5 Things that Create an Exceptional Nursing Environment

Brian DeLoche speaks about his experience as a JointWorks patient.

When you or a loved one are admitted to the hospital, your nursing care will make an important impact on your recovery. But what makes an exceptional nurse? Some qualities are easy to recognize: a personal touch, an attentive eye, knowledge of a patient’s medical situation and compassion. Other qualities happen behind the scenes and provide nurses with the support they need to provide the best care possible for their patients.

Former Memorial Medical Center patient Brian DeLoche is a three-time cancer survivor, a sepsis survivor and a knee replacement recipient. He jokes that he has spent a lot of “quality” time in Memorial Medical Center’s patient care system.

“From my point of view, whether it be that of someone receiving outpatient services or as someone in a hospital bed, what I have observed is a culture of caring that begins at the hospital’s front doors and extends uninterrupted all the way to the patient bedside,” he wrote in a letter earlier this year. “Almost without exception, everyone with whom I’ve had contact has made an effort to see that my patient needs have been met, as well as any needs my visiting family members may have had.”

On April 27, MMC learned it had received its third designation as a Magnet® Hospital, the highest national recognition for nursing excellence as determined by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). The ANCC looks at the following five criteria for excellence in nursing practice.

• Transformational leadership: leading with vision, influence, clinical knowledge and strong expertise relating to nursing practice
• Structural empowerment: providing an innovative environment where strong professional practice flourishes
• Exemplary professional practice: a comprehensive understanding of the role of nursing; the application of that understanding with patients, families and communities
• New knowledge, innovation and improvements: redesigning and redefining current systems and practices in relation to new models of care
• Empirical quality results: demonstrating positive solutions to process defects and optimal outcomes for patients

Memorial’s third consecutive Magnet designation means that MMC demonstrates excellence in nursing practice and adheres to national standards for delivering patient care. MMC is one of 425 hospitals nationwide to achieve the ANCC’s Magnet Recognition for Excellence in Nursing Services. Only an estimated 7 percent of the nation’s hospitals have achieved Magnet status. Memorial achieved initial Magnet designation in November 2006, again in 2011 and now in 2016.