Abstract
This study aims at exploring the magnetic structures of Moore Regional hospitals. In the US, hospitals that have achieved distinction in nursing are normally awarded magnetic accreditation by the American Nurses Credentialing Centre. The magnetic model was devised to distinguish hospitals that offer excellent working conditions for nurses and are looking out for ways of improving and adopting the best nursing practices. Moore is the leading healthcare institution and has the best medical practitioners drawn all over the country. These medical facilities cannot be compared with any other health care institution within the state of California. It also employs advanced healthcare technologies in all aspects of its operations and was voted the best in ICT “the most wired” in 2010.
Introduction
Quality patient care has been a topic of major debates relating to the health systems and economics. Many health care centers are emphasizing how they can attain and minimize unnecessary costs to the hospital. Quality of nursing care is among the major factors that enhance the status of hospitals (Urden et al., 2002). These entail the right nurse to patient ratio, patient recovery, work satisfaction, hours dedicated by the nursing staff to the patients among others. Efforts to maintain high-quality health care must also take into account reasonable healthcare costs and the measures to improve the elements of nursing that help to prevent communicable infections (Aiken et al., 2000; Bliss-Holtz et al., 2004).
In the US, hospitals that have achieved distinction in nursing are normally awarded magnetic accreditation by the American Nurses Credentialing Centre. The magnetic model was devised to distinguish hospitals that offer excellent working conditions for nurses and are looking out for ways of improving and adopting the best nursing practices. The magnetic programs focus on quality in-patient nursing and overall organizational outcomes (American Nurses Credentialing Center, 2010).
According to the American Nurses Credentialing Centre, the magnetic model includes the following areas: First, change in leadership. This demands powerful and vibrant nurse leaders with focus, knowledge, and leadership skills that can help nursing care grow. The second area is structural empowerment. The hospital should have nurse leadership that is capable of creating a favorable hospital environment where nurses feel motivated to achieve their personal and organizational goals and objectives. The hospital must also exhibit commendable professional practice. Exemplary practices include cooperation, performance, and excellent communication among nurses. They are all aimed at achieving the best quality health care for both the patients and the community at large (American Nurses Credentialing Center, 2010).
The magnetic model also encompasses research, innovation, and developments. Besides other medical practitioners, magnetic hospitals have the responsibility of including nurses in research and innovation to enhance their profession. Last but not the least; the magnetic model requires that nurses pursue empirical results beyond normal practices. These entail demonstration of the results and their impacts on the patients, community, and the hospital administration (Bliss-Holtz et al., 2004).
Up to date, over 360 hospitals across the US have been awarded magnetic accreditation.
According to the American Nurses Credentialing Centre, organizations/hospitals must meet a number of eligibility requirements to be awarded magnetic accreditation. The chief nursing officer of a magnetic model hospital must possess a master’s degree and is in charge of maintaining magnetic nursing standards in all aspects of nursing practices. “The American Nurses Association’s Scope and Standards for Nurse Administrators” must be implemented by the hospital. The healthcare organization must also have in place structures that ensure feedback on nursing practices without fear of victimization. The organizational structures must also be capable of collecting data on sensitive nursing practices at all levels to health in determining the quality of healthcare of a particular organization (American Nurses Credentialing Center, 2010; McGuire & Kennerly, 2006).
Moore Regional Hospital
Moore Regional Hospital was first opened in 1929 as Moore Memorial Hospital during a thanks-giving day. This hospital had only 33 beds, 5 bassinets, and 27 employees. This facility is situated in Pinehurst, North Carolina. More Regional Hospital is the leading health care facility in North Carolina and the region’s first all-inclusive health care network. Moore Regional Hospital is a non-profit making referral hospital with a capacity of 372 beds, serving almost all the counties in North Carolina. Since its establishment, Moore Regional Hospital has grown to include about 3000 employees including 750 volunteers providing the full range of health care services to people in this region. These include primary services to five counties and secondary services to ten counties within Carolina (First Health of the Carolinas, 2011).
Moore Regional Hospital has the top leading physician and nurses drawn all over the US. They also have the best medical facilities and unbelievable staff who specialize in different professions including laboratory technicians, X-rays, nutrition, physiotherapy among others. All the above factors include it among the best hospital in the U.S. About 90 percent of their medical staff are specialists certified by the U.S medical board. Moore Regional Hospital also has a number of affiliate specialty treatment centers including Pinehurst Medical Clinic, Pinehurst Radiology, and Pinehurst Surgical. They employ the best medical technologies incomparable with any hospital within North Carolina (First Health of the Carolinas, 2011).
According to the 2010 survey of Hospitals and Healthcare Networks, Moore Regional Hospital was recognized as the ‘most wired’ health care organization. This assessment mainly evolved on everything including prescription bar codes electronic information storage systems and even networks that are wireless. Moore Regional Hospital has set up numerous technologies over the years to enhance patient care and provide ample work conditions/ environment for the staff and medical practitioners. “For instance, electronic nursing notes and administration of medication have been enforced right through the system and all its centers are using electronic healthcare records” (Keeney, 2009). This survey did not focus on technology alone, but also on the positive changes these technologies have brought to healthcare.
More regional hospital also employs computerized systems such as Computerized Provider Order Entry, which pulls together and restructures the workflow processes, thus improving patients’ wellbeing and excellence. More Regional Hospital understands the benefits of information Communication Technology (ICT) and therefore most of the medication orders are done electronically plus the records of all the patients under medication (Keeney, 2009; First Health of the Carolinas, 2011).
Magnetic structure of Moore Regional Hospital
Moore regional hospital‘s nursing certifies the fourteen forces of magnetism. Moore was accredited on 13th October 2006 to join the country’s excellent magnetic nursing program hospital. The hospital’s nursing department is headed by the President of Patient Care Services. The president has deputies who are also the chief nursing officers at the regional braches. The president must have a Masters degree in nursing related field with vast experience while the deputies must have a bachelor degree.
The top leadership is required to adhere to the basic requirements of a magnetic hospital. The vast experience in the field of nursing means that the president and the deputies must be knowledgeable, able to make bold decisions to be followed by the juniors taking into consideration the organizational goals and objective (First Health of the Carolinas, 2011).
Excellent leadership in Nursing is very important since it ensures safety and quality health care for the people in a particular hospital. Studies have shown high level of health care standards in Magnetic hospitals as compared to non-magnetic hospitals. Success in Magnetic hospitals is attributed to the consistency with transformational leadership (McGuire & Kennerly, 2006). Studies in the US established that about 100.000 deaths in the hospitals were as a result of errors in the healthcare. These created anxiety among the American public thus calling for government action to ensure a lot of efforts are focused towards quality and safety of healthcare. In response to these studies, other recommendations relating to patient’s safety and changing of the working environment for Nurses were also released to help the government in safeguarding quality and safety in healthcare (Stone et al. 2007).
Moore Regional hospital has been able to hire and retain professional Nurses despite of the relative shortage of the Nurses in U.S market. Studies have also demonstrated that besides positive outcome from the Nursing staff, the hospital has shown positive clinical results in term of quality and safety of the patients. Studies have also shown low mortality rate in this hospital which is majorly attributed to the services offered by the Nursing staff (First Health of the Carolinas, 2011; Stone et al. 2007; Aiken& Havens, 1999).
Deputy President also known as the Chief Nursing officers also act as the nursing managers in their respective jurisdictions. Upaniek (2003) made frequent reference to the role of Nurse Manager and its considerable significance in developing and maintaining a magnetic hospital environment. According to Upaniek (2003) the contribution and actions of the Nursing managers in the initial Magnetic hospitals is very pivotal to their success. Nurse Managers are very instrumental in staff satisfaction, retention and development. They are also chief supporters and resourceful persons for the nursing staff. They are very knowledgeable and helpful thus nurtured positive relationship with the entire nursing staff which boosted the staff participation in the hospital work (Aiken& Havens, 1999). This explains why Moore hospital has been very successful in almost all of its undertakings (First Health of the Carolinas, 2011).
Moore Regional Hospital allows nurses to practice autonomously. This autonomy has enabled nurses to evaluate and offer nursing procedures which are very suitable for patients based on their vast experience and knowledge. These autonomy is only limited to the professional qualifications and standards set by the hospital. Moore Regional hospital has more faith and belief in their nurses, thus allows them more often to make independent judgment in certain matters relating to the patient or community (First Health of the Carolinas, 2011).
The hospital also collaborates with other hospitals, academic institutions and community organizations within and without the California state, to create ties that will support enhanced patients results and health of the regions served by the hospital. These partnerships are in form of research, awareness campaigns, public education, workshops, and organization of events among others. Moore regional hospital work hand in hand with the California state university to train students and improve the nursing practices of their staff (First Health of the Carolinas, 2011; Keeney, 2009).
Professional and very experienced nurses from the hospital are also tutors and lecturers of institutions across the California states. These nurses also train new recruits, intern students and the community at large. The hospital has a well-drafted program for training of the staff and students of all level of education including masters and PhD students. Therefore, the staff as whole serves as the school and instructor for all manner of student within the hospital. The hospital also has patient training program which is geared towards meeting different patients’ needs (First Health of the Carolinas, 2011; Whitman et al., 2002).
The hospital enjoys excellent communication and cooperation between the nurses and highly qualified physicians. Communication and cooperation has been made easier by advanced usage of ICT in the hospital. We can no t forget that the hospital was voted as the most wired hospital in 2010. Mutual respect and professionalism exhibited in this hospital has promoted and encouraged working towards achieving similar goal and positive patient results (Keeney 2009).
Similar to other magnetic institutions, Moore Regional Hospital also supports employee growth and development. Besides quality oriented and educative in-service, most nurses in the hospital are striving to develop their careers. The hospital has numerous educative, professional and career development programs. They also offer sufficient funds and human resources to career development programs. The role of nurses in Moore Regional Hospital is very important. Nurses are viewed with a lot respect and are seen as an essential part of the hospital’s ability to offer patients care. Nursing alone has considerable impact on the entire system processes of the hospital. Professional and highly experienced nurses in Moore Regional Hospital offer consultation services. They offer these services to the individual patients, other organization and cohorts with a community (First Health of the Carolinas, 2011).
Despite all the above magnetic eligibility standards, Moore Regional Hospital do not attend to the community’s normal healthcare challenges since it is used mostly as a referral hospital. Not all of the highly ranked nursing professionals in this hospital have bachelor degree in nursing or nursing related field. Since the hospital serves wider area, it has employed very many workers creating bureaucracy and complex organizational structure. Despite of its excellent quality services, Moore Regional Hospital has never given nurses that much autonomy since the doctors or physicians have the last say. Installation of advanced information communication technology has promoted swifter services but at the same time resulted into loss of jobs. A physician is able to prescribe a medicine to the patient directly without involving the nurse, thus depriving nurses their customary responsibly of attending to the patient. Nevertheless, this can also be seen a sign of efficiency in service delivery and reduction of time wastage (First Health of the Carolinas, 2011).
Conclusion
Studies have shown high level of health care standards in Magnetic hospitals as compared to non-magnetic hospitals. Success in Magnetic hospitals is attributed to the consistency with transformational leadership, and effective hiring and maintenance of professional Nursing staff. Studies have also demonstrated that besides positive outcome from the Nursing staff, Magnetic hospitals have shown positive clinical results in term of quality and safety of the patients. Studies have also shown low mortality rate in these hospitals which is majorly attributed to the services offered by the Nursing staff. Following its accreditation as a magnetic organization, Moore Regional hospital has maintained high standard and quality healthcare services. The hospital has tackled all the fourteen forces of magnetism adequately.
The Hospitals workforce is drawn across the nation and includes highly qualified and certified physicians and nursing staff. Nurses and physicians take pleasure in the mutual and professional bond, thus work as one towards achieving the organizational goals. Their top quality nursing leadership headed by President of patient care services has been an excellent model for both the staff and junior members. The hospital has wider resource base thus capable of supporting and promoting any form of activity that is geared towards improving patient’s results, improving the professional level of the nursing staff, public education among others. Another aspect which has always called for partnership between the hospital staff and other stakeholders is research. These researches are normally aimed at providing results and their impacts on the patients, community and the hospital administration. In a nutshell, magnetic accreditation is the way to go for all organizations offering healthcare services. Magnetic hospitals not only improve the results of their organization, but also of their patients and community.
References
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