As we close out 2022, I wanted to provide an update on where we are with the Journey to Magnet at UAMS!
Our Magnet Writing Team has been busy writing up the stories of Nursing Excellence from across UAMS Health. We have completed 36 stories about Nursing Excellence at UAMS, which represents 35% of the overall Magnet document. This is an astonishing achievement, considering our team has only been writing for 9 months. We are inspired to read about implementation of evidence-based practices and collaboration with interprofessional teams to improve high-quality care. The most recent stories submitted include:
· Organizational recognition of F4 for reduction in CAUTIs
· Nurse-led research about the effectiveness of an educational module for nurses to improve scoring of the modified Finnegan tool
· Implementation of a new EBP practice to decrease the contamination rate of blood cultures in the ED
· Design of the physical environment in the Women’s Health Clinics to improve patient experience
· Advocacy of resources to promote wellbeing of nurses through a lactation room on E7
· TeleSANE program expansion in the ED
· Implementation of the BERT team to reduce physical violence against RNs
We continue to see all Nursing Sensitive Indicators (measures of nursing quality including falls with injury, HAPI, CLABSI, CAUTI, surgical errors and patient burns) and Patient Satisfaction survey results outperform the Magnet requirements. This is an amazing accomplishment by the nurses and leadership teams providing direct care to patients, in addition to our Quality and Patient Experience offices, in the improvement initiatives that deliver better care and experience to our patients. This includes data from the time period during the height of the COVID pandemic, which was an extremely difficult time for frontline caregivers.
The most amazing achievement of all, however, includes the results from the RN Engagement questions that you answered as part of the UAMS Employee Engagement survey from Gallup. RN Engagement is vital to the success of our Magnet Journey. The past 2 years have been extremely challenging, not only during the pandemic but in the current aftermath of staffing crises and financial distress. I am pleased to reveal that despite all of this, the RN engagement scores were mostly positive in comparison to other large academic healthcare organizations, caring for complex patient populations. We have met the requirements for Magnet, which are to have at least 3 domains with 51% performance.
Overall, UAMS leadership is amazed and grateful for your commitment to engage in excellent patient care and your achievements in quality and patient experience. Every day you overcome challenges to care for patients as a team. It is a privilege to lead you in the journey that will culminate in the designation of Magnet – You deserve it!
