Why are magnet hospitals bad?

Gooselady, BSN, RN · Feb 18, 2015

"Why are magnet hospitals bad?" is a question you have to distort reality to answer They are not 'bad' or 'good', because no one thing is either/or. However! After knowing what I know about what 'magnet status' means, having worked in one struggling to get their second such recognition (much more difficult than the first), I have an experience that relates to your question. The snip you quoted would be in all honesty the INTENTION behind 'magnet status', which is obviously good.

What I complained about having to do or be to help us get our second magnet designation was how 'being magnet', in the trenches of nursing (also known as bedside nursing), the idea of 'magnet' has very little actual presence. What is there has become distorted by the ideal of 'magnet' passing down through corporate to the individual who is the DON, to the managers, and finally to the nursing staff. It's a lot like the old Telephone game in this.

Bedside nursing is both extremely rewarding and extremely difficult and hard on the nurses physically and emotionally. I doubt the latter can be changed. It is what it is. Then add in the 'norm' of skeleton staffing, sicker patients, the constant threat of 'the State' coming to tell you what you've screwed up, the managers equally burdened because their evaluations and pay raises being dependent in part on patient satisfaction surveys, how well they kept to the budget and other indicators rather outside their personal control, and so 'magnet' can, and does, appear so . . . out there, abstract, WTH, who cares? that naturally you've heard 'magnet is bad'.

Nurses are an oppressed minority, unfortunately. It's better than it was years past, but bedside nurses exist in a chronically oppressed state. Even the happy ones like me . Oppressed minorities are given to a lot of complaining and venting. I suspect the venting is just venting, more than it is 'actual', and where the rubber hits the road, being 'magnet' is indeed an improvement. Most of us don't work in two different hospitals at the same time so we can contrast and compare 'magnet' versus 'unmagnet', which described my situation. If I'd also worked in the other nonmagnet area hospital, I might've had less to p$%^ and moan about "oh gawd, not ANOTHER bunch of paperwork to get 'magnet designation' I have ENOUGH to do already!!"

Also, one member here posted something (I hope he/she will speak up) about magnet hospitals and nursing satisfaction -- the correlation was LESS nursing satisfaction in magnet hospitals! It's not your imagination, or mine, it's real. And so ironic. Great question, by the way :) And welcome to the culture and world of nursing :)

danielle2000, MSN, RN · Feb 18, 2015

I think MAGNET status is like the difference between having a Vera Wang dress opposed to a Walmart special on the 9.99 rack!! A label on the hospital that only benefits the infrastructure not the nurses. I think it paves the way to hell with good intentions!!!!

allnurses Guide · Feb 18, 2015

I suspect it has something to do with the massive clean up job, so to speak, that is done just prior to inspection to gain Magnet status and then how it all falls to the wayside once the status is gained. It actually highlights the difference between what should be and what is, with the hospital getting credit for being what "should be" without ever really being so in reality.

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Feb 18, 2015

OP, I think once you recognize that the blurb you posted is really all just PR, you'll also be open to recognize that PR isn't always reality. If it WERE.....such PR wouldn't be necessary, it would be accepted as truth. But as it stands, the need to tell people how this system or that is so much better than that system or this...well, it indicates it's not all it's cracked up to be.

As the first person responded (very well!), the INTENTIONS of such a label are not always in complete correlation with the PRESENCE within the hospital. Striving for excellence in all fields is admirable; recognizing that the pursuit of such 'excellence' often leaves holes elsewhere is reality.

HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD · Feb 18, 2015

In my own organization (we have actual evidence) the Magnet facilities out-perform the others in terms of nurse retention, nursing job satisfaction, physician satisfaction, most quality indicators and HCAHPS scores. Opinions are inescapably biased due to our own individual filters (e.g., I detest beets, so any food that bears even a slight resemblance is on my bad list) but data is not.

icuRNmaggie, BSN, RN · Feb 18, 2015

Depending on the size of the hospital, the expense of magnet certification is outrageous, from 250,000 to millions of dollars. Along with expense of the councils and consultants you can see why the understaffed direct care nurses feel the money could be better spent just hiring more staff.

Magnet status has nothing to do with nurse patient ratios or patient outcomes.

It also seems like a conflict of interest that ANCC, the corporation that awards magnet designation, requires a percentage of ANCC certified nurses.

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Feb 18, 2015

Depending on the size of the hospital, the expense of magnet certification is outrageous, from 250,000 to millions of dollars. Along with expense of the councils and consultants you can see why the understaffed direct care nurses feel the money could be better spent just hiring more staff.
Magnet status has nothing to do with nurse patient ratios or patient outcomes.
It also seems like a conflict of interest that ANCC, the corporation that awards magnet designation, requires a percentage of ANCC certified nurses.

Your comment about the cost reminded me of something someone posted on AN, about some hospitals (a trend? not sure) were letting their Magnet status lapse to save money. Hospitals are certainly feeling the pinch of poor reimbursements from both government and private insurers, and since having a Magnet sticker on their facility doesn't (or doesn't significantly enough) add to their bottom line, facilities are beginning to drop the unnecessary cost associated with it in favor of using that money toward covering more important (aka: necessary) expenses.

If having the sticker recognition brings in some money, the income doesn't seem to justify the expense of keeping it. I would have a hard time imagining that a hospital that has intentionally dropped the Magnet status also becomes a place where retention rates drop, satisfaction drops, etc. It's the same facility.....but now with more capital to spend.

TXRN2 · Feb 18, 2015

As a nurse working in a facility that is currently gearing up to achieve magnet status- I find this thread most interesting. I knew it had to cost $$ to achieve this goal- had no idea it was quite that much! And, we are already having to do some committee work that takes quite a bit of our own time- & I cannot say that it is adding to my job satisfaction! :eek:

anon456, BSN, RN · Feb 18, 2015

I am a bit resentful that because we are working towards magnet status I am now needing to go back and get my BSN in order to have a chance at career advancement or even transferring within the hospital.

On the other hand, I would love to have magnet status if it meant having nurses be able to have more of a voice than they currently do with some of the decisions made by the upper management.

llg, PhD, RN · Feb 18, 2015

I am a bit resentful that because we are working towards magnet status I am now needing to go back and get my BSN in order to have a chance at career advancement or even transferring within the hospital.
On the other hand, I would love to have magnet status if it meant having nurses be able to have more of a voice than they currently do with some of the decisions made by the upper management.

The Magnet program is not the only reason for the push towards a BSN. If the Magnet Program did not exist, the push for BSN level education would still be there. (Note the ANA Social Policy of 1965, decades before the Magnet Program was created.)

Many (most?) major nursing employers would still be preferring BSN's because of the research showing better outcomes. Their desire for Magnet status is only a part of the explanation for the increased emphasis on higher education for nurses.

Unfortunately, some people have a tendency to blame everything they don't like on the Magnet Program. However, just like some of the Public Relations put out by the Magnet Program is "hype" and should be taken with a grain of salt ... so are some of the attacks against it.

elkpark · Feb 18, 2015

There are good and bad (as well as in-between) Magnet hospitals, just as there are good and bad, and in-between, non-Magnet hospitals. Part of the problem is the good ol' Law of Unintended Consequences. The ANCC originally dreamed up the Magnet designation as a means of recognizing hospitals that (already) were providing a great environment for nursing practice. A lot of the public believes that the Magnet designation is about good client care, but the original point was that these hospitals were "magnets" for nurses, by virtue of being great employers for nurses. Over time, as hospitals started realizing that the Magnet designation could be used as an advertising ploy, more and more hospitals wanted to get it. Lots of Magnet hospitals really are great employment environments for nurses. Lots of Magnet hospitals are places that put a lot of time and effort into making a good impression on the ANCC during their site visit, and then went back to Business As Usual once they had the certificate on the wall.

To me, the bottom line is that, unfortunately, the Magnet designation no longer really tells you anything about whether a hospital is a good environment for nurses and, although a lot of hospitals spend a lot of money (and the ANCC makes a lot of money) on the designation, it's pretty much meaningless (which is why, I believe, a number of hospitals have quit applying for recertification). You have to look deeper than just whether a hospital is Magnet designated or not