Texas Children’s inches closer towards achieving its third Magnet® re-designation, which is considered the gold standard for nursing excellence. Now that the hospital’s application and written documentation for Magnet® re-designation have been approved, Magnet’s appraiser team will visit Texas Children’s for a site visit in January.
“This step marks a huge milestone in our journey towards Magnet® re-designation,” said Texas Children’s Chief Nursing Officer Mary Jo Andre’. “The site visit will provide our appraiser team with the opportunity to validate the exemplars referenced in our written documentation. I am so proud of the combined efforts of our entire nursing team which made this collaborative achievement possible. I would also like to recognize Emily Weber, Sarah Marcion, and the NAS team for their leadership.”
From January 22 to 26, 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 provide an opportunity for nurses and the entire health care team to engage with the Magnet® appraisers, share their exceptional accomplishments, and highlight our great partnership, exceptional care delivery and collaboration to enhance patient outcomes.
Reaching this milestone was no easy task. 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, Mary Jo Andre in collaboration with Emily Weber, 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,” said Texas Children’s Magnet Assistant Director Sarah Marcion. “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. We received support from IS and Marketing on the website development.”
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 Texas Children’s commitment to providing quality patient care.
Following the site visit in January, the Magnet appraisers will submit a report to the Commission on Magnet®, which makes the final decisions regarding Texas Children’s Magnet® re-designation.
“We are very confident that our organization will receive the Magnet re-designation in the spring of 2018,” Andre’ said. “Our nurses and our entire health care team have worked so hard to help us maintain this gold standard of nursing excellence.”
To learn more about the ANCC’s Magnet Recognition Program®, click here.