Magnet designated hospital--anyone work at one?

[CathiP]

The hospital I have worked at for 20 years is attempting to become "Magnet" certified (accredited?). They keep saying that a Magnet hospital is a place where nurses want to work. I'm not so sure. We have been on this "journey" for a couple years. All I've seen it do is make people mad. Now we find out that all new nurses being hired must have a BSN. So all the people who are in nursing school now and will graduate this May with their ASN will not have a job even though they may have worked for the hospital for several years and are attending school on employee reimbursement. Even though Magnet says that nurse managers must have a bachelors in NURSING and most of them don't, they are only hiring BSN staff nurses. We have "shared governance" which seems more like "committee" governance. The rest of the staff gets no say in any of the policies. Does anyone work in a Magnet designated hospital and are they truly better than any other hospital? I always figured Magnet was what the insurance companies and Medicare wanted in order to reimburse. :mad:

[Tait, MSN, RN]

I work for one of the oldest Magnet accredited hospitals in Atlanta. Last year marking our 4th consecutive designation I feel our hospital does its best to exemplify Magnet standards.

Does this mean we never run short? No

Does this mean some policies slip by and we have no say? Yes

In the end hospital management is a large endeavor, much bigger than many of us realize day to day, and I do not feel there is a perfect system that will get every voice, from every nurse heard.

However I do feel Magnet makes our hospital quite a bit different from others in the community. I do feel we have a say, especially with the new Shared Governance model being implemented which brings decision making back to the unit base.

I do understand and empathize with the issues other Magnet hospitals are having and hope all the best for them.

Tait

[ivorybunny]

It's interesting reading about the Magnet status. My hospital applied for it a few years ago and did not receive it. We are working our way towards applying again. One of the big pushes has been for the Shared Governance that has sprung up on each floor. However, the part about education bothers me. There was no incentive for me to obtain my Bachelor's degree, even though that it a percentage that is looked at. I did not receive a raise after gaining my Bachelor's or even my Master's. The only reason I have furthered my education is for myself. I do not understand how they want everyone to have a BSN but yet offer no incentive for it.

[Tait, MSN, RN]

It's interesting reading about the Magnet status. My hospital applied for it a few years ago and did not receive it. We are working our way towards applying again. One of the big pushes has been for the Shared Governance that has sprung up on each floor. However, the part about education bothers me. There was no incentive for me to obtain my Bachelor's degree, even though that it a percentage that is looked at. I did not receive a raise after gaining my Bachelor's or even my Master's. The only reason I have furthered my education is for myself. I do not understand how they want everyone to have a BSN but yet offer no incentive for it.

As one of the last ADN's hired at my hospital I agree with you here. However I think the incentive overall for ADN's to transition is poor.

Tait

[KaroSnowQueen, RN]

l personally have not worked at a Magnet hospital, but my daughter did and she was miserable there. The working conditions were the same old crap.

I was taken to that same hospital for an emergency situation, had surgery there twice. The surgery team, nurses and what have you in the surgical suite were GREAT - I really thought they knew their stuff and were really good to me.

The staff on the floor, not so much. They must have been understaffed, my night nurse had English as a second language, and don't know if it was a communication problem, if she was in over her head, if she avoided me because she didn't like ortho patients. However, the nursing care I got there truly was not good or professional at all.

Just my two cents from a patient's POV.

[Up2nogood RN, RN]

We recently got our 2nd certification and thankful I work nocs. All the management and magnet team were there to meet the survey team in the front lobby like they were royalty and reallY schmoozed them up good. I do believe we were a good hospital before and I don't think magnet changed too much except for pay for nursing certification.

[newohiorn, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

I should have also said that while I work for a magnet hospital and I think the magnet designation is pretty worthless I do not hate my hospital. My hospital does a pretty good job of treating us decently most of the time but I think a ridiculous amount of time and energy is wasted on magnet silliness. I like to think a company should be run properly with concern for employees and clients because it is the right thing to do--not because of some expensive designation so they can crow about it in their advertising. I say let's just be an outstanding hospital with low turnover and happy employees and the community will figure it out by word of mouth.

[justavolunteer]

I am 'justavolunteer' at a magnet hospital. From my view, it doesn't make much difference. Management still lays down the law about policy changes and the nurses really don't have much say in matters. The idea of 'shared governance' goes like this: the admin. announced a stricter policy for lateness, call-ins, etc. for the staff. The nurses & other staff had to sign that they received a copy of the policy. The administration said "See,shared governance. You all shared in this because everyone had to sign these statements."

I have been told as 'justavolunteer' that it is "inappropriate" for me to try to raise questions with the administration (better training for volunteers, being informed about changes that affect us) etc.

"Magnet" is likely just a moneymaker for whoever hands out the awards.