Introduction
The Magnet recognition program for distinction in nursing services is the most important and influential credentialing program for nursing services in hospitals, both nationally and internationally. The program was first created to distinguish facilities that provide outstanding nursing care and was called the Magnet hospital program. It also provides consumers with the ultimate target to determine the quality of care they can expect to receive (American Nurses Credentialing Center, n.d).
However, The force of magnetism in nursing practice or health care provisions in the abstract or general idea is the fundamental principle of nursing retention, quality indicators, and standards of nursing practice, in addition to the forces, which acts as the magnet standards.
Nurses must take active roles in deciding the quality of care and the nurse’s role in the process. Nurses run the risk of the blame for some of the problems that are found in heightened care today. “Politics in the healthcare may not stop at the bedside, but it certainly starts there. It would be a disaster if patients and family members blamed nurses for system failures. But the more nurses detach from their patients, the easier it becomes for the rest of us (consumers) to lose sympathy” (Kaplan, 2000, p.25). The Magnet program is one way of addressing this issue.
Magnet designation
The Magnet designation signifies that the hospital has different management, it stresses more on involvement management, and managers listen to staff and typically use a decentralized structure. The difference is seen in the role of the nursing executive and throughout all levels of nursing management, as well as in the overall organization leadership’s support of nursing. Becoming a Magnet hospital means that the organization has met over half of the standards developed by the ANCC. They must meet thorough quantitative and qualitative values that outline the highest quality of nursing practice and patient care.
The Magnet recognition program
The Magnet recognition program (ANCC, n.d) was formed to realize three major goals:
- Encourage merit in a setting that sustains professional nursing practice.
- Recognize excellence in the delivery of nursing services to patients.
- Provide a mechanism for the distribution of best practices in nursing services.
Hence many advantages come from Magnet nursing services which are improved patient quality outcomes, enhanced organizational culture, improved nurse recruitment, and retention, enhanced safety outcomes, and enhanced competitive advantage which are key characteristics of organizations that support a culture of inquiry (American Nurses Credentialing Center).
Conclusion
There has been a considerable amount of research on the Magnet hospital perception as an example of professional nursing practice since its origin, showing that Magnet hospitals had better results than non-magnet hospitals (Urden, & Monarch, 2002). Moreover, for an organization to sustain the transformation into a culture of inquiry, it must have the necessary infrastructure, resources, support, opportunities, and incentives necessary to enable evidence-based nursing practice, as well as to enable the creation of nurse-initiated facts and data for practice through the conduct of research.
Reference List
Aiken, L. H., Havens, D. S., & Sloane, D. M. (2000). The magnet nursing services recognition program: A comparison of two groups of magnet hospitals. American Journal of Nursing, 100(3), 26-35.
American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). (n.d). Magnet nursing services recognition program. Web.
Kaplan, M. (2000). Hospital caregivers are in a bad mood. American Journal Of Nursing, 100(3), 25.
Scott, J.G., Sochalski, J., & Aiken, L.H. (1999). Review of magnet hospital research: Findings and implications for professional nursing practice. Journal of Nursing Administration, 29(1), 9-19.
Urden, L., & Monarch, K. (2002). The ANCC Magnet Recognition Program: Converting research findings into action. In M. McClure & A. Hinshaw (Eds.), Magnet hospital revisited (pp. 103-116). Washington, DC: American Nurses Publishing.