ABSTRACT
The changing health care environment is requiring nurse executives within a hospital setting to design and implement innovative workforce practices that will both improve patient outcomes and lower costs. Since registered nurses comprise the largest percentage of a hospital's workforce, finding ways to incorporate them in these efforts is essential. The Magnet Recognition Program through the American Nurses Credentialing Center is one successful evidence-based strategy that can be adopted to engage nurses in quality improvement processes. This article describes how two community hospitals used the principles of the Magnet Recognition Program to develop and implement new approaches to meet the health care imperative of providing safer, high-quality, cost-effective care.
Subject(s)
Evidence-Based Nursing/economics , Hospital Costs , Nursing Staff, Hospital/organization & administration , Total Quality Management/organization & administration , Bisexuality , Career Mobility , Cost Control , Georgia , Homosexuality , Hospital Rapid Response Team/organization & administration , Hospitals, Community , Humans , Institutional Management Teams/organization & administration , North Carolina , Nursing Staff, Hospital/economics , Organizational Case Studies , Program Development , Social Support , Total Quality Management/economics , Transgender PersonsABSTRACT
A culture of excellence is not synonymous with a culture of perfection. Perfection is not attainable but excellence is when an infrastructure is developed that can rapidly and effectively adapt to change. Saint Joseph's Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, is often asked about the challenges faced in developing, and sustaining, a culture of nursing excellence over time. Topics such as organizational hardiness, the emergence of a professional practice model, the development of a clinical nurse advancement program, and the implementation of the Forces of Magnetism and the Essentials of Magnetism will be discussed in relation to sustaining a culture of excellence.