The world is changing, and the American Nurses Credentialing Center(R) (ANCC(R)) and the Magnet Recognition Program(R) are leading the way to ensure that every patient has access to a Magnet facility, where a Magnet nurse is providing quality, safe, and innovative patient care.
Dr Margaret Chan, the director-general of the World Health Organization, recently said, "A person who saves a life is a hero. A person who saves hundreds of lives is obviously a nurse."1 We celebrate nurses worldwide because all of you are our heroes.
Dr Maya Angelo said, "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."2
You (nurses) make your patients, their families, and communities feel safe every day because you are providing them with innovative quality nursing care. We celebrate and congratulate all of you for your leadership, your innovation, and your inspiration. Magnet is a journey, and we want you to help us keep nursing and healthcare excellence moving forward worldwide. One of the hallmarks of great leaders is listening and learning and then acting to make a positive difference, an impact. A couple of years ago, I embarked on a domestic listening tour and learned about the opportunities and challenges our Magnet organizations and nurses are engaged in to improve the health, safety, and quality of care in the United States.
During the past year, our President Dr Michael Evans and I visited South Korea, Jordan, Australia, Beijing China, Taiwan, and Saudi Arabia. I will continue my listening journey in the United Kingdom in the fall of 2015, and Dr Evans will soon be in the United Arab Emirates.
Here are some of the key messages I heard both here and abroad.
Message #1
Nursing needs to have a global united voice to partner at the decision-making tables to improve health, safety, and quality. Our united voice is critical to meeting the future global health needs and challenges, such as noncommunicable diseases, emerging and continuing infectious diseases, disasters, and climate change, just to name a few.
Message #2
Nursing is the same globally-we face the same issues, at different stages of evolution in scope and empowerment of practice. All the more reason the Magnet Recognition Program is and will continue to be a roadmap, a model for enabling, sustaining, and evolving nursing and healthcare excellence worldwide.
Message #3
Magnet organizations and nurses engage in research endeavors to demonstrate the value of organizational credentialing, as well as individual nurse certification. ANCC will continue to partner with the National Academy of Medicine Standing Committees and others to create a research agenda that focus on determining and validating the value of credentialing.
Message #4
We need your help to quantify the value of Magnet in our institutions. The business case and return on investment regarding nursing innovations in practice are crucial to leverage our impact and our voice worldwide now and in the future. It cannot be business as usual; there is nothing that is off the table for nurses as we lead the way in healthcare redesign.
Help us fulfill our wildest dreams to improve global health and make the world a more healthy planet. One of our dreams is to build an alliance with the United Nations and its agencies to develop community health programs that are caregiver-empowered certifications. Another dream is to credential and recognize communities, states, and nations that demonstrate the best health outcomes. ANCC will be the "go-to" advisor for payers and consumers for advice and recommendations for the best healthcare.
Thank you for being world-class nurses. Let's continue to innovate, involve, and inspire. Together let's continue to learn, listen, and act. Remember the world is changing, and we want you to lead the way with us.
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