The University Medical Center was recognized Friday with Magnet status by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, a branch of the American Nurses Association.
The Magnet Recognition Program, an international program which recognized its first organization in 1994, awards organizations that meet the ANCC's 14 Points of Magnetism, their criteria for nursing merit, said Jan Moran, assistant director for Magnet operations at the ANCC.
"It's a recognition of nursing excellence and it actually is attributed to a positive and dynamic environment where nurses work," Moran said. "It looks at the organization ... [the Merit Recognition Program] is all encompassing."
Merit Recognition is a prestigious award for organizations, Moran said, and the University Medical Center is part of an elite group of 209 magnets selected from among the 6,000 hospitals in the United States.
To obtain Magnet Recognition, the University Medical Center had to submit an appraisal report on the status of their organization's nursing programs, participate in on-site meetings from ANCC nurses and finally, be approved by an ANCC commission, explained co-chairs of the Magnet Recognition Steering Committee Pam Dennison and Kathleen Rae.
"A team of four nurse leaders and experts from across the nation ... conducted multiple interview sessions, had breakfast and lunch with nurses who were randomly selected to join them and they conducted rounds in all the clinical areas where nursing is practiced," Dennison said. "The documentation was 16 volumes, 1,918 pages, it weighed 33 pounds and it took us about four months of intensive writing to produce it," Rae said.
With the recognition, the Medical Center hopes to attract new practitioners and nurses.
"A future implication is that with the nursing shortage internationally ... nurses and all members of the health care team have an easy frame of reference that this is a gold standard place to work," Rae said.
The award will also attract new patients to the facility, Dennison added.
"For patients, for families, it is an independent organization verifying that excellent outcomes happen here," she said. "Decades of research show us that in Magnet organizations fewer patients die ... because of the high quality of care they get."
The Medical Center is "very pleased with this recognition," said the Peter Jump, director of public relations for the University of Virginia Health System.
"It recognizes the great patient care that we give here and the employees that work so hard each day particularly, of course, the nurses," Jump said.
The Medical Center can claim Magnet Recognition status for four years before going through the complete evaluation process again.
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