Recognizing Nursing Excellence - American Nurse Today

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MAGNET PROFILES UPDATE Compelling reasons to seek ANCC Magnet Recognition ® Welcome to our special Magnet ® Update section. In these pages, you’ll find out how organizations are enacting Magnet principles. If your organization isn’t yet a Magnet facility, consider these top 10 reasons for seeking Magnet recognition: 10. Boosts organizational pride 9. Increases nurses’ professionalism 8. Improves nurse retention and attracts top talent 7. Engages coworkers to collaborate for efficient and effective care 6. Fosters appreciation for everyone’s role in the patient experience 5. Reinforces the standards of nursing practice 4. Advances evidence-based practice and allows sharing of best practices 3. Taps innovative ideas of nurses on the front lines 2. Highlights nursing’s essential role in improving the safety and quality of care 1. Demonstrates a commitment to better patient outcomes through nursing excellence We hope the articles in this section encourage you to apply for Magnet recognition. If your facility has already earned Magnet recognition, we think you'll find these articles useful as you promote a culture of collaboration and positive outcomes. Pamela F. Cipriano, PhD, RN, FAAN, NEA-BC Editor-in-Chief You better. As one of the region’s leading Magnet ® hospital systems, we’re committed to providing you with the resources, support and opportunities you need to deliver better healthcare. But that’s just the beginning! Explore These Opportunities For RNs! Enjoy work-life balance, unit and ongoing education, and on-site child care. To apply, please visit: www.mwhccareers.com at UNC Health Care Find Career Opportunities in Chapel Hill, NC www.unchealthcareers.org An equal opportunity employer. 42 American Nurse Today Volume 7, Number 3 www.AmericanNurseToday.com
Recession, reform, redesignation—oh my! Find out how to energize staff for Magnet ® redesignation in challenging times. By Carolyn Ramwell, MSN, RN; Jean Blankenship, MSN, RN, PHCNS BC, CDE; and Mary Wolfe, AAS, RN MAGNET UPDATE Nurses have built on the legacy of past decades to become empowered, collaborative, outcome-oriented healthcare team members. Every nursing generation has had champions who’ve embodied a new nursing paradigm. In this young century, the champion isn’t a single person or symbol but individual nurses at each bedside, hospital, home, or clinic who embody the values of Magnet ® excellence. Today’s healthcare environment and economic climate pose unique challenges. In the current somber reality, how can we infuse staff with the optimism and pride of the Magnet journey? How do we excite and invigorate nursing colleagues? Is the cheer leading of the past appropriate? Quality outcomes, evidence-based practice, and shared decision making When the Magnet Champion Committee at Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesville, Virginia, faced these questions during our 2011 Magnet redesignation drive, we came up with creative solutions. Our Magnet champions became grounded for the redesignation journey by focusing on nurse-driven quality outcomes, evidence-based practice, staff empowerment, and opportunities for kindness and gratitude. We celebrated organizational outcomes for patient satisfaction and patient falls and pressure-ulcer prevention, validating nurses’ power to significantly improve patient outcomes. Use of data from the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators ® for annual nurse satisfaction provided opportunities for national benchmarking and collaborative recognition at the unit level. Our shared governance (SG) councils demonstrate leadership and empowerment through advancing evidence-based practice, committing to professional development, adopting new knowledge, and taking responsibility for quality outcomes. This enculturated SG model says loudly to each nurse, “We are our own heroes” who define our practice and own our outcomes through quality improvement, leadership, and collaborative practice. The pride nurses showed at our Magnet site visit when they shared stories of nurse-led practice changes spoke to the success of our SG model. Small issues can be vitally important to staff, and favorable resolution can dramatically affect their work satisfaction. For example, a change in emergency-department policy allowed staff to have covered beverages at their work stations—a huge satisfier in a fast-paced environment where hydration is important and breaks are unpredictable. Monthly electronic “dashboards” provide nursesensitive quality-indicator measures as well as patient, physician, and nurse satisfaction data. Data are reviewed at unit and hospital-wide SG council meetings and staff meetings. Magnet champions have raised staff awareness of unit-level data and involved staff in actions to maintain or improve outcomes. We celebrate excellent performance at staff meetings, SG council meetings, and Magnet champion meetings. Nurses have ownership of the information, as their dashboards directly reflect their unit’s practice. Effective redesignation strategies Enculturation of a shared decision-making model is essential for success. SG council members and Magnet champions supported our Magnet redesignation journey by participating in multidisciplinary focus groups to gather evidence for redesignation documents. Champions used creative strategies to engage staff across all shifts in preparing for Magnet appraiser site visits through information exchange using games, posters, brown-bag lunches, and celebration of Magnet moments at staff meetings, on intranet web pages, and at shift-change “huddles.” With minimal impact on unit budgets, small gifts and food items, “Wordles” (text rearranged into a visual pattern) from our Magnet document, and unit-level scrapbooks filled with examples of nursing excellence helped staff celebrate redesignation. Magnet champions communicated information to staff to ease anxieties about the site visit. Mag- www.AmericanNurseToday.com March 2012 American Nurse Today 43
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