Nurses from Sokolov Medical Center Mini Hospital in St. Petersburg, Russia, posing with the "Journey to Excellence" award (head nurse Ludmilla Makarova is holding it) in September at Mariinski Palace in St. Petersburg. The prize is given by the American Nurses Credentialing Center to institutions in non-English-speaking developing countries that successfully improve patient outcomes and the quality of care provided to patients, much in the same way Magnet institutions in the United States do. The criteria differ somewhat from those U.S. Magnet hospitals have to meet because of differences in resources and organizational structure.
According to Linda Aiken, director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and coordinator of this initiative of the American International Health Alliance (see the News, April 2003), "This is significant in that it's the first test of applying the Magnet model to developing countries. We have demonstrated that implementing Magnet standards works as an intervention to improve quality." Aiken credits the "huge commitment" made by the U.S. Magnet facilities that worked in partnership with the Russian organizations: Aurora Health Care, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; North Shore Medical Center, Manhasset, New York; Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, New Jersey; and Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Aiken has discussed with representatives from the World Bank and the European Union implementing the model in other developing countries. What Aiken is most pleased about is that the project shows governments that they can achieve real improvement in quality by investing in nursing. -Maureen Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, news director