Magnet hospital

live4today, RN · Feb 23, 2005

are there any nurses out there who work for magnet hospitals. do you sense a diffrent or a sense of pride??

uhhhh.....no!!! i've worked for a few magnet hospitals, and wondered how they made it to magnet status. :uhoh3: they must've bought their magnet status or something.

i know of a couple more that i worked at before who are trying to obtain magnet status, but from what i viewed during my stay in their facility, they shouldn't have magnet status either. :rolleyes:

ERNurse752, RN · Feb 23, 2005

Nope :) hehe

IMHO, magnet hospitals are just hospitals with money and/or connections.

following_faith · Feb 23, 2005

There is a magnet hospital in my area and the people I know who work there absolutely love it and praise it! They would never dream of being anywhere else. This hospital has always been like that though and I think they have only had magnet status for a couple years.

Audreyfay · Feb 23, 2005

I work at a magnet hospital. There are good parts and weak links in every facility. However, the weak links are worked on, and the good parts are pretty good. The other thing I like is that management seems to be "nicer" and more approachable. They really try hard to make things better. I like it. I also know that it is kind of hard to get a job at the facility.

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Feb 23, 2005

previous magnet posts:

https://allnurses.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12763

https://allnurses.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18880

pa: chop applying for magnet status--- input sought by magnet committee

pittsburgh pa: hospitals pushed to improve nurses' conditions

ny tmes oped: nursing wounds

when care becomes a burden: diminishing access to adequate nursing

*PICURN* · Feb 23, 2005

I work at a hospital that is *almost* Magnet. I guess we are almost there, like one step away or something like that.

IMHO, magnet hospitals are just hospitals with money and/or connections.

That's probably true for most hospitals, just weird that the hospital I work for doesn't make any $$!!! Well, at least not as much as they needed to last year....doesn't help they are remodeling a new $700 million hospital....

BUT I do love working for this hospital. Seems like compared to other hospitals, the nurses are all NICER....probably b/c they like working here too!

$$$ probably has a lot to do with it. I would rather work for a hospital that has more $$, better supplies/are always stocked, better ratios, and nurses that enjoy working there.

TiffyRN, BSN, PhD · Feb 23, 2005

I think if magnet hospital were what most nurses imagine it MUST mean that would be one thing.

Magnet should = high retention rate (above a set, published standard), low nurse to patient ratios (have set standards the hospitals must always meet or they lose magnet) as well as all the other stuff they actually measure for now.

We just found out at our hospital about 2 weeks ago that we received Magnet status. The general concensus is that if our hospital can earn Magnet than Magnet means practically nothing. Apparently they are really concerned with things like partnership committees, a clinical ladder and several other committees. You know, I'm not that impressed by committees. And we all looked at the ladder, turns out if you bust your hump and work for hours on end on your own time to jump through all these hoops and made presentations and write papers then they will give you a bonus equivilant to about 2 extra shifts (which I can easily do, the extra shifts that is).

Our unit uses mandatory on-call or extra shifts and we have some of the highest nurse to patient ratios in the area for our specialty. I honestly don't know how the rest of the hospital runs but knowing that about my unit I coudln't have that great an attitude about us being Magnet.

Anyhow, I vowed I would help spread the word to other nurses that being Magnet means little that one might think it does. I was told that magnet status was originally supposed to be a designation that indicated a hospital that had qualities that attracted and kept good nurses. As we did last year's holiday schedule the nurses in charge of it realized that there was little prior data to go on (which nurse worked which holiday) as about 75% of the night staff had been there less than 3 years. What does that say about our ability to attract and maintain staff?

Audreyfay · Feb 23, 2005

All I can say is that not all magnet hospitals are created equal.

begalli · Feb 23, 2005

All I can say is that not all magnet hospitals are created equal.

I definitely have to agree with this and it's unfortunate because recognition of nursing excellence really can be a GREAT experience.

anc33 · Feb 23, 2005

Are there any nurses out there who work for Magnet Hospitals. Do you sense a diffrent or a sense of Pride??

Magnet status is a farce.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Feb 23, 2005

I work at a magnet hospital and don't have much to compare it to. Several travelers though have said they can see a difference between magnet hospitals and a hospital that is not a magnet facility.

I can't say there's a lot of pride. Because in our society and it isn't culturally acceptable to take in a place of employment. It's far more common to complain about work.