The Effectiveness of a Simulation Program to Enhance Readiness to Engage in Difficult Conversations in Clinical Practice.

Health care providers are often tasked with communicating difficult, emotionally charged news, including delivering an unwelcome diagnosis and planning end-of-life care. Patients and family members often cannot recall specifics of these conversations, although their perceptions of how information was communicated by health care providers impact not only their evaluation of the quality of care received, but also their abilities to cope with the communicated bad news. What can be done to better prepare novice clinicians to have these types of conversations? This quality improvement project used a simulation-based difficult conversation workshop given to adult-gerontology acute care nurse practitioner students in their final year of study.

Why Nursing Research Matters.

Increasingly, nursing research is considered essential to the achievement of high-quality patient care and outcomes. In this month's Magnet® Perspectives column, we examine the origins of nursing research, its role in creating the Magnet Recognition Program®, and why a culture of clinical inquiry matters for nurses. This column explores how Magnet hospitals have built upon the foundation of seminal research to advance contemporary standards that address some of the challenges faced by healthcare organizations around the world.

Partnering for maximum impact.

Pathway to Excellence® and Sigma team up to benefit nurses.

Magnet® and Pathway: Partners for Nursing Excellence.

This month's Magnet® Perspectives column examines American Nurses Credentialing Center's Magnet Recognition Program® and Pathway to Excellence® Program as partners for nursing excellence. We explore the differences between the programs, how they complement one another, and how they can be combined to impact a host of key measures, including nurse engagement, interprofessional collaboration, and patient safety. Nursing leaders at 2 dual-designated hospitals share their decision to pursue both credentials and ways in which the combined designation adds value for nurses and the patient care environment.

The COVID-19 Crucible: 2 Lived Experiences at the Epicenter.

This article describes how a national nursing association and a major academic medical center responded to the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic during the first wave of the outbreak in the United States (January to August 2020). The organizations share their lived experiences as they quickly found themselves at the forefront of the crisis. The article discusses how early warning signs from a world away sparked collaboration, innovation, and action that grew to a coordinated, organization-wide response.

Shared Governance in Times of Change.

A strong shared governance framework gives nurses control over their practice. Whether unit based or system wide, shared governance provides the infrastructure to deliver high-quality patient care, especially in a crisis. This month's Magnet® Perspectives column takes a closer look at the concept of shared governance, how it has evolved, why it is important, and how it helped nurses in Magnet hospitals navigate the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Framework for Nursing Excellence.

As the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) marks its 30th anniversary in 2021, the world's largest and most prestigious nurse credentialing organization has unveiled a new Credentialing Framework for Nursing Excellence. In this month's "Magnet Perspectives," the directors of the ANCC's 6 credentialing programs introduce a new conceptual framework, outline the key concepts for exceptional nursing practice, and describe how ANCC's programs interconnect to invoke a powerful model that healthcare organizations can use to develop and sustain nursing excellence.

The Evolution of Ambulatory Care Nursing: A Compelling Conversation.

In this month's Magnet Perspectives column, guest author Kathleen Martinez, MSN, RN, CPN, joins Rebecca Graystone, MS, MBA, RN, NE-BC, for an in-depth look at the explosive growth of ambulatory care nursing over the past decade. The authors take a deep dive into multiple factors contributing to this rapid evolution, the role of the Magnet Recognition Program in accelerating and supporting ambulatory care and the nurses who provide it, and the prospects for continued growth in the decade ahead.

Creating an Environment to Support Transitioning New APRNs into Practice.

Registered nurses (RNs) are leaving the bedside to become advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs). Failure to successfully transition APRNs into clinical practice represents a substantial financial burden to healthcare organizations. Organizations can use the standards of the Magnet Recognition Program to help support, develop, and transition APRNs into their advanced practice role.

The Magnet® Site Visit: Going Virtual in Response to COVID-19.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has been a source of disruption, unexpected illness, stress, and adversity for people, worldwide. As the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded in early 2020, many healthcare organizations found themselves in the midst of their Magnet appraisals-just short of the 3rd appraisal phase, the Site Visit Phase. In response, the Magnet Recognition Program devised strategies to maintain the integrity of the appraisal process, despite the turbulence associated with the unexpected changes that healthcare organizations were confronting while contending with the impact of COVID-19.

2019 Pathway Award® winner.

Pathway to Excellence standards promote virtual reality innovation at the Charles George VA Medical Center.

Definitions of Physician Certification Used in the North American Literature: A Scoping Review.

Introduction: The authors sought to identify how physician specialty certification is defined in the North American literature.

Methods: A rigorous, established six-stage scoping review framework was used to identify the North American certification literature published between January 2006 and May 2016 relating to physician specialty certification. Data were abstracted using a charting form developed by the study team.

Nursing practice environment and care quality in nursing homes.

A case study of the Pathway to Excellence in Long-Term Care model.

Keep the Momentum Going.

We are midway through a milestone year for nursing, and we have just finished a month-long celebration of Florence Nightingale's 200th birthday. The party may be over, but the work continues. How do we keep the momentum going, not just for 2020, but well beyond? In this month's Magnet Perspectives column, we explore ways to continue to promote the Year of the Nurse through its 3 anchors: nursing excellence, leadership, and innovation.

Methods of nursing certification in North America-A scoping review.

Background: Definitions of nursing certification are lacking in the research literature and research on certification in nursing is remarkably limited.

Methods: A six-stage scoping review framework was used to identify the nature, extent, and range of certification within the nursing literature.

Findings: Thirty-six articles were included in this scoping review.

Is Open Visitation Really "Open" in Adult Intensive Care Units in the United States?

Background: Evidence indicates that open visitation in adult intensive care units is a best practice for patient- and family-centered care, and nurses substantially influence such visitation patterns. However, it is unclear whether intensive care units in Magnet and Pathway to Excellence (MPE) facilities nationwide implement this in practice.

Objective: To describe current national visitation practices in adult intensive care units and determine whether they have changed since the last national study, which used data from 2008 to 2009.

Introducing the 2020 Pathway to Excellence® manual.

Building positive practice environments around the globe.

Why You Need a Nursing Strategic Plan.

A successful nursing strategic plan establishes a roadmap for the future. It gives nurses a direction to follow and can refresh and reenergize an organization. A robust strategic plan is a critical component to ensure excellent patient care and the best possible outcomes.

Magnet® Nurses of the Year Ignite Innovation.

Innovations in patient care, nursing, and the practice environment are the hallmark of Magnet organizations. Establishing new ways of achieving high-quality care is the result of transformational leadership, empowering structures and processes, and exemplary professional practice in nursing. From coast to coast, clinical nurses take advantage of these opportunities to change care for the better, improve the patient experience, and drive the science of nursing forward.

Innovative Nurse-Led Initiatives Improve Population Health.

The evolving healthcare environment has put a new emphasis on population health. Healthcare organizations, and the nurses who work in them, are in a unique position to reach beyond hospital walls to address unmet needs and improve the health and lives of the community they serve. This month's Magnet Perspectives column examines nurses' growing impact on population health through the lens of the 2019 Magnet Prize winner, OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center.

Acute Skin Failure in the Critical Care Patient.

Objective: The purpose of this research was to build on previous work regarding predictive factors of acute skin failure (ASF) in the critically ill population.

Methods: Researchers conducted a retrospective case-control study with a main and validation analysis. Data were extracted from the New York Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System.