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PHMI and MGH team with University Hospital for journey to Magnet status
NURSING EXCELLENCE WILL BE FOUNDATIONAL ELEMENT OF DHCC'S FLAGSHIP TERTIARY CARE CENTER
Earlier this year Dubai Healthcare City announced plans to develop a world-class tertiary care center that will serve as the clinical centerpiece of the new Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Academic Medical Center. The conceptual and clinical design of the University Hospital has drawn on experts from all corners of health care delivery, including medical care, nursing, planning, technology, strategy, and academic development. Today construction of the 400-bed, 1.4 million square feet hospital is well underway, and the University Hospital’s new leadership are designing and implementing a differentiated strategy, all with an eye to preparing the facility for its first patients, expected some time in 2011.
While most of the center still exists only in architectural plans and schematic designs, the University Hospital’s top nurse is developing blueprints of her own. Chief Nursing Officer Lauren Arnold, PhD, RN wants patients in Dubai to know that nursing excellence is a core component of the hospital’s mission to provide high-quality care. According to Arnold, the University Hospital presents an opportunity to not only develop an elite nursing service based on world-class standards, but also to help transform the nursing profession on a region-wide scale.
The backbone of the UH nursing strategy, says Arnold, is the research and development (R&D) effort currently underway to establish Magnet as the organizational framework for nursing and patient care. Magnet, a program administered by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), recognizes hospitals that are top performers in work environment characteristics, professional collaboration, and patient outcomes.
The University Hospital is supporting the magnet R&D program through a strategic partnership with Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a major Harvard Medical School teaching affiliate which was among the first hospitals to receive Magnet recognition. An MGH team led by Jeanette Ives Erickson, Senior Vice President of Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer, is providing strategic and operational support to the UH nursing organization. Arnold and her team are also working closely with Pat Reid-Ponte, Chief Nursing Officer of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and PHMI Director of Clinical Services Elizabeth Brown. Dr. Linda Aiken, Director of the Center for Health Outcomes Research at the University of Pennsylvania, is providing significant support on the research side.
The term “Magnet hospital” was coined following research that investigated why certain U.S. hospitals were successful in attracting and retaining staff while others were not. Based on these findings, the ANCC outlined 14 Magnet principles that health care organizations must demonstrate in order to be formally recognized with Magnet status. Hospitals that meet these standards are especially adept at maintaining a pro-nursing workplace that integrates nursing into overall hospital leadership and helps keep nurses happier and patients healthier. created the Magnet designation. Only about 250 health care facilities (approximately five percent of the 5,000 health care facilities in the United States) have earned Magnet status, and the concept has now caught on internationally.
Putting in place the 14 “forces of magnetism” would no doubt help foster an elite nursing service in the UH. Placing such a strong emphasis on the value of nursing could also have an impact on how the profession is viewed in the Gulf Region. The worldwide nursing shortage is acute in the United Arab Emirates, where there are only about three nurses for every thousand patients—compared to, for example, 10 per 1,000 in the U.S. Of the UAE’s nursing workforce, only three percent are citizens; most of the nursing corps comes from the Philippines, India, and other countries in Southeast Asia. Emiratis are simply not attracted to the field.
Could the emergence of a major Magnet-status medical center in Dubai Healthcare City help to change perception? Ives Erickson thinks so. She believes that the UH, as the new flagship hospital in Dubai, could become the region’s standard-bearer for the nursing profession, with the Magnet designation attesting to how highly the hospital values nursing’s role in health care excellence. “When you consider that there are no established nursing schools in Dubai at the present time, you can appreciate what an ambitious goal this is,” said Ives Erickson. “This is about creating a work environment that is attractive. If we can create a great hospital to work in, we will attract the best nurses to work there.” This in turn would push competing hospitals to create environments that are attractive to nurses—hence, more locals may be inspired to enter the profession.
Ives Erickson, the UH’s Arnold, and PHMI’s Brown will team to create a professional practice environment that utilizes the 14 Magnet principles as a framework. To accomplish this they will develop a “twinning relationship” that will form the basis of collaboration between nurses at MGH and the UH team. Twinning is a series of exchanges—of personnel, resources, and ideas—between two or more organizations, resulting in an understanding of best and effective practices that can be applied. The team will leverage the strategies and approaches used by MGH in achieving (and re-achieving) Magnet status, customized to meet the unique needs of the UH environment.
In collaboration with ANCC, the team expects to model an approach for new hospitals to develop their structure according to Magnet standards and drive positive outcomes from day one. Arnold says this new and innovative approach will be made available to other new hospitals across the international community with evidence-based tools. “The team is enthusiastic about the potential impact that this Magnet program will have on nursing and patient care globally,” she said.
New model for Magnet recognition
The new model for Magnet recognition folds the forces of magnetism into five descriptive components:
Transformation leadership
- Quality of nursing leadership
- Management style
Structural empowerment
- Organizational structure
- Personnel policies and programs
- Community and the health care organization
- The image of nursing
- Professional development
Exemplary professional practice
- Professional models of care
- Consultation and resources
- Autonomy
- Nurses as teachers
- Interdisciplinary relationships
New knowledge, innovations, and improvements
- Quality improvement
Empirical quality outcomes
- Quality of care
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