Left to right: PAH Nursing leaders Meg Vance, MSN, RN, CNOR, NPD-BC; Diane Angelos, MSN, RN, CCRN; Suni Thompson, MSN, RN, CPXP, NE-BC; Ali Schlegel, MSN, RN, CCCTM, MEDSURG-BC.
The 2022 Magnet Conference was held in Philadelphia this October – uniting more than 11,000 nurses from around the world to celebrate nursing excellence in the City of Brotherly Love, home to a number of medical firsts. Hosted by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), the conference was attended by health care professionals from Magnet-designated hospitals, including representatives from all of Penn Medicine’s acute care facilities, which have all achieved Magnet status – the highest institutional honor awarded for nursing excellence from the ANCC.
“We say this all the time: ‘Magnet isn’t something that we get. It’s something that we are,’” said Emma Cotter, MSN, RN, LSSGB, Magnet Program manager at Pennsylvania Hospital (PAH). “It recognizes the initiatives we currently have in place to support patient care, but also the fact that we’re constantly striving for clinical advancement.”
At the start of every Magnet conference, attendees gather for a special opening ceremony in which each hospital with a new designation, or re-designation, is announced and walks across the conference stage. This year, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and Penn Medicine Princeton Health were able to sport their hospital banners across the stage at the Pennsylvania Convention Center for their Magnet re-designations, cheered on by colleagues from other Penn Medicine hospitals in the audience.
“Re-designation demonstrates all of the endless hours of hard work and dedication our nurses have put into taking care of our patients,” said Jordan Mento, BSN, RN, CCRN, a Clinical Emergency Response nurse at Princeton Health. “It was truly an honor to represent Princeton with my fellow co-workers. I am forever proud to be a part of this organization.”
Sofia Carreno, MSN, RN, nursing professional development specialist for Community Engagement, presenting her poster on HUP’s Employee Food Pantry
Several Penn staff had the opportunity to participate in poster and podium presentations focused on timely topics in health care, such as Princeton Health’s presentations on improvements for providing more immediate care for heart attack patients, along with outcomes from a pressure injury prevention protocol. PAH’s presentations concentrated on improving maternal health outcomes, initiatives for enhancing recruitment and retention, and how the DAISY Award has been reinvigorated at the hospital.
“We heard so much great feedback on our presentations, receiving a lot of questions from the crowd on how they can apply our practices to their own clinical settings,” said Cotter. “And likewise, we were inspired by the innovative practices of other hospitals.”
In addition to attending presentations, conference visitors could register for a tour at the home of many medical milestones – PAH, the nation’s first hospital. Tour groups, from nurses who work at local Pennsylvania facilities to an international group from Brazil, were guided by Stacey Peeples, PAH’s Curator-Lead Archivist, who gave insight into the hospital’s rich history. On tours, she introduced PAH’s latest exhibition – Nursing Excellence at the Pennsylvania Hospital. An extensive timeline dating from 1751 to 2022, the exhibit displays luminaries and accomplishments of PAH throughout the centuries.
“We’re bringing our records to life through the exhibit,” said Peeples. “We’re telling the stories of nurses and other key PAH members who helped transform the hospital into what it is today. It’s important to preserve and elevate this history to see how far we’ve come in medicine.” A nursing director from the University of Colorado who was a first-time visitor to Philadelphia shared her appreciation of the tours: “What a gift to have a curator on staff who can share these rich traditions with the public!” (Read more about the exhibit in PAH’s online What’s New newsletter.)
Magnet Conference 2023 will be held in Chicago, and Penn Medicine staff are already looking forward to gathering again to celebrate the nursing profession. “You leave the conference with a renewed excitement about your practice,” said Cotter. “It serves as a reminder of why we do what we do.”
Did You Know?
Through the Magnet4Europe initiative, all Penn Medicine hospitals have a “twin” hospital in either Germany or Belgium, providing international collaboration on best practices in clinical care.