Is "magnet status" a joke?

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A new hospital is being built here and supposedly they are going to have magnet status. All the research I have done online indicates nurses are NOT in favor of the way it is currently implemented.

How do you guys feel?

http://www.nursingadvocacy.org/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=news;action=display;num=1126903968;start=0#0

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
Sometimes it is, Sometimes it isn't.

If a hospital has a good administration that listens to the staff and takes collegiality seriously, Magnet status is just icing on the cake.

If the place sucks, Magnet staus is like slapping lipstick on a pig.

Very well-said. I have heard about 50/50 good/bad regarding Magnet places. Not like I would relocated just to be employed in one, from all I have read and heard.

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

The hospitals in Philadelphia area with Magnet status have always had good reputation for nursing: Fox Chase Cancer Center, Children's, Main Line Health -Lankenau----they worked even harder to improve staff relations and have nursing input on key committees with improved retention---they were Magnet facilities before even getting this award. In speaking with Main Line staff, its helped to have doctors realise nursing's impact on patient care and improved relations.

They Magnet journey is minimum of three year effort to doccument ALREADY inplace practices---not something one can just acheive overnight. Those without real committment and ongoing effort to continue improvement often will find themseves stripped of recognition or losing it at reacreditation.

See: Magnet Nursing Info

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The hospital I work for now is a magnet hospital and compared to other facilities they are more "nurse friendly". Staffing is way better and the whole system is more organized.

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Specializes in ED, PACU, OB, Education.

Well, I know of a large hospital here in St. Louis that boasts about its magnet status. A relative worked there and was horrified at the conditions under which the staff AND patients existed. Shortage of equipment, broken equipment, failure on management's part to respond to concerns regarding patient safety, staffing issues, etc.

I also know of patients who went there and heard story after story about the pitiful conditions.

I believe that a hospital that is truly qualified to get magnet status already exhibits that quality of care before the recognition comes along. To me, the only thing that magnet status says is that the facility is good at putting on a good face for reviews.

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:nuke: Have to agree that I don't see much difference in being Magnet or not. Except for the public relations end of it. Most of the preparation for obtaining magnet status seems to be paperwork, committees....

not in actually improving bedside care of the patient.

But it is a competition thing. We have 4 hospitals in a 30 mile radius, one being magnet. Boy the day that was announced, we had committees coming out of our ears (this was about 2 years ago) Now we hear nothing about it.

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The ANCC (American Nurses Credentialing Center) is the body who gives the "magnet" recognition and they are part of the ANA (American Nurses Association). One of the things that they encourage is getting nurses "certified" in their speciality. Well guess who does this? You guessed it,they are! They charge hospital up to $80,000 to get magnet status and then they make up to $480 from each nurse who takes the exam to get certified. By the way who covers this expense? After you get certified you must get 125 hours of CEU's to maintain certification. Once again, who pays.. probably you! Since a large portion of those CEU's must be related to your speciality and they are often difficult to find , guess who can provide them? They can ( for another fee of course). So it's up to $480 for the exam and even at $10 per credit hour, the 125 CEU's will be $1,250. What do you get for $1,730??? How exactly does becoming certified make our jobs better ? Do we get more pay? Lord knows we'll need it to pay for all of this. Does it help our nurse patient ratios? Does it get us guaranteed breaks and lunch? Better benefits? More vacation time? WHAT THEN? Oh yes, Magnet Status for the hospital. I hope somebody got a new Mercedes for this Magnet status idea. Better yet, how about a cut of the massive profits. I just wish it had of been my idea.

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:yeahthat:

Well, llg, you hit the nail on the head dead center!

Seen this is more than once in "Magnet" organizations. You have to look at the organization as a whole. And if they are part of a huge system--say nationwide, etc, study them VERY carefully. Another children's hospital in philly got this status not too long ago. They are part of a bigger corporate entity across the nation. There's some games going on there with that--the way some unit-groups run self-governance--small groups and nurse managers micromanaging/manipulating each other to get what they want. It's not the true spirit of what Magnet maps out though. A lot of it is surface stuff. Plus IMHO, few of these places teach effective conflict management--the idea of it rather seems to be conflict avoidance--so all the nasty junk behind the scenes is all right. It doesn't make for truly good/healthy corporate ethics overall and doesn't really create a true esprit de corps in the units and hospital as a whole. Hey but whatever looks good on paper. The committees are ongoing over years. Things can look a certain way on the surface. Some of it can be the place--how it all really rolls, and other times you wonder if it is just a general function of the nursing profession. ???

But really what llg said about the administration. . .wow! That's everything at the end of the day.

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