What were a group of Lancaster General Health nurses recently doing in a town in Eastern Germany? They had traveled more than 4,000 miles from Lancaster County all the way to Dessau, Germany to help their European colleagues learn industry-leading nursing practices and principles. The international program is part of an offshoot of the Magnet® program, called Magnet®4Europe.
What Is Magnet®?
Like all Penn Medicine hospitals, Lancaster General Health seeks out ways for nurses to flourish – which includes allowing nurses to drive and improve the quality of care, to be involved with decision-making within the health system, and to prioritize their mental well-being and satisfaction in the workplace.
These principles can be found within the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s (ANCC) Magnet Recognition Program®, which distinguishes healthcare organizations that meet rigorous standards for nursing excellence. This credential is the highest national honor for professional nursing practice. All six of Penn Medicine’s acute-care facilities have Magnet® status, which must be re-earned through a rigorous evaluation every four years.
Penn Medicine Lancaster General Hospital (LGH) is one of only 23 hospitals in the world to achieve Magnet® status five consecutive times.
“At LG Health, we are very proud of our Magnet® designation and all that it means for our patients, staff, and community,” said Larry Strassner, PhD, MSN, RN, FACHE, chief nursing officer. “Our commitment to the Magnet® framework for nursing excellence and to serving everyone in our community guides all of our efforts as a Nursing team.”
The Magnet® program was established in the United States in 1983 and eventually expanded to allow for health care organizations outside the country to apply in 2000.
Magnet®4Europe is Created
Städtisches Klinikum hospital in Dessau, Germany, the Magnet®4Europe sister hospital of Lancaster General Health
To further the Magnet® principles around the world, Magnet®4Europe, a four-year European Union (EU)–funded project, aims to improve mental health and well-being among health professionals and patient safety in more than 60 hospitals in six European countries – Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
This program pairs a Magnet®-approved hospital in the United States with a “twin” hospital in Europe to develop, disseminate, and enculturate the Magnet® principles to position the European hospital for the Magnet® application phase. All six Penn Medicine acute-care hospitals are participants in this research and implementation science initiative, and Penn’s School of Nursing is a leader of it (Professor of Nursing Linda Aiken, PhD, RN, is one of Magnet®4Europe’s co-directors).
The Magnet®4Europe program received European Union approval and funding in January 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic paused the program and nursing teams from collaborating and visiting each other’s hospitals.
LGH was paired with Städtisches Klinikum hospital in Dessau, Germany – an hour and a half outside of Berlin by train. As part of the pairing, the German team first visited Lancaster in October 2022, and the LGH Magnet® team visited Dessau, Germany in November 2022 to continue learning, sharing, and connecting.
This is the first of four years of collaboration that the two hospitals will undertake in part to support Städtisches Klinikum in its pursuit of Magnet® status.
When the five-person German team arrived in Lancaster, the teams quickly noticed their similarities but were also inspired by their differences. The German team observed LGH’s shared governance structure, which has frontline nurses involved in and leading councils and committees that address problems within the nursing department.
They were also impressed by the amount of technology and resources that were available to the LGH nursing teams in order to expedite quality patient care, including the nurse call system and electronic health record.
After touring the LGH facilities, they attended The National Magnet® Conference in Philadelphia, which was Magnet®’s largest in-person meeting since the pandemic hit, with 13,000 attendees from across North America and Europe.
LGH Team Travels to Germany
The LG Health team, guided by their counterparts at Städtisches Klinikum, tours that hospital’s cardiac unit.
When the LGH team traveled to Germany in November, they used an innovative approach to help redesign the Städtisches Klinikum workplace to align with Magnet® principles. The teams started, and are continuing over the course of the partnership, a gap analysis and prioritized steps to improve the work environment, which would prepare the German team for Magnet® application. A Magnet gap analysis assesses the hospital and provides data on learning, infrastructure and recognition needs, or “gaps,” which could hold the hospital back from achieving Magnet® status.
“We had the opportunity to mentor the German team on best practices for Magnet® Certification, but we learned a lot from them as well,” said Jen Sheinberg, DNP, RN-BC, clinical informatics specialist at LGH. “Through this continued partnership, we’ll have the ability to continue learning from each other.”
Brandy Grant, MSN, RN, NE-BC, director of Nursing Strategic Projects, said, “We asked the German team: What areas do we need help strengthening and how can we bring in evidenced-based research to help get more of their research published?” She added that research is just one of a number of patient care attributes that the ANCC evaluates in granting Magnet® status. Applicants are also evaluated based on quality of nursing leadership, coordination and collaboration across specialties, and processes for measuring and improving the quality and delivery of care.
“The German nurses were truly authentic and loved their job. Although European countries do have federal systems in place to support nurses, like free education and child care, I think we take for granted a lot of resources we have here in the States,” Grant said. “The nurses we collaborated with work for a federally funded hospital, so they had less extra funding and technology – although they were one of the happiest groups of nurses I’ve ever seen.”
The international nursing teams found they both are struggling with staffing shortages – showing that the COVID-19 pandemic not only influenced the number of nurses entering into the field in the United States, but also in Europe.
The LGH and Städtisches Klinikum Magnet®4Europe pairing will continue for the next three years, which includes yearly visits, supporting efforts toward the goal of achieving Magnet® status for the German hospital.
“The Magnet®4Europe program is about nurse satisfaction. We want to amplify the voice of the nurse throughout both organizations, and we believe this program will help us obtain that goal,” continued Grant. “When nurses around the world stand united, we can accomplish amazing things.”