MyMichigan Medical Center Midland First in Region to Achieve Magnet® Recognition

Magnet recognition is the highest international honor for nursing excellence.

Midland, Mich. April 28, 2022 – MyMichigan Medical Center Midland is the first Medical Center in the region to achieve Magnet recognition as a reflection of its nursing professionalism, teamwork and superiority in patient care. The American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Magnet Recognition Program® distinguishes organizations across the globe that meet rigorous standards for nursing excellence. There are currently 580 Magnet recognized hospitals worldwide and, of those, only 14 are in Michigan.

“Magnet recognition is considered the gold standard of nursing excellence, a distinction earned by only a small community of hospitals and health care organizations international. This achievement provides our community with the ultimate benchmark to measure the quality of patient care. It’s just one more reason, we are the preferred health care provider of the region,” said Tammy Terrell, M.S.N., B.S.N., vice president and chief nursing officer, MyMichigan Health. “Achieving Magnet recognition reinforces the culture of excellence that is a cornerstone of how we serve our community. It’s also tangible evidence of our nurses’ commitment to providing the very best care to our patients, of which we are extremely proud.”

Research demonstrates that Magnet recognition provides specific benefits to health care organizations and their communities, such as:

Higher patient satisfaction with nurse communication, availability of help and receipt of discharge information.
Lower risk of 30-day mortality and lower failure to rescue rates.
Higher job satisfaction among nurses.
Lower nurse reports of intentions to leave their positions.
Magnet recognition is the gold standard for nursing excellence and is a factor when the public judges health care organizations. U.S. News & World Report’s annual showcase of “America’s Best Hospitals” includes Magnet recognition in its ranking criteria for quality of inpatient care.

The Magnet Model provides a framework for nursing practice, research, and measurement of outcomes. Through this framework, the American Nurses Credentialing Center evaluates applicants across a number of components and dimensions to gauge an organization’s nursing excellence.

The foundation of this model comprises various elements deemed essential to delivering superior patient care. These include the quality of nursing leadership and coordination and collaboration across specialties, as well as processes for measuring and improving the quality and delivery of care.

The Medical Center’s journey to Magnet began seven years ago when work groups gathered to outline the steps needed to achieve the nursing excellence milestone. Several steps followed as nurse leaders and employees gathered together to influence the Medical Center’s culture of excellence through shared governance, multi-disciplinary unit practice councils, professional growth and development, and staff-driven evidence-based practice.

“Our Commitment to Excellence in Nursing has been quite a journey. We have developed shared governance teams at the unit and system levels. We have enculturated our care delivery model of Relationship Based Care which enforces the importance of care for ourselves, our colleagues, and our teams. What’s more, our Professional Practice Model guided our everyday practice while keeping the patient and family at the center of everything we do,” said Ruth Kitzmiller, M.S.A., B.S.N., R.N., N.E.-B.C., Magnet program director, MyMichigan Health. “This work led to the submission of our application on April 1, 2019. We took 24 months to write our documents and address all 60 Sources of Evidence with 82 stories including 34 with specific data requirements and 9 with specific ambulatory/outpatient examples – and finally the three-day virtual site visit this past March. There are no right words to describe just how excited we all are to have received Magnet status!”

Support for MyMichigan’s Magnet journey was funded by The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation’s Margaret Ann Riecker Institute for Nursing Excellence at MyMichigan Health. The Institute was founded in 2014 to help nurses across MyMichigan Health receive guidance and support to then foster advancements and assume leadership roles. Specifically, the program aided in tuition and professional membership support, specialty certification training and testing on site, a shared governance program, a new graduate R.N. residency program, nursing research and awarding nurses with excellent nursing practices.

“To achieve a status such as Magnet truly takes a village and we could not have done it without the support of Ranny Riecker and her passion in supporting us and the communities we serve,” said Terrell. “This, along with the vision of Diane Postler-Slattery, our late CEO, a nurse herself. Diane reinforced each and every day that to achieve excellence, we remain laser focused on making the highest standard of care available to our patients close to home. We did that. We do that. And, we will continue to do that for generations to come. She would be so proud, just as we all are.”

About ANCC’s Magnet Recognition Program
The Magnet Recognition Program — administered by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, the largest and most prominent nurses credentialing organization in the world — identifies health care organizations that provide the very best in nursing care and professionalism in nursing practice. The Magnet Recognition Program is the highest national honor for nursing excellence and provides consumers with the ultimate benchmark for measuring quality of care. www.nursingworld.org/magnet.

SOURCE: MyMichigan Health