Magnet status?

Visit google.com and type in the search containing the words magnet and hospital and you will get tons of information. I work for a magnet hospital and I wouldn't work anywhere else.

Jenny

Magnet Status means the day the inspectors arrive you nursing units will have the best staffing ever.

Harely isn't that the truth :rofl I'm at a magnet and truthfuly, only a few good things came out of it, such as no mandation and more HB days and book reinbursement, but it didn't do squat for our staffing issues. Now we have to have all these committees for all this stuff and it makes you nuts.

Magnet has nothing to do with what you wear, as long as you look professional. Do a search on this site, it has a few threads.

We are a magnet hospital, nothing has changed for the good if anything it is worse, they say they listen to nurses they have us on committees but ignore what we have to say. It is supposed to be an award on how well the nurses are treated and the education and skill of nurses.

I honestly think it is a joke. During our Magnet journey ( a few weeks before the committee arrived), we were showered with lunches, great staffing and things like emails from our VP of nursing on how great of a job we were doing. As soon as we got Magnet status our staffing went back down the crapper and our raise has only been 1% for two consecutive years in a row. They used to give us some cheap little nurses week gift like an umbrella or lunch tote with the hospitals logo on it for nurses week, we don't even get that anymore. The hospital fails to mention how much money they pay in order to get that Magnet status. They make it out to be this big award that only hospitals with the best nurses win. In actuality they pay out the wazoo for it and then use it as a marketing tool. Just my opinion.

Our hospital acquired magnet status in January, and honestly nothing has changed. One big gripe among co-workers is the idea of nurse "self-governance" which seems to be big in theory but little in reality, magnet has done nothing to help that. The only thing magnet status has done is create the "magnet champion" position in which a designated staff nurse on each floor attends "magnet" meetings to continue to assure the quality process. I have no idea what these meetings are about or how they affect me because our "champion" never talks about them or even gives a summary of the meetings for other staff to be informed about.

Actually 3 hospitals in my area now have the magnet status, and one of them is notorious for treating their nurses like slaves to the physicians. A woman I graduated with 10 months ago took a job at this hospital because she wanted to have the "big name" on her resume for the future. Within 8 weeks she was taking a full patient assignment in an intense cardio-thoracic ICU and working 4-5 12 hour shifts in a row. The administration decided on all white uniforms for all the nurses (including white shoes) and anyone who shows up dressed outside the code, is not allowed on the floor and is sent home to change (do you believe it). So much for magnet status and nurse self governance.

As stated above I think magnet helps the hospital administration more than it does the nurses, by being a marketing tool.

I have heard many hospitals in St. Louis MO are doing the same-one thing I heard is that they do not employ any LPNS and that Magnet Status meant a certain percent of RNs were BSN-I don't know for sure. This came from a university of Phoenix guy at a SL campus. Those of you employed in these hospitals, do you have LPN coworkers? I plan on getting my RN but it helps to know in the interum if I should relocate.

Thanks :)

Edited contents per personal decision.

The U of M Medical Center-Fairview is seeking Magnet Status. They should find out by the end of the year I believe. Guess I'll find out if I still have a job or not then too!

I have heard many hospitals in St. Louis MO are doing the same-one thing I heard is that they do not employ any LPNS and that Magnet Status meant a certain percent of RNs were BSN-I don't know for sure. This came from a university of Phoenix guy at a SL campus. Those of you employed in these hospitals, do you have LPN coworkers? I plan on getting my RN but it helps to know in the interum if I should relocate.

Thanks :)

My hospital achieved Magnet status a year or so ago.

My unit put up posters literally bragging that we only employ about 15 LVN's on the acute care inpatient units and how great it was and that the only reason that we still have them is because they are holdovers from back before we stopped hiring LVN's.

I told my manager that as a former LVN, I found the literature to be very offensive.

She was completely puzzled/bewildered as to why I'd be offended by it since I'm now an RN and no longer an LVN.

That alone is a great example of Magnet mentality.

And BTW, our med/surg units in our great Magnet hospital (an area completely appropriate to be staffed by LVN's) work short with beds closed every day.

Thank God we stopped hiring LVN's. It's done wonders for our hospital and increased our quality patient care by leaps and bounds. LOL!