Magnet Hospitals

I'm just wondering how much of a difference it makes to work as a nurse at a "Magnet" institution versus one that's not. I currently work in a "for profit" hospital where I feel the nurses are not appreciated and often have what I consider to be an un-safe number of patients.
http://allnurses.com/general-nursing...ml#post5961964This is a much discussed topic. You can find lots more if you search the site. This link is the latest discussion I believe.

Quote from Carrie_MTCI'm just wondering how much of a difference it makes to work as a nurse at a "Magnet" institution versus one that's not. I currently work in a "for profit" hospital where I feel the nurses are not appreciated and often have what I consider to be an un-safe number of patients.

Job satisfaction is really tough in this world.

I've worked for a for profit hospital and now I work for a magnet hospital... I'm not sure if being on the east coast has anything to do with it, but I found a huge difference between the two. But then again, I think for-profit hospitals are quite corrupt, just from my personal experience. Getting into a non-profit one will be an improvement.

I think non-profit vs for-profit can sometimes make a difference. But Magnet makes no difference at all. And wherever you are, the same basic problem will be there: patients.

A nurse I used to work with always said, "I'd love this job if it weren't for the patients" :P

Magnet hospitals are not considered good places to work in the area I live in. (metro ATL) This is especially true for ER/ICu types as PMFB-RN has suggested to you. IMHO, there is a lot of extra accountability for irrelevant things with very little corresponding reward/increase in job satisfaction for the nurses.

I've worked for a magnet hospital and for two that are not magnet. The magnet hospital has an outstanding nurse education program, but pays much less than the non-magnet facilities and has a much higher patient to nurse ratio. Of course, this may just be my experience.

Quote from Carrie_MTCI'm just wondering how much of a difference it makes to work as a nurse at a "Magnet" institution versus one that's not. I currently work in a "for profit" hospital where I feel the nurses are not appreciated and often have what I consider to be an un-safe number of patients.

Quote from carrie_mtci'm just wondering how much of a difference it makes to work as a nurse at a "magnet" institution versus one that's not. i currently work in a "for profit" hospital where i feel the nurses are not appreciated and often have what i consider to be an un-safe number of patients.

I think you get the gist of most of the replies so far.magnet status is primarily three things:1. A marketing tool for the hospital.2. A money-maker for the agency that confers magnet status.3. A way to distract nurses by giving them some of the trappings of power and influence through phony committees so they don't go seeking real power and influence through unionization.Some of us have taken to calling it "maggot status".I'd also add that, on average, the difference between for-profit and non-profit is probably greater - though even there, too many supposedly non-profit hospitals have taken to acting more and for like for-profits. See this item for an example:http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/...Care_9753.html

It seems like just finding a decent hospital is like a needle in a haystack. Where I work we have adequate staffing ratio's but they have cut back staffing over the years so it is harder, especially when dealing with crazy, confused, violent, or morbidly obese patients and we don't have the extra staff we need for those. But even when staffing is ok, there is such a condescending, micromanaging tone to deal with. All the latest gimmicks or changes from the top down with no feedback from the staff, in most instances, these changes make our life more difficult, are not practical and are more time consuming, but there is no awareness of that by management. It is very frustrating because they simply refuse to listen to us. We are promised lift equipment that never comes, something else comes up for the hospital to spend the money on instead! They supposedly can't or won't afford a computer for each room so we are dealing with broken, dead batteries and no doubt infection issues. Staffing by mandation is the order of the day, simply because its cheaper than hiring staff or contracting with agency or pool! We have so called shared governance but that is a joke because again it is a top down deal where they state what the council will focus on. If the nurses bring up issues on their own they are ignored and only the people management want end up on the council. I wouldn't waste my time banging my head againt the wall on such a council.