Magnet status is particularly important for hospitalists, explains Dr. Kaiser. “Because they spend so much time with nursing staff, the quality of nurses is especially important to hospitalists. Therefore, if we want to attract good hospitalists, we have to have good nurses. Because we have magnet status, we not only can say that we have a great nursing program; we can prove it.”
Sparger concurs. “Magnet validates a facility’s quality efforts and teamwork,” she says. “It makes you sit back and look at evidence-based practices for how you do things. You have to have evidence-based practices to write a policy. As hospitalists are more familiar and comfortable with hospital policies and procedures, this makes them the perfect match for magnet hospitals.”
At the same time when facilities put the hospitalist model together with magnet certification, the result is improved quality of life for both physicians and nurses.
While ANCC is still collecting data about magnet status and quality, Sparger and many individuals who work at magnet-certified facilities firmly believe that the characteristics that make they magnet also lead to reduced mortality and infections.
THE WORD SPREADS
If they don’t know about magnet certification already, hospitalists and other physicians likely will hear more about it in the near future.
“Magnet certification is a quality indicator at some level for hospitals,” says Dr. Abrams. “We will see a big push nationally for magnet at many more facilities.”
Nurses already see magnet status as an important sign that a hospital is a good place to work where quality care is high and nurses are respected. Increasingly, Dr. Abrams proposes, physicians will consider magnet status when choosing facilities at which to work. In fact this already is happening.
“I had one physicians say that he came here with confidence because he knew that we had a magnet staff,” says Beverly Hancock, MS, RN, education/quality and magnet project coordinator at Rush University Medical Center. “Also, I recently noticed on our Web site that several departments and programs mention our magnet status in their recruitment announcements.”
In fact, physicians themselves sometimes are the greatest advertisement for magnet hospitals. “If you talk to our physicians, they say that they tell everyone about the great nurses here,” says Hancock. “They say that they heard about it in their interviews and now they’re seeing it in person.”
At the same time, the word is spreading rapidly beyond practitioners. Just this year, U.S. News & World Report added magnet certification to its criteria for determining its annual list of the country’s best hospitals.
“There is no question that patients, insurers, and other healthcare groups will begin to place a lot of emphasis on magnet status as well,” concludes Dr. Abrams. TH
Contributor Joanne Kaldy is based in Maryland.
REFERENCES
- McClure M, Poulin M, Sovie M, Wandelt M. Magnet Hospitals: Attraction and Retention of Professional Nurses. American Academy of Nursing Task Force and Nursing Practice in Hospitals. Kansas City, MO: American Nurses Association 1983.
- Kramer M, Schmalenberg C. Magnet hospitals talk about the impact of DRGs on nursing care, part I. Nursing Management. 1987;18(9):38-42.
- Kramer M, Schmalenberg C. Magnet hospitals talk about the impact of DRGs on nursing car, part II. Nursing Management. 1987; 18(10):33-40.
- Kramer M, Schmalenberg C. Job satisfaction and retention. Insights for the ‘90s, part I. Nursing. 1991;3(3):50-55.
- American Nurses Credentialing Center Web site. www.nursingworld.org/ancc/magnet/consumer/benefits.html. Benefits of magnet. Last accessed 8/16/05.