James Buchan

Magnet nursing services recognition programme

Overview In an environment rife with controversy about patient safety in hospitals, medical error rates, and nursing shortages, consumers need to know how good the care is at their local hospitals. Nursing’s best kept secret is the single most effective mechanism for providing that type of comparative information to consumers, a seal of approval for quality nursing care: designation of magnet hospital status by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). Magnet designation, or recognition of the ‘best’ hospitals, was conceived in the early 1980s when the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) conducted a study to identify which hospitals attracted and retained nurses, and which organisational features were shared by these successful hospitals, referred to as magnet hospitals. In the 1990s, the American Nurses Association (ANA), through the ANCC, established a formal programme to acknowledge excellence in nursing services: the Magnet Nursing Services Recognition Program. The purpose of the current study is to examine whether hospitals selected for recognition by the ANCC application process -ANCC-accredited hospitals–are as successful in creating environments in which excellent nursing care is provided as the original AAN magnet hospitals were. We found that at ANCC-recognised magnet hospitals nurses had lower burnout rates and higher levels of job satisfaction, and gave the quality of care provided at their hospitals higher ratings than did nurses at the AAN magnet hospitals. Our findings validate the ability of the Magnet Nursing Services Recognition Program to successfully identify hospitals that provide high-quality nursing care.