Local RNs drawn to Magnet journey

Nurse.com—August 13, 2012   

The American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Magnet Recognition Program has become the standard of excellence to which hospitals across the country aspire. Its five components — transformational leadership; structural empowerment; exemplary professional practice; new knowledge, innovation and improvements; and empirical quality results — are geared toward providing a solid framework for nursing practice and research now and in the future. To get a better understanding of how the Magnet process has affected their nurses, we asked representatives of several local Magnet hospitals "Which of the components of Magnet do your nurses identify with most, and why?"

Stephanie Goldberg, RN, MSN, NEA-BC
Senior Vice President, Patient Care Services and CNO • Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, N.Y.

As the CNO of a three-time Magnet designated hospital, our primary goal is always better outcomes for our patients. The evidence-based approach found in a Magnet environment encourages compassionate care, research and professional education. The ultimate test of nursing success is how well our patients do. When nurses work at their highest potential and push themselves to provide the best, most professional nursing care possible, patients stay safe and make better recoveries. Our nurses are key players on the clinical team, and we are proud of our integral role in areas such as preventing UTIs, implementing a surgical safety checklist that has reduced our already low infection rate, implementing nursing-specific interventions to keep patients healthy during influenza season, and developing an interdisciplinary protocol that significantly reduced patient falls. Evidence of our success is our consistently high patient satisfaction scores.

Read the full story at nurse.com.