Magnet status: What it is, what it is not, and what it could be
Magnet status is an award by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) to hospitals that satisfy particular criteria for measuring the strength and quality of nursing. The magnet recognition program has been on offer since 1993. It attracts patients and nurses to the few healthcare organizations with the "gold standard" credential.
What It Is
Magnet status is an award to hospitals where the quality of nursing contributes to the delivery of excellent patient outcomes. The nurses should have a high level of job satisfaction, and staff turnover rate for nurses would be low. Grievance resolution should also be at an appropriate level.
Magnet status also indicates the involvement of nursing in the collection of data and making decisions in patient care delivery. The idea behind magnet nursing leaders is to value staff nurses, involve them is shaping up of research-based nursing practice, encourage and reward them for advancing the nursing practice. Magnetic status is a confirmation that hospitals with the award have open communication between nurses and the other members of the healthcare team. They also have an appropriate mix of personnel to attain the best staff working environment that contributes to achieving the best patient outcomes.
ANCC an affiliate of American Nurses Association encourages nurses to learn more about principles of Magnetic certification and consider the appropriate nursing certification programs for hospitals.
Magnet Status What It Is Not?
Some nursing unions criticize Magnet status because its implementation focuses on hospital promotion that leans more to relating with hospital management than nurses. University of Maryland School of nursing once did a study on the Magnet status and found out that it does not have much to do with the working conditions of nurses. These include the work hours, schedules and job demands.
Some of the nurses lament that hospitals spend much money towards attaining the magnet status. It is not always that they get the return on investment thus getting a hole in the budget. The nurses suffer because the recruitment of new nurses and remuneration increments are on hold thus increasing the workload.
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Critics claim that after the hard work to attain the magnet status, the nurses do not receive any benefits that improve their lives than those working elsewhere. The concern is that Magnet program gives the impression of nursing excellence without personal achievement benefits in individual nurses. A frequent complaint is that some hospitals will soon after receiving a magnet certification fire the coordinators and teams. They also dismantle the application process. Some firsthand reports show that certain hospitals trumpet their status but still betray some of the fundamental principles.
Magnet Status: What It Could Be
Transparency
Some hospital staff does not understand about Magnet thus that they are less likely to advocate for the award or share the benefits with colleagues. It is even more complicated for nurses who join a facility after it has got the new magnet designation. Those who did not go through a journey to certification will find it difficult to understand the impact and significance, primarily when working with fellow nurses.
Affordable
It takes a hospital an average of 4.2 years to complete the process of attaining a Magnet Status at an annual average cost of $500,000. The average total investment adds to over $2, 000,000 which is expensive for a hospital. Researchers calculate that it will be two to three years before hospitals start realizing their payback. At such times, the management cannot afford many things including thus that touch on the improving the welfare of nurses.
Nurse empowerment
Magnet program should lay more emphasis on empowering of the nurses and not just on the hospital. A lack of motivation for nurses is that they feel the award to the hospital does not empower them than those who work in non-magnet facilities. They do not feel part of the new status, and it is the reason why some hospitals fail to monitor compliance.
