From Penn State Health, thanks for tuning into this Facebook Live video about
Magnet recognition. I'm Scott Gilbert. You might have heard the news recently that
Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center received it's third
consecutive Magnet designation. That's deemed to be the highest national honor
for nursing excellence. Less than twelve percent of registered hospitals in the
U.S. have earned that. Now. here today to tell us a bit about, why it is such an
important designation are Stephanie Wachter and Jared Dougherty. They're both
staff nurses here at the Medical Center. Thanks for being here today guys. Let's
talk a bit about what Magnet recognition does signify. Tell me a bit about that.
Well Magnet recognition is the highest honor for nursing staffs that achieve in
the nation. What it signifies is that the nurses physicians and allied health
professionals at the hospital work together to create excellent patient
care outcomes through a series of processes that they've designed
themselves. And I think the institution has really put this at the forefront
over the past few years. When we look at our strategic imperatives and the vision
for not just nursing as the profession but the organization as a
whole to really put the patient at the center
of that interaction. And so I'm curious since you're both staff nurses you have
a lot of use a lot of experience you know working directly with our patients,
what does it mean, first of all, for you as staff members to be able to say as
nurses we work for a magnet recognized institution? For me, it just kind of
signifies that the level to which I practice and the level to which my
colleagues practice is something that can achieve those high quality patient
outcomes and that we really do provide excellent care for our patients at this
facility. How about for you Stephanie? Well for me, it's really more about my
nursing practice being supported in many ways at the Med Center. Whether it's the
days that I engage in direct patient care or if I'm involving myself in a
more professional development opportunities such as going back to
school or doing community outreach or perhaps engaging in direct Magnet
activities. Like providing counsel work for our staff nurses as well. And so
people watching this, like I said upfront, I've probably heard the term Magnet
recognized but they may wonder what it means for them as patients. Can you talk
a bit about that? What's the significance? What can a patient expect at a
Magnet recognized hospital? Well patients simply need to know that a Magnet
organization is proven to have excellent patient care outcomes through
collaboration among nurses, physicians, administrators and leaders and other
allied health professionals that work at the hospital. So the patients that come
to our hospital are getting the best care. The nurses that provide that care
have a voice in how they provide it and it's really proven to be the best
thinking process around providing nursing care. That's how it translates
for patients then Jarad? Yeah, I think as a patient, you know being in that
vulnerable position of being in the hospital and having to kind of have
somebody else being responsible for your care, it gives them a little bit of ease
of mind knowing that you're gonna have a team really collaborating to keep you at
the forefront. You're watching a Facebook live interview from Penn State Health
Milton Hershey Medical Center; I'm Scott Gilbert. I'm joined by
Stephanie Wachter and Jared Dougherty, they're both staff nurses here. We're talking
about Magnet recognition and what that means. What does that tell us about our
nurses here at the Medical Center? I do know this is a very long and involved
process to go for this designation and the medical center earned its first
Magnet designation in 2007, again in 2012, again in 2017. And in each time, there's
quite a process to go through. Walk me through some of the basic parts of that
process. Involves what, writing, site visits, everything in between? Yes, so
there's actually a team that gets together to write the Magnet document.
Thousands and thousands of pages of information goes into writing this
Magnet document and a whole host of individuals throughout the organization
kind of get together and collaborate to showcase the examples of excellent
patient care that we provide here at the organization. So that then goes on to a
team of Magnet surveyors who will review that. And then kind of get back to us on
our Magnet program director about a site visit date. And once the site visit date
is here, it's really all about celebrating nursing and about
celebrating the excellent patient outcomes that we have
and the excellent environment that we work in. What is it like to have that
site visit when you get to kind of show off what you do? Well, the site visit is
really like the Superbowl of nursing. For me as a staff nurse. The surveyors say
they're here to amplify and clarify the work that the nurses do and I think
that's a really great way to phrase it. It's important during the site visit
that the information that was typed in black and white on the page, really comes
to life so that the American Nurses Credentialing Center representatives can
really see that we live and breathe the Magnet mission each day here at Hershey.
They want to make sure it's not just something you write down, it's something you actually live?
Absolutely! The American Nurses Credentialing Center, that's the ANCC,
they're the ones who designate hospitals, give out the Magnet
designation. They singled out a Hershey Medical Center for a few particular
initiatives and areas. Can you tell me about some of those? Yes, so one of the
areas was in particular the way that nurses and physicians and other allied
health professionals collaborate. So they actually on the phone call that we
received from them recognized one of our units specifically for their initiatives
in driving forth positive patient outcomes and really working together as
a team to achieve those outcomes. Also, community outreach was recognized?
Exactly! The ANCC did recognize our strong community outreach department and
I've had the blessings to be able to work with the director of community
outreach here at Hershey to kind of participate in some of those programs as
well. They include providing patient education in the community at places
like the farmers market here in Hershey or at food pantries throughout Central
Pennsylvania. It's an opportunity for me as a nurse to get to know patients
before they become a patient so that I understand what their home life is like,
so that the interventions we provide as nurses here are easily translated to
things that we can do at home for them. We welcome your questions for Jared and
Stephanie. They're both staff nurses here at Penn State Health Milton Hershey
Medical Center. Feel free to put your questions in the comment field on this
Facebook post and we can certainly pose those questions to them about Magnet
recognition here at Hershey Medical Center.
Major news that was just shared recently and we're glad to have them helping us
share it here as well. Now, 76 percent of the nurses here at the Medical Center
have a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. A BSN degree or higher.
Why is that important? I know both of you have your
BSNs. Tell me a bit about why that's important to you? I think it really just
validates the fact that the research shows that baccalaureate prepared nurses
or higher really do achieve those great patient
outcomes that we strive for here at Hershey and they have the knowledge to
kind of put that text that they read in in their classes and their undergraduate
studies or the graduate studies really into practice and make it come to life
in the patient care setting. For you Stephanie? I'll give an example, so one of the cornerstones of a
bachelor's degree in nursing is understanding how to implement research
into practice. And on the Cancer Institute where I work, we know that
patients can sometimes get central line infections and we've created multiple
nurse driven interventions to ensure that our patients don't receive central
line associated infections when they come to us. Just because we have the
knowledge base and understanding of current practices and best evidence to
implement for our patients here every day. Fantastic! I think you've answered
all my questions anything else that you guys would like to add about Magnet
designation? Of why it's important to a hospital like Hershey Medical Center?
I think the biggest take-home message about working at a Magnet hospital is
that the nurses voices are heard. From the patient side through the
interdisciplinary teams on the unit level, all the way up through senior
leadership and that the nurses who are the bread and butter workers at the
hospital providing that direct patient care really are listened to and have
direct decision-making capacity with regard to the care that they provide.
Any closing thoughts, Jarad? No. I mean, I I'm just so fortunate to be able to have a facility
like Hershey in my back yard and really be able to practice to the fullest of my
extent that I can as a registered nurse here. We're gonna share a story about the
Magnet designation we'll share that in the comment field below this post.
We'll also share a link to a recent video that we produced with bunch of nurses here at
the medical center, sharing their thoughts and what this Magnet
designation means. Jared, Stephanie, thanks so much for joining me today. I appreciate it.
And thank you for watching this Facebook live interview from Penn State Health
Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.