Magnet Hospitals

netglow, ASN, RN · Dec 11, 2011

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/magnet-designation-649432.html#post5961964

This is a much discussed topic. You can find lots more if you search the site. This link is the latest discussion I believe.

PMFB-RN, RN · Dec 11, 2011

I'm just wondering how much of a difference it makes to work as a nurse at a "Magnet" institution versus one that's not. I currently work in a "for profit" hospital where I feel the nurses are not appreciated and often have what I consider to be an un-safe number of patients.

*** In my area of the country (the upper midwest) Magnet hospitals have developed a reputation of not being good places to work, especialy among critical care types. I have never worked in a "for profit" hospital but your description sounds just like every Magnet hospital I ever worked in.

My observation is that if a hospital is a good and positive place to work before Magnet they continue to be so after Magnet. If they are not good places to work, achieving Magnet does nothing to change that. I have worked at two different hospitals who were on their "Journy to Magnet" as well as several re-certifications. I have recieved 3x5 cards pritied with the exact answers to Magnet inspectors questions managment wanted us to say. They came with thinly vieled threats of what would happen if we deveated from the party line.

I will say that after many years of working for non profit Magnet hospitals I am very happy to have found a position in a non-Magnet hospital where we have safe staffing levels, are treated decently by managment, and have decent pay and benifits. Things I never experienced in any of the several Magnet hospitals I worked in.

Tofayelbd · Dec 11, 2011

Job satisfaction is really tough in this world.

JSBoston · Dec 11, 2011

I've worked for a for profit hospital and now I work for a magnet hospital... I'm not sure if being on the east coast has anything to do with it, but I found a huge difference between the two.

But then again, I think for-profit hospitals are quite corrupt, just from my personal experience. Getting into a non-profit one will be an improvement.

wooh, BSN, RN · Dec 11, 2011

I think non-profit vs for-profit can sometimes make a difference. But Magnet makes no difference at all. And wherever you are, the same basic problem will be there: patients.

JSBoston · Dec 11, 2011

A nurse I used to work with always said, "I'd love this job if it weren't for the patients"

VICEDRN, BSN, RN · Dec 12, 2011

Magnet hospitals are not considered good places to work in the area I live in. (metro ATL) This is especially true for ER/ICu types as PMFB-RN has suggested to you.

IMHO, there is a lot of extra accountability for irrelevant things with very little corresponding reward/increase in job satisfaction for the nurses.

Montessori Mommy · Dec 12, 2011

I've worked for a magnet hospital and for two that are not magnet. The magnet hospital has an outstanding nurse education program, but pays much less than the non-magnet facilities and has a much higher patient to nurse ratio. Of course, this may just be my experience.

KelRN215, BSN, RN · Dec 12, 2011

I'm just wondering how much of a difference it makes to work as a nurse at a "Magnet" institution versus one that's not. I currently work in a "for profit" hospital where I feel the nurses are not appreciated and often have what I consider to be an un-safe number of patients.

Basically none. My hospital was not magnet when I began working there and, if anything, things have changed for the WORSE since we became Magnet. All "magnet" really means is that your facility is willing to pay the ANCC for a designation and convince staff to drink their kool-aid and say what they tell them to. We are (I believe) going through the magnet re-designation process next year and they've already started putting posters up in the bathrooms trying to prove to us that we deserve said re-designation. Everything on these posters is a joke.

I have never worked for a "for profit" hospital so I cannot speak to that but non-profits have an evil side to them as well. They pretend that they're not about money but, really, everything is.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Dec 12, 2011

i'm just wondering how much of a difference it makes to work as a nurse at a "magnet" institution versus one that's not. i currently work in a "for profit" hospital where i feel the nurses are not appreciated and often have what i consider to be an un-safe number of patients.

magnet status is just one more pr strategy to sell hospitals to the public. or to attract unsuspecting nurses who think that magnet status actually means something. i've worked in magnet hospitals that really were great places to work. and others that weren't. i've worked in non-magnet hospitals that were great places to work . . . and others that weren't. the difference, i think, is that union hospitals are better places to work than non-union hospitals.

Chico David, BSN, RN · Dec 12, 2011

I think you get the gist of most of the replies so far.

magnet status is primarily three things:

1. A marketing tool for the hospital.

2. A money-maker for the agency that confers magnet status.

3. A way to distract nurses by giving them some of the trappings of power and influence through phony committees so they don't go seeking real power and influence through unionization.

Some of us have taken to calling it "maggot status".

I'd also add that, on average, the difference between for-profit and non-profit is probably greater - though even there, too many supposedly non-profit hospitals have taken to acting more and for like for-profits. See this item for an example:

http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/New_Study_Finds_CPMC_Profits_Not_Matched_by_Charity_Care_9753.html