tomrn33186

"Magnet Status" is a friggen fraud and means absolutely nothing to the day to day practice of the average nurse. Magnet Status is the brain child of the American Nurses Association and it is marketed on 3 different levels. 1 - It is sold to the public as an assurance that they will recieve excellent nursing care. ("It's a 'Magnet' hospital, it must be good!") 2 - It is sold to the hospitals as a means of raising their profile in their community and as a way to make them seem more attractive to nurses who might think about working there. ("Look at us, we are a 'Magnet' hospital. That means we are a place you want to get treated in AND we are a great place to work for!") 3 - It is sold to nurses as an attractive place to work. ("If it's a 'Magnet' hospital, they must REALLY care about the nurses!") But go to the ANA's web site and plod through their page upon page of corporate speak and you will discover that the minimum standards a hospital must meet to obtain Magnet Status are what they would meet to pass a JACHO inspection. The ANA then extrapolates that out to create an assumption/illusion that if the hospital meets those standards, it's because of excellent nursing, there for.... it must me a great place to work/recieve care. I have personally worked at 2 hospitals which recieved that recognition while I worked in them. And not a damn thing changed! The nurse to patient ratios were still dangerous. (I.E. 3 padiatric bone marrow transplant patients to one RN. And a tech if you were really lucky.) No raise in pay when plenty of other non magnet hospitals in the same market paid a lot more. Same crappy benifits. (Can someone explain the logic of saying you get 7 paid holidays a year, but only 7.2 hours of each day of them???) No training for new managers on how to manage people. Being overwelmed in the ER on an almost nightly basis with no help and no hope. No reasonable dispute/dicipline process. (I.E. A complaint is made, you get written up/suspended/terminated with no chance to even have your side heard.) All in all, in my experience, the most important criteria a hospital has to meet in attaining Magnet Status is that the check has to clear.

Official Interview Answer = Tell your manager, EVERY TIME!!! Reality = Depends. Narcs. and meds. assigned specifically to a patient, I would tell the boss. On the other hand, a nurse takes a couple of motrin, not a big deal in my book. But that is just me.