The Union Hospital nursing staff are working toward a designation granted by the American Nursing Credentials Center that will improve the care of patients and nurses.
“Magnet designated hospitals have a tendency to recruit and retain top talent in their nursing divisions better than hospitals that are not Magnet,” said CNS and Union Magnet Program Director Amy Allen.
In order to attain this Magnet status, nurses came together to spot problems in their units.
“Our management and our hospital gives us an opportunity to question things if we think there could be a better opportunity to improve,” said RN/CCRN Martina Voges.
Units reduced the rate of patient falls, dermatitis in newborns, and have gone over 400 days without a central line blood infection in the Intensive Care Unit.
“Those nurses banded together and put a lot of interventions in place to make sure that their patients were safe,” said Allen.
A Magnet status could increase the number of nurses working at Union which would help the hospital combat this statewide nurse shortage.
“I feel like there’s a nursing shortage across the country,” said Allen. “And that’s something that we’re battling as our baby boomer generation of nurses is nearing retirement or beginning to retire.”
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics 1.1 million nurses are needed to replace those retiring.
