Countdown to Magnet® site visit: What you need to know

January 3, 2018

Three weeks from now, a Magnet® appraiser team will visit Texas Children’s facilities for a site visit, which represents a huge milestone in the hospital’s journey towards achieving Magnet® re-designation.

Since 2003, Texas Children’s has been a Magnet-designated organization. Every four years, the hospital applies for Magnet® re-designation, which is the highest and most prestigious recognition provided by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), and reflects our commitment to excellent patient care.

From January 22 to 24, 2018, Magnet® appraisers will conduct a site visit at Texas Children’s, which is one of the many required steps to obtain Magnet® re-designation. The site visit will allow nurses and the entire health care team to engage with the Magnet® appraisers, share their exceptional achievements, highlight our great partnership, exceptional care delivery and collaboration to enhance patient outcomes.

Last month, we launched a special series on Connect highlighting what employees “need to know” regarding this important site visit. This week, we answer the following two questions:

  1. What can you expect if you encounter one of the Magnet® appraisers on site?
    The Magnet® appraiser will be accompanied by a staff nurse. They will be going to every clinical area (unit or clinic) that nurses practice. The Magnet® appraiser will typically ask questions about how patient care is delivered at Texas Children’s, and how others interface with nursing staff. Be prepared to discuss how you collaborate with nurses to provide patient care. Be open and honest, and discuss the work that you do every day at Texas Children’s.
  2. How were we able to reach this milestone (a Magnet site visit) in the re-designation process?
    The 10-month Magnet® re-designation process required tremendous collaboration among many departments across the organization including Nursing, Quality and Safety, Nursing Clinical Informatics, Human Resources, Information Services (IS), Patient and Family Services and Marketing.

In January 2016, Chief Nursing Officer Mary Jo Andre in collaboration with our Magnet® team, nursing, and the interprofessional team across the organization, reviewed each Magnet® standard with our consultant and aligned the submitted source of evidence examples to the Magnet standards. Every other month we had a three-day Magnet® writers workshop for our Magnet writing team who developed the Texas Children’s Hospital exemplars that contributed to our system-wide achievements. Necessary materials and documentation were included in our Magnet® website.

Click here for answers to the previous questions featured in the Magnet® “what you need to know” series.

To access and review the written documentation submitted to Magnet®, click here. To learn more about the ANCC’s Magnet Recognition Program®, click here.