Baystate earns excellence in nursing award |
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SPRINGFIELD For the second time, Baystate Medical Center (BMC) has been named a Magnet hospital for excellence in nursing services, a distinction that places the hospital's nursing staff among the finest in the nation.
The recognition, announced in the wake of an extensive application and review process and site visit by representatives of the American Nurses Credentialing Center, means the hospital has been continuously Magnet-certified since 2005. Baystate is one of only seven such hospitals in Massachusetts, and 18 in New England. Nationally, only about six percent of all health-care organizations carry Magnet designations, and only two precent have received consecutive designations like BMC.
"Magnet designation is nursing's top honor, accepted nationally as the gold standard in nursing excellence," Deborah Morsi, PhD, RN, vice president of Patient Care Services for Baystate Medical Center and chief nursing officer for Baystate Health, said.
"This is a tremendous affirmation of the talent, compassion and dedication that our wonderful nurses bring to patients' bedsides every day," she said.
The Magnet Recognition Program establishes standards of excellence that participating health-care organizations must attain. Magnet designation helps consumers locate providers with a proven level of excellence in nursing care, and assists hospitals in attracting and retaining quality employees.
Eileen Grunwald, RN, a nurse manager at BMC and a leader of the hospital's efforts to maintain its Magnet status, said the honor means much more than a plaque on a wall to the hospital's nurses.
"Magnet tells our nurses that, with the compassionate care they provide around the clock, every day in Springfield, they are an example and an inspiration for many other nursing staffs across the country. And patients everywhere benefit from that inspiration," she said.
Magnet status recognizes excellence in a variety of areas including nursing management, philosophy and practices; adherence to standards for improving quality of patient care; leadership of the nurse administrator in supporting professional practice and continued competence of nursing personnel; and understanding and respecting the cultural and ethnic diversity of patients, their families and significant others, and the care providers in the system.
For more information, go to http://baystatehealth.org/nursing.
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