To date more than 100 U.S. healthcare facilities have earned magnet certification, and the number is growing almost daily. In fact, Allen Kaiser, MD, chief of staff at Vanderbilt
University Hospital in Tennessee, wonders if the point will come where so many facilities are magnet-certified that that status will lose its significance. Or, perhaps, “people will wonder what is wrong if a facility isn’t certified,” he says.
(Left to right) Robert Diaz, RN, Angela Monteque, RN, Kathy Sparger, RN, Harriet Rudoff, and Pamela Pampe show off a quilt created by the staff at South Miami Hospital to communicate what magnet certification means to them. Rudoff was the quiltmaker to translated the design into fabric squares and produced the final quilt.
HOSPITALISTS AND MAGNET
An academic hospitalist and Assistant Professor at Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center, Richard Abrams, MD, said that nursing-physician collaboration is key to a positive environment for hospitalist practice.
“To me, the strongest suit of the nurses I work with here is that they are collaborators,” he explains. “Everyone brings something—some unique skill set—to the table. This, along with our proclivity for collaboration and mutual trust—makes our facility successful.”
Magnet certification didn’t cause this collaborative atmosphere, Dr. Abrams is quick to stress. “Our facility was magnet before there was such a thing,” he explains. “Magnet status is nice, but nursing care was always fantastic here. Magnet just put a name to what we are and recognizes it nationally.”
Dr. Abrams encourages his residents to look for this quality at facilities with which they are considering employment. In fact, he even uses Rush’s magnet status as a selling point to attract hospitalists to his program.
“Sometimes they ask what that is and what it means,” he says. “You know the quality of the nursing staff at a magnet hospital. You know that there is a minimal level of quality you can expect.”
Dr. Abrams emphasizes the importance of trust between hospitalists and nurses. “If you can’t trust each other, it makes it so much harder to care for patients,” he says. “Our nurses spend much more time with patients than anyone else. I wouldn’t do anything without input from the nursing staff.
“We have a rule in the hospital. If a nurse thinks a patient needs to be transferred to intensive care, the patient is transferred,” continues Dr. Abrams. “We put this policy in place four to five years ago, and no one has ever questioned or disputed it.”
The biggest plus for nurses is that I’m on the floor eight or more hours a day. We have repeated interactions, and relationships develop more quickly. This probably breaks down some barriers that can exist between physicians and nurses.
—Richard Abrams, MD
PERFECT TOGETHER
Magnet status and hospitalists represent a good match. Just as magnet nursing status provides benefits for hospitalists, the presence of hospitalists helps create a positive environment for nurses.
“The biggest plus for nurses is that I’m on the floor eight or more hours a day. We have repeated interactions, and relationships develop more quickly,” notes Dr. Abrams. “This probably breaks down some barriers that can exist between physicians and nurses.”
When nurses have to whether to call an attending physician at 3 a.m., this often creates additional stress or worries for them. With hospitalists around, they almost always have a physician onsite. Even when the hospitalist isn’t right there, they know who to call and theyare likely to have a trusting relationship with this individual.
“I would feel bad if a nurse didn’t feel that she could pick up the phone and call me about any case,” says Dr. Abrams. “The more you work with people, the more trust you build.”