Montefiore Einstein Nurses Join the Celebrated ‘Magnet Walk’ at the 2022 ANCC Conference

To whoops and cheers from the audience, more than 100 Montefiore Einstein nurses, including 60 from Montefiore Wakefield, proudly marched in the ‘Magnet Walk’ earlier this month in Philadelphia. The celebratory parade was in honor of nurses from Wakefield and other hospitals around the world that earned Magnet® designation this year from the American Nursing Credentialing Center (ANCC).

Nurses from Moses Campus, Weiler Hospital on the Einstein Campus, Children’s Hospital at Montefiore and Hutchinson Campus also marched in support of their Wakefield colleagues. Wakefield achieved its first Magnet® designation earlier this year.

The achievement is enormous. This prestigious recognition—given to fewer than 9% of hospitals in the United States and 11 other countries—is widely accepted as the gold standard for nursing excellence and high-quality patient care. Notoriously challenging, Magnet® recognition typically takes seven to nine years to achieve. Montefiore Wakefield is the first, and only, hospital in the Bronx to receive this honor.

To achieve the Magnet® designation, among other things, hospitals must meet rigorous national benchmarks for eight consecutive quarters. They also must create infrastructure for shared governance, quality improvement, peer review and nursing research; engage nursing staff to advance professional nursing practices; and demonstrate that the new infrastructures and culture are firmly embedded within the organization.

Wakefield also earned six “exemplars.” Each exemplar is an additional degree of achievement that recognizes the highest level of excellence in a specific area of nursing. Wakefield’s exemplars are:

• Outperforming the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) benchmark for eight quarters in a row for all inpatient units for falls
• Outperforming the NDNQI benchmark for eight quarters in a row for all catheter-acquired urinary tract infections
• Outperforming the NDNQI benchmark for all ambulatory units for safety and quality regarding burns
• Outperforming the Press Ganey national benchmark over eight quarters for all ambulatory units for patient education
• Outperforming the Press Ganey national benchmark over eight quarters for all ambulatory units for patient safety
• Outperforming the Press Ganey national benchmark over eight quarters for all ambulatory units for patient pain

During the ‘Magnet Walk’ parade, the delegation from Montefiore Einstein wore matching blue jackets specially designed by nurses for the event. Nurses also carried a banner identifying themselves and depicting their professional practice model, which illustrates how Montefiore Einstein delivers care.

Montefiore Wakefield is the third hospital in Montefiore Health System to receive the designation, along with White Plains Hospital and Montefiore St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital.