Why and How Do Hospitals Pursue Magnet Recognition?

This presentation is part of : Nursing Work Environment

Donna Sullivan Havens, PhD, RN, School of Nursing, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA and Marty Johnston, RN, School of Nursing, The Penn State University, State College, PA, USA.

Population/Sample/Setting/Year: Twenty-six chief nurse executives and project coordinators from ANCC recognized magnet hospitals at the 2003 National Magnet Conference.

Methods: Three focus groups reported why they pursued magnet recognition and shared strategies they used to accomplish the goal. Organizational decisions to pursue the process, stakeholder “buy-in”, and facilitators and barriers encountered were shared. Data were transcribed, coded, categorized, and content analysis was used to summarize themes. Pattern matching associated themes with the literature on innovation, organizational change, and magnet hospitals.

Findings: Participants told compelling stories about why they chose to pursue this recognition—often to validate excellent nursing care and to reward the staff nurses through national recognition. While not driving the motivation, recruitment and retention were secondary gains. Acquiring stakeholder support was not difficult—MDs, CEOs, and board members endorsed recognition of nursing excellence. Strategies included networking with magnet hospitals and developing strong in-house steering committees. Few used consultants. Different methods were used to conduct the self-assessment and compile the report, including teams of writers, one integrator, and interviews. There was consensus that achieving magnet status brought the responsibility of responding to queries from interested parties that is growing “out of control” and burdensome in terms of cost and time.

Implications: The organizational and management features of the environments in magnet hospitals are associated with significant positive outcomes for patients and nurses, but we don’t know “how to get there”. This presentation will inform hospitals about strategies, facilitators and barriers encountered by those who have acquired ANCC magnet recognition, laying the foundation for diffusion of innovations to promote better work and better care.

Learning Objective #1: Describe three reasons why ANCC-recognized Magnet hospitals chose to pursue this Magnet recognition
Learning Objective #2: Describe three strategies used by ANCC-recognized Magnet hospitals to achieve Magnet recognition