Essay on "Hospital Magnet Status"

/>Structural Empowerment -- The toolkit of the magnet certification is used in a positive way to strengthen relationships, partnerships, and practices within the organization and community, vendors, and other professional organizations.

Exemplary Professional Practice -- Mode and models of care are emphasized to the point of exceeding best practices and moving towards exemplary professional practices. The magnet organization has a comprehensive understanding of the role of nursing, and the application of that role within all stakeholder parameters.

KII Model -- Knowledge, Innovation, and Improvements are all important building blocks for the modern professional organization as well as ways to uncover and contribute to the ethical and professional responsibilities necessary to remain a top-notch care provider.

Empirical Quality Results -- The magnet process not only asks the organization: what do you do, but more importantly, why do you do it, how do you do it, and what differences have you made by doing it? This empowers the organization from within and allows greater empirical study in a continuous loop (ANCC, Model Components, 2011).

Principles -- The driving force behind the magnet program is to ensure excellence in the healthcare model and allow organizations that have committed themselves to partnerships in nursing to be rewarded.

Characteristics - While characteristics between magnet organizations vary, there are several criteria that help the committee make its decision and can be seen as the more statistically typical magnet hospitals. The following are some of the basic criteria that give us a picture of a more typical magnet organization:

Average Daily Census = 288

RN Turnover <10%

RN Vacancy Rate <3%

Average Length of RN Tenure >10 years

% of RN Decision makers with advanced degrees > 50%

Other national credentials >50%

Nursing staff with at least a BA >50%

APN Nurses 25-30%

Organizational commitment to nursing

High Customer Satisfaction Rate

(See: http://www.nursecredentialing.org/CharacteristicsMagnetOrganizations.aspx)

Changes for Nurses - Most of the recorded changes for nurses are in both perception of their jobs, their ability to actually effect change, and a broader vision of authority given to them. There is a recurring loop -- nurses are happier and patients get better care; the better the care given the more all stakeholders feel pleased and can contribute to the overall benefit of the organization (Havens and Aiken, 1999).

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