Magnet Hospital and Nurse Burn Out, Job Satisfaction and High Quality

Magnet Hospital and Nurse Burn Out, Job Satisfaction and High Quality

Introduction

With the increasing influence of social media and enhanced access to information, consumers have the ability to make appropriate choices toward products and services being offered in different industries. However, this paper focuses on the health care industry. Health care is no different than other arenas. In this era, consumers are shocked with controversies on medical errors, patient safety and nursing shortage and have the right to know how well the care they are going to receive from the local hospital {Aiken, 2000 #216}. According to Aiken, magnet hospital provides a comforting feel to the health care seekers in comparison to a non-magnet hospital in terms of “good health care”. This is because of the fact that the magnetic status is only given to a hospital after the inspection of the quality of service being provided at a particular health care organisation. Tagging a hospital with the magnetic status means that the quality of health care service being provided at that particular health care organisation is superior in comparison to other health care organsitions. Providing superior quality of health care services is only possible when the staffs, i.e., doctors and nurses are willing to put in the extra effort to provide better quality of health care service to their patients.

In the 1980s, the “magnet status” designation was awarded to 41 hospitals by the American Academy of nursing aiming to identify hospitals that can attract and retain nurses and also identify the common organizational features that led these hospitals towards their success {Aiken, 2000 #216}. The study conducted by Aiken, Havens, & Sloane (2000) identified organizational features that are common in the magnet hospitals such as; influential nurse executive, unit based decision making process, flat organizational structure, and investments in expertise of nurses. Recent changes in the health care industry focused on delivering more efficient patient care has resulted in merging and downsizing of organizations including layoffs in nursing work force and shorter working hours leading to mistrust. Inconsistent allocation of resources, withheld information and little to no support from management will generate mistrust in employees leading to a decrease in employee morale and loyalty {Laschinger, 2001 #215}. According to Laschinger, Finegan, and Shamian (1999), trust in management has been linked to nurses' commitment to organization and job satisfaction. These in turn has a direct impact on patient's perception of quality of care (Atkins, Marshall, & Javalgi, 1996). If the nurses are satisfied with their jobs and are totally committed to their organisations, they will put in their best efforts, which will in turn satisfy the patients in relation to the quality of health care service being provided to them. This in turn will result in the tagging of the magnetic status with the organisation. On the other hand, if the nurses are not satisfied with their jobs due to any particular reason, they will not try to put in their best ...