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What is this "magnetism" in
practice settings that attracts and retains nurses?
Is it a prize to be won? Is it an accolade to be awarded
for recruitment and retention of nurses? Can any practice
setting achieve this much sought-after recognition?
How did this Magnet Hospital designation start?
The American Nurses Association and the American Academy
of Nursing Task Force on Nursing Practice published
the original Magnet Hospitals study in 1983. This was
the time of a national nursing shortage and it was decided
to capture what practice settings succeeded in attracting
and retaining nurses as identified by a peer reference
community of nurses.
A total of 165 institutions were nominated by fellows
in the academy as potential Magnet hospitals, meeting
the following criteria:
• Nurses consider the hospital a good place to
practice nursing and a good place to work.
• The hospital has the ability to recruit and retain
professional nurses, as evidenced by a relatively low
turnover rate.
• The hospital is in a geographic area where
it has competition for staff from other institutions
and agencies.
• Academy fellows interviewed the directors of
nursing and staff nurses, asking the following questions:
• What makes your hospital a good place for nurses
to work?
• Can you describe particular programs in your
situation that you are leading to professional/personal
satisfaction?
• How is nursing viewed in your hospital and
why?
•Can you describe nurse involvement in various
programs and projects whose goals are quality of patient
care?
• Can you identify activities and programs calculated
to enhance, both directly and indirectly, recruitment
and retention of professional nurses in your hospital?
• Could you tell us about nurse-physician relationships
in your hospital?
• Please describe staff nurse-supervisor (various
levels) relationships in your hospital.
• Are some areas in your hospital more successful
than others in recruitment and retention? Why?
• What single piece of advice would you give
to a director of nursing who wishes to do something
about registered nurse vacancies and turnover rates
in her hospital?
Of the 41 hospitals in the final report (1983), I had
the privilege to be the nursing leader in two of the
original study hospitals: Family Hospital in Milwaukee
and Virginia Mason in Seattle. What is so important
in today's search for magnetism is that not all settings
need this designation in order to have positive, professional
practice environments, and we did not set out to be
designated as such.
Family Hospital took five years of turnaround strategies
and Virginia Mason took at least three years before
gaining Magnet status, but in each it took a strong
nursing voice in planning and policy-making and gaining
control of nursing practice with setting limits on what
nurses would and would not do. The most significant
factor is for the nurse leader to be a strong nurse
advocate and to represent the needs of nursing in an
articulate fashion with a caring philosophy that pervades
the practice environment.
Nurses have to be empowered to direct their practice
and create their practice environments in order to give
quality patient care.
Discuss this and other topics with your
colleagues at www.nurseweek.com/rnvillage.
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