SMH Nursing Services & Magnet Recognition
Sarasota Memorial is proud to be a Magnet hospital.
The American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Magnet Recognition is the most prestigious designation for quality patient care and nursing excellence that a healthcare organization can achieve.
In 2023, Sarasota Memorial Hospital-Sarasota earned its fifth consecutive Magnet recognition from the ANCC, the credentialing body of the American Nurses Association — a humbling achievement that fewer than 1% of the nation's hospitals have attained.
ANCC’s Magnet Recognition Program identifies healthcare organizations that provide the very best in nursing care and professionalism in nursing practice. The gold standard for nursing excellence, Magnet recognition also provides consumers with the ultimate benchmark for measuring hospitals’ quality of care.
“The everyday focus of SMH nurses on providing top quality and safe care is the reason that we are consistently recognized at the local, state and national levels for outstanding outcomes,” says SMH-Sarasota Chief Nursing Officer Jean Lucas.
To achieve Magnet recognition, hospitals must pass a rigorous, lengthy application and review process that demands both leadership and staff demonstrate Magnet elements deemed essential to delivering superior patient care. These include nursing leadership and coordination and collaboration across specialties, as well as processes for measuring and improving the quality and delivery of care.
The Magnet Difference: What it Means for Patients
For patients, there are tangible benefits and measurable differences between hospitals that have achieved Magnet status and those that have not, according to the ANCC.
Patients can expect Magnet hospitals to deliver higher-quality care, a safer care environment, better patient outcomes, a more satisfied and engaged nursing team, and more nursing staff with advanced training and education.
The care standards that Magnet hospitals must attain are rigorous and require continual improvement. They must outperform national benchmarks for patient outcomes — such as achieving and maintaining lower mortality rates, lower failure-to-rescue rates, lower fall rates and higher patient satisfaction rates.
Magnet organizations also attract and retain the nation’s top nurses to care for its patients. At Sarasota Memorial, our thousands of Magnet nurses are the best of the best. Each one continually strives for improvement and is dedicated to delivering competent, compassionate care at the bedside. They fulfill integral roles in our multi-disciplinary care teams, and many carry specialized certifications in critical care, trauma, cardiovascular services, oncology, radiology and other specialties.
The Magnet Difference: What it Means for Our Nurses
Magnet recognition not only reflects the hard work of SMH-Sarasota nurses, but also the support of our entire health system to create an environment that cultivates nursing excellence, that promotes empowered and collaborative decision-making at the bedside, and that supports evidence-based clinical practice.
A Magnet organization recognizes and champions the invaluable contributions of nurses to lead healthcare change. Collaboration and shared decision-making between clinical nurses and leadership have been key in enabling SMH-Sarasota to achieve superior patient outcomes.
As a Magnet hospital, Sarasota Memorial supports nurses and a culture of excellence by providing resources that further innovation, research, evidence-based practice, education, specialty advancement and interprofessional collaboration. Nurses show the value and impact of the work they do through empirical outcomes that transcend nursing practice by influencing all areas within a Magnet organization. This supportive work environment results in higher nurse job satisfaction and lower nurse turnover, which in turn leads to a stronger team and superior patient care.
“We take pride in our dedication to evidence-based practice and delivery of excellent care,” CNO Lucas says. “Through specialty nursing certification and advanced degrees, SMH nurses are enhancing healthcare throughout the region as we continue to successfully grow community access to our top-quality care.”
Our Magnet nurses benefit from:
- Ongoing career development, continued education and professional growth/leadership opportunities.
- A professional governance structure that encourages decisionmaking at the bedside.
- High job satisfaction.
- An environment that recognizes and rewards competence.
- Low staff turnover and vacancy rates.
- Enhanced interdisciplinary collaboration.
- An organization that helps team members be the best they can be!
Ready to stand proud as a Magnet nurse and join our best-of-the-best nursing team?
Click here to search our current career opportunities.