Jan 25, 2023 Scoring Top Nursing Honors

RWJUH Hamilton nurses attended a 2021 gathering of the American Nurses Credentialing Center

Achieving Magnet status recognizes the highest quality care for patients.

Nurses have been called the backbone of health care. At Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) Hamilton, they provide vital care at the bedside but also promote teamwork, enhance safety, improve patient outcomes, nurture community health, educate staff, provide leadership and more.

As a result of such efforts, RWJUH Hamilton has earned Magnet recognition for nursing excellence from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). The designation is the nation’s most prestigious nursing honor—one that only 9 percent of hospitals across the country have achieved.

“It’s like getting an Oscar at the Academy Awards,” says Jacqueline Ciccarelli, MSN, RN, CCRN-K, Manager, Magnet Program and Nursing Performance Improvement. “At RWJUH Hamilton, our nursing team continuously strives to provide excellent care to our patients in an authentic, compassionate way. We are very excited about being designated for the first time as a Magnet hospital.”

The designation is based on measures of performance across a wide range of quality benchmarks. “It’s not something you just get by applying,” says Lisa Breza, RN, MSN, NEABC, Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer at RWJUH Hamilton. “You need to prove that your nursing is consistently exemplary through data, surveys and outcomes for eight consecutive quarters, or two years.”

RWJUH Hamilton’s 400-plus nurses excelled even while facing the peak of an unprecedented pandemic. “I’m so proud of our nurses,” Ciccarelli says. “They all work very hard, and our programs are truly outstanding.”

Standards of Excellence

The ANCC considers a number of key criteria that reflect not only best clinical practices but also organizational factors such as leadership structure, shared decision-making and education.

“Achieving Magnet designation has been years in the making,” Breza says. “We did an analysis of existing practices and executed plans to make sure we met standards for providing exemplary nursing.”

The ANCC found RWJUH Hamilton excelled at benchmarks including:

  • Transformational leadership: “This means inspiring employees to strive beyond expectations toward a shared vision,” Breza says. “It’s about empowering nurses to have a voice at the table and enabling them to drive outcomes through evidence-based practice.” Leaders including the chief nursing officer continually look to the future and anticipate changes that can improve staff effectiveness, promote a healthy work environment and ensure patient safety and healing.
  • Innovative practices: RWJUH Hamilton nurses are encouraged to provide ideas, solutions and leadership to improve nursing care in their units and throughout the hospital. “We have a hospital-wide shared governance model where nurses contribute to decisions about nursing practice,” Breza says. “Our nurses participate in unit-based councils, committees and a professional practice committee where front-line nurses and leaders come together, and nurses have input up to the system level on matters including equipment, products and policies.”
  • Professional advancement: RWJUH Hamilton promotes continuing nursing education through programs that provide tuition reimbursement for bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing and encourages national certification in specialties. “The result is an even higher level of care for patients,” Ciccarelli says.
  • Partnership and teamwork: “The ANCC gave us very positive feedback on our healthy work environment where nurses play a key role in interprofessional teamwork and collaboration,” Ciccarelli says. “RWJUH Hamilton is a good place to work where leadership supports and values nurses, and nurses in turn take really good care of their patients.”

Magnet Recognition: What It Takes

Magnet logoBeing awarded Magnet recognition for nursing excellence requires multiple levels of evaluation by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). “Before applying, hospital leadership, the nursing team and staff needs to feel very strongly that this is what they want to do and must be committed to this goal and able to achieve it,” says Lisa Breza, RN, MSN, NEA-BC, Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) Hamilton.

Once the ANCC accepts an application, a hospital must gather large amounts of information, data and evidence documenting how the institution has performed on standards outlined in an extensive manual of criteria.
 

If the hospital clears the documentation stage, the ANCC performs a site visit. “They verify and validate that what’s written in the document is actually happening at the hospital,” says Jacqueline Ciccarelli, MSN, RN, CCRN-K, Manager, Magnet Program and Nursing Performance Improvement. “They go unit by unit and interview not just leaders but front-line nurses and staff.”
 

The process takes about a year. Last spring, the ANCC notified RWJUH Hamilton to expect a call with results. Leadership and staff gathered in multiple locations to receive the good news. “It was a fantastic moment,” Breza says.

Colleagues in Quality

Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton is one of six Magnet-recognized hospitals in RWJBarnabas Health (RWJBH), the state’s largest health care system. The complete list consists of:

6 Categories of Exemplary Care

In awarding Magnet recognition to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton for nursing excellence, the American Nurses Credentialing Center highlighted six areas in which the hospital achieved outstanding outcomes and high patient satisfaction. They were:

For inpatient care across all units, limited incidents of:

1. Falls with injury
2. Hospital-acquired pressure injuries
3. Catheter-associated urinary tract infections
4. Central-line-associated bloodstream infections

For outpatient/ambulatory care, high scores for:

5. Courtesy and respect
6. Careful listening

“These honors testify to the outstanding care and compassion our nurses bring to their patients,” says Jacqueline Ciccarelli, MSN, RN, CCRN-K, Manager, Magnet Program and Nursing Performance Improvement.

Learn more about Magnet recognition. Discover what awaits you or someone you know in a nursing career at RWJBarnabas Health, including Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton.