ANCC's Magnet Recognition Program(R) designates organizations worldwide where nursing leaders successfully align their nursing strategic goals to improve patient outcomes. Nursing is a global profession, with nearly 27 million nurses working around the world.1 Over the last decade, a growing number of international healthcare organizations have achieved Magnet(R) status. Currently, there are Magnet-designated hospitals in Australia, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Brazil, and Japan. Clearly, these organizations understand Magnet's positive effect on safety, quality, mortality, patient experience, nurse empowerment, satisfaction, and retention. But there is another reason we should care that the global community of Magnet organizations is growing. It is a golden opportunity to learn from each other.
Meeting Universal Challenges
Magnet provides the framework of what should be in place, but not the how. The how depends on local regulations, culture, resources, and infrastructure. Although nursing scope and standards, policies, and procedures vary from country to country, nursing challenges are the same across the globe. Healthcare organizations everywhere struggle with issues of nurse retention and recruitment, workforce engagement, increased workloads, staffing, stress, and burnout. A community of international hospitals not only helps us develop a deeper dialogue and thoughtful conversation about these issues, but also provides best practices, evidence-based research, and unique approaches to improve nursing and patient outcomes.
In addition, a global perspective underscores the importance of benchmarking, a hallmark of Magnet that has proven to be so valuable to healthcare organizations here in the United States. Benchmarking helps us understand how we compare to others and share and adopt best practices.
Shared Governance and Professional Nurse Advocates
In many countries, nursing autonomy is not a common practice. Nurses in the United States, and in Magnet hospitals in particular, are more likely to control their practice, especially around issues of safety and process improvement. Many countries still adhere to a hierarchical or physician-led governance structure, but others are slowly adopting our model of shared governance. In some of the UK hospitals, shared governance is a relatively new concept, and nurses there have enthusiastically embraced it. They benefit from learning from our more mature shared governance systems.
A concept need not be old to offer value. On a recent trip to the United Kingdom, I got a 1st-hand look at an intriguing new initiative in their hospitals: the professional nurse advocate (PNA). PNAs are practicing nurses trained to provide restorative supervision and support to their colleagues in nursing and beyond. This 1st-in-the-world program began in 2021 in response to COVID-19's service demands and changing patient requirements. PNAs are equipped to listen to, and understand, the challenges and demands of their colleagues and to lead, support, and deliver quality improvement initiatives in response. Already, a version of the program among maternity nurses has improved staff well-being and retention, as well as patient outcomes.
Embracing Diversity
Another area from which we can learn is the diversity of the global workforce. In Saudi Arabia, I visited a unit that included a team of nurses from more than 17 countries. Despite the cultural differences, the team was cohesive and effective. When I asked the chief nursing officer why, he replied, "That's easy. We all speak nursing." I was struck by the power of this simple concept: we all speak nursing. We are all here for the same reason-to support each other, create a positive workplace, and provide excellent patient care.
I have been fortunate to visit many international Magnet hospitals, but we do not have to travel far from home to learn from each other. Our diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice and transition-to-practice programs that support new nurses from abroad can teach us as much as they teach them.
We All Speak Nursing
We must learn to think more globally, to consider nursing as a global profession wherever we are located. We must seize the opportunity to understand what is being done across the world. Above all, we must avoid falling into a trap of thinking our way is the best way. That is not always true.
This is why we call it a journey to Magnet. It is a roadmap along which we make stops, to learn from a new place, a new culture, or a new perspective, to achieve the common goals of nurse engagement, nursing excellence, exceptional patient care, and the best possible outcomes. Our destination is a global community in which we all speak nursing.
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