Feeling the Force of Magnetism in the OR
As more facilities look to ANCC Magnet Recognition, champions explain the value and the challenges involved in attaining and sustaining the Magnet environment™
By Carina Stanton, MA
Senior News Editor/Writer
Magnet Recognition—also known as the Nobel Prize of nursing—is a distinction hospital administrators are increasingly asking their nurses to work toward, especially as healthcare payers are putting greater emphasis on evidence-based practice, measurable outcomes and pay-for-performance.
The concept of Magnet was developed in the 1980s to establish standards for nursing excellence that would also improve nurse recruitment and retention. The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) designates Magnet Recognition after a rigorous application and on-site interview process to determine that the facility demonstrates nursing excellence, quality patient care and innovations in professional nursing practice.
The natural end product of these factors is measurable improvement in patient outcomes—a fact not lost on nurses looking for jobs, consumers looking for quality care or hospital administrators looking to improve their bottom line.
A growing trend
Currently 286 healthcare facilities across the country have been awarded the ANCC’s Magnet Recognition, but hundreds more are in the process of attaining Magnet designation, estimates Cynthia Sweeney, MSN, RN, CNOR, assistant director at ANCC.
“Those facilities that attained Magnet Recognition several years ago now have data points to say ‘this is a great place to be’ and other facilities are taking notice and looking at what processes need to be in place to apply for Magnet,” she explained.
Simply put, facilities want to provide quality patient care, and Magnet hospitals have the evidence showing improved patient outcomes.
| In March the ANCC introduced a New Model for the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program©. Watch this video interview with Cynthia Sweeney, MSN, RN, CNOR, assistant director at ANCC to learn how the Forces of Magnetism fit into the new model. |
Sweeney acknowledged that some may misinterpret Magnet to be just a name that will attract nurses and patients. “Magnet is not as simple as checking off a list, and you can’t base it on a timeline. A facility should be working to improve patient outcomes by promoting nursing excellence. Doing this will set things in motion to be what you need to have a high-quality facility.”
Finding the Forces
To attain Magnet Recognition a facility must demonstrate 14 Forces of nursing excellence that draw nurses to the facility. “Like the magnetic forces that draw a piece of iron to a magnetic rod, attaining ANCC Magnet status requires a steady flow of energy generated in a healthcare facility by an interdisciplinary approach to nursing excellence that is embodied equally among nurse executive and nurses on the front line,” said Sweeney.
Some of the 14 ANCC Forces of Magnetism include Quality Improvements, Consultation and Resources, Autonomy, and Community and the Healthcare Organization.
“Magnet is a culture, and it starts with nurses understanding their own value,” said Patricia C. Seifert, RN, MSN, CNOR, CRNFA, FAAN, a perioperative nurse who specializes in cardiovascular surgery at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va. Seifert is a member of her facility’s staff-driven Magnet group, which includes representatives from different nursing departments who collaborate with nurses, physicians and other healthcare professionals in the facility to develop the policies and procedures related to each Magnet Force.
When facilities begin to address the Forces of Magnetism they need to look at the quality of care they provide and how they connect that quality of care with the quality of services, Seifert explained. “Perioperative nurses play a critical role in providing quality patient care because they are the links to every member of the surgical team and are also the links to external departments, such as radiology, the blood blank and materials management,” she said.
In her role as Cardiovascular OR Magnet champion at Inova Fairfax, Seifert works to articulate how perioperative nurses demonstrate Magnet Forces in their daily practice. “The challenge for all of us is to be able to connect what we do to good outcomes,” she noted.
For example, “if you are an RNFA taking vein and you see that the patient has bad varisees in the left leg, you make a decision to go to the right leg. Then you discuss this with the surgeon. By doing this you use your knowledge and critical thinking skills and independently set events in motion—this demonstrates the Autonomy Force for Magnet—autonomy is not always doing things but thinking about and anticipating what may happen,” Seifert noted.
She says it is important to acknowledge that patient care is a series of innumerable decisions that need to be made, and these decisions can often be linked to better outcomes that also demonstrate a Magnet Force.
Maintaining Magnet
Every four years a facility that receives the ANCC’s Magnet recognition must apply for redesignation to demonstrate that the facility has maintained and improved the processes and programs that helped them to earn Magnet Recognition initially. There is interim monitoring during the four years.
As part of the ANCC’s new streamlined Magnet Model to be released later this year, there will be a greater emphasis on outcomes and process involvement.
“Now Magnet redesignation is being kicked up a notch,” said the ANCC’s Sweeney. “If a facility’s outcomes are not great, they will need to show how they are working to improve those outcomes. The new criteria for Magnet redesignation will challenge healthcare to be innovative in solutions.”
Looking at outcomes and coming up with ways to improve these outcomes is something that Magnet champions at West Virginia University Hospitals have been working on since they attained Magnet Recognition in 2004, said Dawn Yost, RDH, RN, BSN, CNOR. Serving as perioperative services Magnet champion and perioperative nurse clinician at West Virginia University Hospitals, Yost participates in quarterly meetings with hospital leaders and Magnet champions from other nursing departments.
Yost’s facility is beginning to discuss plans to apply for Magnet redesignation, but she stresses, “Magnet Recognition is not something you receive and then forget about. Magnet is part of our everyday nursing practice, whether we are providing care, measuring outcomes, educating the hospital staff or providing patient education.”
Sweeney encourages Magnet champions like Yost and Seifert to view the new Magnet Application Manual to be familiar with what their facilities will need to demonstrate for Magnet designation and redesignation.
Read more about the Magnet Recognition Program visit.
Additional Resources
Learn more about the new model for ANCC’s Magnet Recognition Program®.
Read abstracts from papers presented at the ANCC’s 10th National Magnet Conference™.
Editor’s note: The Magnet Recognition Program® and ANCC Magnet Recognition® names and logos are registered trademarks of the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Magnet™, Journey to Nursing Excellence™, and National Magnet Conference™ are trademarks of the American Nurses Credentialing Center.