WE DID IT! We submitted the final Magnet Document to the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), January 30th, two days prior to the due date! Our Magnet Writing Team diligently completed 122 examples of Nursing Excellence from across UAMS Health. We have been inspired to read about how nurses lead initiatives to change nursing practice. The following is a summary of the UAMS Magnet Document:
- Magnet narratives cover from February 2020 to December 2023
- Narratives addressed 70 Outcomes with 122 Examples
- Over 50,000 words
- 260 pieces of evidence
- Credentials of over 325 people
- 22 outcomes about quality, 10 outcomes about interprofessional collaboration
- 4 stories about reduction of falls, 3 stories about reduction of CLABSI, 2 stories about reduction of CAUTIs
We included narratives about big programs at UAMS like TeleSANE, Stroke IDHI team, Comprehensive Care @ Home, Cardiovascular Care, and Gender Affirming Care. We also included narratives about shared governance, ethical decision-making, research, evidence-based practice projects, and quality improvement. These are just a few of the amazing stories of nursing excellence we shared with the ANCC Magnet Program Office as part of our Magnet Document submission. These stories will be made available to you and the public soon. It is your engagement, your commitment, and your dedication to improving quality of care for patients and advancing nursing practice that has made these examples of nursing excellence possible. I am so proud of UAMS nurses, and it is an honor to lead the organization to achieve Magnet Designation, the greatest distinction of nursing excellence an organization can achieve. We expect to hear from the Magnet Program Office about our document during the summer, with a possible site-visit around August.
In addition to amazing stories of nursing excellence, we have seen great performance in Nursing Sensitive Indicators (NSIs, a measure of nursing quality) and Patient Experience survey results. This is a tremendous accomplishment by the nurses and leadership teams providing direct care to patients in addition to our Quality and Patient Experience offices, supporting the improvement initiatives that deliver better care and experiences to our patients. Quarter over quarter, UAMS continues to outperform in both inpatient and ambulatory quality metrics, in addition to all 4 patient experience categories.
For the second quarter in a row, we saw 100% performance in a category on the Patient Experience survey, inpatient patient education. This is a sign of your dedication to ensuring our patients have education about their medications and that you explain things in a way they can understand. We also have 100% performance in several nursing sensitive indicators: device-related pressure injuries, door to needle times in the Emergency Department, and surgical errors and patient burns in ambulatory procedural clinics. This is an unbelievable achievement given the staffing challenges and patient volumes that we are continually faced with. Inpatient falls with injury continues to be our main area of concern and object of focused attention. Patients and nurses must partner together to create safe environments and we need to continue utilizing best practices to address falls in the inpatient units.
Overall, UAMS leadership is amazed by your commitment to 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!