Magnet status

[dec2007]

My hospital was recently awarded "Magnet" status. I'm interested to know how other nurses view this distinction. Is it a valid reflection of the quality of patient care and employee satisfaction? Would anyone care to share their impression of the process leading to a facility receiving the award? Just interested in hearing the experiences of nurses from various regions. Thanks for your input.

[lavenderskies, BSN]

I think it's interesting that part of the criteria for being magnet isn't staff RN retention. Maybe it is but it rates low? I don't know but it seems anecdotally turnover is high at magnet facilities.

[calivianya, BSN, RN]

My facility is Magnet and it's terrible. We have people leaving left and right to escape - and I'm not talking about people going back to school. I don't know if it's the hospital or my unit, really - we have recently lost people to outpatient PACU, outpatient dialysis, physician offices, inpatient PACU, and now we have someone going to the OR - but all of these are at different facilities and most are at different health systems altogether. There's not a single person that I'm aware of going to a different ICU, either outside of my system or in it.

[Bob Loblaw]

One plus for new grads is that, I believe, there must be a new grad RN residency (or whatever the facility) wants to call it program.

[mtjoanna]

I left my job at a Magnet hospital largely because as an Associate's degree nurse, not a Bachelor's, I was definitely feeling squeezed out and pressured to leave. I'd like to get my BSN, but finances won't allow it just now and I was definitely unwelcome. Nor am I the only one to feel the push.

[RegularNurse]

Voluntary departure contributes to turnover rates. Younger staff with no biting to remain staff nurses long term quit a lot- decreasing retention rates.

[NurseOnAMotorcycle, ASN, RN]

The original idea of a magnet hospital was that it was like a magnet for staff because they are treated well and encouraged (not forced) to get higher degrees. When the staff is treated well, then patient outcomes and satisfaction rises.

Hospitals want to be known for being excellent, so they have turned that into "You will be magnet OR ELSE!" and force policies and BSNs on everyone to show how much happier their workforce is than others.

[Oh'Ello, BSN, RN]

OP, I think its important to temper your expectations about how this impacts patient care. If you look at the requirements and expectations for Magnet Status, you'll realize they have little to do with patient care and outcomes. It's essentially a (convoluted) structuring of nursing impacts in a particular facility.

Most of the requirements have to do with staff's level of education and little else.

Organization Eligibility Requirements

[SmilingBluEyes]

The concept is good. However, the actual result is not what is intended, but an entirely different animal. Like most such initiatives, it falls short of really realizing the goals intended.

The magnet facilities around here have all the same problems the NON-Magnet facilities do. And a HECKUVA a LOT of money went into it. Money that could be far more wisely spent, IMO.

[RegularNurse]

Good points. As a nurse, your core job is completely unchanged. However, you may be asked to participate in many ancillary activities which might amount to nothing more than a song and dance prior to recertification.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Good points. As a nurse, your core job is completely unchanged. However, you may be asked to participate in many ancillary activities which might amount to nothing more than a song and dance prior to recertification.

And most of those ancillary activities in which you are asked/forced to participate are unpaid.

It's easier to sell the Kool Aid to younger nurses who haven't been through it before. I've been in Magnet Hospitals and in non-Magnet hospitals. The Magnet facilities actively court the nursing staff in the months leading up to the certification visit, but it's back to business as usual the moment the surveyors leave the building. I see it all as a huge farce after being through it countless times.

What seems to make the biggest difference to the life of the bedside nurse is not Magnet status but union status.

[LobotRN, BSN, RN]

And most of those ancillary activities in which you are asked/forced to participate are unpaid.....

....What seems to make the biggest difference to the life of the bedside nurse is not Magnet status but union status.

^^^Exaaaaactly Ruby! Incidentally, we are paid for time in those ancillary meetings. However! Being forced into it and the impact it has on work life balance is horrible.

Be on Shared Governance, sure it's only 2 hours for the monthly meeting. If you get assigned a task? Watch out. Pretty soon you are working for free on some project that is more likely than not to just be a song-n-dance routine. And since we cannot work from home, it means I have to come into the hospital if I want to be paid for the task time. Not. Worth. It. Ever.

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

It is smoke and mirrors, gives the illusion that nurses are somehow "in charge" when in actuality, you are doing the job of your managers for less pay and time away from one's personal life....for the powers that be to either take all the credit, (

In my experience, it is "governing yourselves" with the approval of the managers.

Such a marketing scheme. I have yet in my many years ever have a patient say "hold up a moment, I want to be treated in the Magnet hospital!!"