should get an EKG just in case. Got the EKG. PA yelled at her for not having the order/the autonomy to order the EKG even with complaint.

If we have no autonomy, our critical thinking skills are going to go down as well.

[/username, BSN, RN]

Funny to read the comments and the article, because only seeing the thread title in the post, my mind immediately went to magnet.

[Julius Seizure]

It certainly doesn't sound like his family member had the ideal hospital experience. I feel like the article lacked a purpose though. The writer did an excellent job complaining about all the negatives that he saw (every single one apparently having to do with nursing), but he never brought it around to a reason to do anything. Was he blaming the nurses? What he blaming what healthcare as a system has become today? Who knows. Once he finished complaining, the article just ended. I wish he would have concluded his thoughts in a more useful way.

BTW, the comments following the article are much better than the article itself.

Agreed.

However, I did chuckle at the idea that bed alarms are meant to enforce bed rest, rather than to prevent falls. An interesting way to think about it.

[WestCoastSunRN, MSN, CNS]

I have to add, because it would be remiss not to in light of an article such as this, I work with AMAZING nurses. Inspiring nurses. I think 95% of our patient population is VERY satisfied with their care. The other 5% -- well there are always ways to improve our game and also sometimes your best will not be good enough. Being ill or injured in the hospital brings out the worst in patients and family members, generally speaking. That said, my place of employment works hard to provide safe patient:nurse ratios, continuing education, fair scheduling practices and the like. I work with young and old nurses and the overall culture of the place seems to infuse into all the staff -- management, nursing, medicine, OT/PT, pharmacy and on and on. Again, no one is perfect. There is always room for improvement, but if you ever need our services (and I hope you don't) you would be VERY well cared for.

What a thread like this shows me, is that as a great nurse, I will always do whatever I can to make sure I'm working in a setting with other great nurses. I know from experience it is futile to think you will be able to right a sinking ship and the sinking process is pretty miserable. Have hope! Not every ship is sinking in healthcare.

[LovingLife123]

I call horsepucky on this. First of all, since when is magnet status prestigious to the public? Ask 50 members of your community what magnet status means, not one can tell you. And this doctor is extremely misinformed himself on what it is. It's not excellence in nursing care, it's RN retention which should ultimately lead to better patient outcomes. That is all.

Second, who on earth can as a nurse honestly sit there and stand the alarms going off for 45 minutes and two hours? God, I can't deal with longer than 30 seconds on those bed alarms, but 45 minutes? Come on. Two hours for a blood pressure alarm? No way. If I'm at the nurses station, I will look at what room is beeping. If I know it's a false reading, I can maybe take 3 minutes tops. But two hours? Not even the laziest of nurses can go that long.

I think this doctor is relying on exaggerated family reports. He did not witness any of this or he would have been out there quickly flashing his doctor credentials. Because if all these nurses did was follow policies as he states, they would have most certainly known that alarms are to be answered immediately.

His story makes no sense. Either they were policy following robots or the biggest moron nurses in the face of the earth.

Maybe I should call him out on it.