What is a Magnet Hospital?
A magnet hospital is one that has received Magnet Recognition Status from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), which is part of the American Nurses Association (ANA). The ANCC instituted the Magnet Recognition Program® in the 1990s as a means of reviewing hospitals, inspiring them to better patient care, and increasing the status of those hospitals that have proven excellence in nursing care. Though declaring a hospital a magnet hospital is only way of attesting to its quality of care, it has been shown that other hospital rankings often consider magnet hospitals among some of the best in the country.
If a hospital wishes to become a magnet hospital, they must go through a lengthy application and review process. The first step of this is applying for the program. Hospitals then must submit significant documentation to show how they implement excellence in nursing care. This is followed by a several days’ visit from reviewers in the program, and finally a review of all documents and the visit by Magnet officials. Should the hospital meet all standards, they may earn magnet hospital stature, which generally allows them to claim this award of excellence for four years.
There are fourteen separate areas that are assessed as part of determining whether a hospital deserves magnet designation. These include quality of nurse leadership, perception of the value of nursing by other health professionals, compensation and fringe benefits for nurses, quality of care, dedication to quality improvement, level of education and teaching offered to incoming nurses or students, and management style. These and other areas are called Forces of Magnetism, and they can be used as a way of assessing how well hospitals retain and attract new nurses to their programs.
Identifying Forces of Magnetism predates the magnet program. In the 1980s, the American Academy of Nurses (AAN) conducted a widespread study of numerous hospitals to see which elements tended to contribute to best care and to act as “magnets” to attract or retain employees. The extensive study found qualities in common with some of the hospitals reviewed that most demonstrated excellence in nursing. There was real need for the study at the time because of a general nursing shortage that existed in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1990, the ANCC created the evaluative program based on the earlier AAN studies and awarded the first magnet status designation in 1994 to the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, Washington.
Many people may wonder how it is beneficial to use a magnet hospital, and there are a few things that may generally be said of them. They tend to attract and retain nurses who are skilled at their jobs and who get adequate support from management and other staff. These hospitals are also more likely to have a higher nurse to patient ratio, and may experience a lower percentage of human error in nursing care.
For a nurse looking for employment, magnet hospitals on average pay more, and many nurses appreciate the degree to which other medical professions esteem and honor their contributions. Some nurses working at magnet facilities report greater job satisfaction and lower burnout rate because of correspondingly lower nurse to patient ratio. Status of employment at these hospitals can be attractive in building a resume too.
Written by Tricia Ellis-Christensen
