A Magnet hospital
MRH nursing program acknowledged as among the best of the nation’s best
By Brenda Bouser

In it, Deb Zimmermann, the chief nursing officer at New York’s Rochester General Hospital, related how her father, a Pinehurst resident, had been cared for in three nursing units at Moore Regional following emergency surgery. Wallace was happy to hear that Zimmermann’s dad had had such a good hospital experience, but the rest of the letter, which arrived when Moore Regional’s nursing staff was knee-deep in its quest for the Magnet Nursing Program designation, really made her day.

“My father told me he asked one of his nurses if Moore was a Magnet hospital,” Zimmermann continued. “The nurse told him that they were on the journey and had just submitted their application. My father told me that the nurses at Moore make him feel that I am a little closer to him. He believes that they are a Magnet hospital. What more could a daughter ask! I sleep better at night knowing my parents have a hospital with outstanding nurses in their area.”

Either Zimmermann’s father is an astute observer of nursing care or he can predict the future. Either way, he was right: FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital now is a Magnet Nursing Program hospital. The official notification came in October, on Friday the 13th, to be exact. In her call to Wallace that afternoon, Brenda Kelly of the Magnet Nursing Program Commission called it the hospital’s “lucky day.”

Only 224 health care organizations in 43 states, less than 4 percent of the nation’s hospitals, have earned the Magnet designation, a recognition from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) for hospitals that provide the highest level of nursing care.

“The Magnet designation, earned by only 10 other hospitals in North Carolina, is additional evidence of the excellence of our nursing staff,” says FirstHealth’s Chief Executive Officer Charles T. Frock. “This honor is reserved only for those who reach the highest standards of nursing excellence.”

The Magnet ‘journey’
Moore Regional’s recognition as a Magnet Nursing Program hospital followed a two-year Magnet “journey” that was led by Wallace and Cheryl Batchelor, executive director of Clinical Operations.

“It was an incredible journey,” Wallace says. “To hear that we achieved the designation was a source of great pride. This was an achievement that the staff accomplished. They made this happen.”

According to Batchelor, who served as Magnet project coordinator, the staff-directed quest for the Magnet designation affirmed the caliber of Moore Regional’s nursing service. “For years, we said we were Magnet quality,” she says. “We wanted to properly document that we met the criteria for Magnet.”

According to the ANCC, the Magnet Recognition Program recognizes health care organizations that provide the very best in nursing care while acting as “magnets” that create a work environment that recognizes, promotes and rewards the nursing profession.

The ANCC lists four objectives for the Magnet program:

• to recognize hospitals that deliver excellent nursing care to patients
• to promote quality in an environment that supports professional nursing practice
• to allow for the sharing of successful nursing practices among health care organizations
• to promote positive patient outcomes

Moore Regional’s Magnet designation involves all of the hospital’s on-site nursing services as well as five off-site nursing programs: School Nursing, Home Health, Cardiac Rehab, Critical Care Transport and Outpatient Diabetes.

Fifty nurses comprised Moore Regional’s Magnet team, holding educational sessions, workshops and special events, documenting how the nursing service met Magnet criteria and preparing for an on-site appraisal team visit. The process included a reorganization of the hospital’s Patient Care Services department to provide more staff involvement in patient care decision-making and the implementation of several new nursing-led committees including a Work Environment Council and a Research Council.

Only 10 other hospitals among the 135 hospitals and health networks in North Carolina have earned Magnet recognition: Catawba Valley Medical Center (Hickory), Forsyth Medical Center and North Carolina Baptist Hospital of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center (both in Winston-Salem), High Point Regional Health System (High Point), Moses Cone Health System (Greensboro), New Hanover Regional Medical Center (Wilmington), NorthEast Medical Center (Concord), Pitt County Memorial Hospital (Greenville), Rex Hospital (Raleigh) and Duke Medical Center (Durham.)