Medical Center Of Central Georgia Macon

Under the leadership of Chief Nursing Officer Barb Stickel, the Medical Center of Central Georgia began a journey in 2002 when we first applied for the coveted Magnet designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) -- the highest honor awarded to hospital nursing. It took fifteen months to amass eight binders and almost 3,000 pages of required evidence and written explanation of how the hospital fulfilled the criteria of a Magnet hospital. In March 2005, two ANCC surveyors spent four days touring our hospital and interviewing staff and patients to verify that we did in fact meet the "gold standard" for nursing care. They spoke with hundreds of nurses from all shifts and visited all nursing areas of the organization, including neighborhood health care clinics, rehab centers and home care. On Tuesday, May 17, 2005, the goal was accomplished. The Magnet Recognition Program® was developed by the ANCC to recognize health care organizations that provide the very best in nursing care. Currently, there are only 206 hospitals in the world, and four in Georgia, that have qualified for this recognition

Nursing @ MCCG

Nursing at the Medical Center of Central Georgia is exciting. Our philosophy of nursing addresses compassion, accountability, research and education. Nurse Satisfaction surveys over the past several years have demonstrated high satisfaction with teamwork and co-workers, patient care, and physician relationships. We exemplify the Forces of Magnetism each and every day:

Our nursing leadership is proactive and visionary and we have many opportunities to speak directly to our Chief Nursing Officer. Our nursing directors have BSN degrees and over 50% are Master’s prepared. Our Nursing Executive Council serves as the oversight committee for our shared governance infrastructure. Our organizational structure allows nurses to serve on every Unit Council and on hospital committees.
We offer numerous staffing options, including self scheduling, partial shifts, Work on Weekends, internal flex pool and Working Moms. Our salaries and benefits are competitive (Careers) and we provide on site CRNA program, RN to MSN and RN to BSN classes, as well as structured RN Re-entry and Nurse Residency Programs.
Our nursing care is patient- and family – centered and we apply Patricia Benner’s “novice to expert” model to patient and staff education and competency via educational pathways and structured staff orientation programs.
Our Nursing Quality Council strives toward organization-wide evidence-based practice standards, involving unit-based Quality Representatives to assure nurse involvement in the data collection, analysis, evaluation and practice changes. We utilize many tools to prevent errors and improve our performance and have demonstrated many performance improvements over the past year.
Nursing Practice Council serves as the gate-keeper of hospital wide standards of practice. It assures evidence based practices are utilized in developing and revising policies, procedures and practices. Staff nurse and Advanced Practice nurses lead this Council and make a difference in the care of our patients.
Research serves as the underpinning for evidence-based practice and for future improvement. Our Nursing Research Council involves advanced practice nurses, bedside nurses and doctorate-level nurse faculty/ researchers from two area Schools of Nursing, in reviewing all nursing research protocols and providing support for nurse researchers. In the past two years, several research projects have been conducted, resulting in practice changes across the organization.
MCCG nurses are involved in more than fifty professional organizations, many in leadership roles. Advanced practice and expert nurses are widely available for consultation and the Health Resource Center houses a wide range of nursing journals and books, both paper and online.
At last count, our nurses are involved in more than two hundred community activities per year. Not only church and school activities, but health fairs, screenings, speaker’s bureaus and civic groups top the list.
Nurses are comprehensively involved in teaching; students from any of eleven affiliating Schools/ Colleges of nursing, new or transferred nurses and, of course, our patients and families. Nurses serve as preceptors and mentors in specialty internship, shadowing and residency programs, and enjoy this aspect of their role.
Nurses at MCCG are perceived as committed, competent, and caring. Our patient satisfaction scores for nursing care are high. In a recent contest, school children in central Georgia drew pictures and wrote stories about their perception of nurses.
Interdisciplinary relationships at MCCG are collaborative and close; a hallmark of safe patient care.
Opportunities for professional development are encouraged at facilitated in many ways:
- Certification review courses on line and exams on site
- Certification and Life Support differentials
- Differentials for educational preparation
- Significant educational budget
- MLS- staffed Librarian in 10,000 sq. foot Health Resource Center
- Subscription for >500 free on line CEUs for Council Chairs, certified nurses, leaders, Ladder nurses, and others
- Structured orientation and continuing education
- Department Based Educator model
- Nurse residency program
- Nurse Extern program
- Leadership development series
- Scholarships from Sylvia Bond Nursing Society and Magnet Fund
- PACE and Nurse Week Celebration
- Numerous on line educational and learning opportunities
- Research symposium
- Serve as a Community Training Center for
- Affiliations with 41 clinical programs
- formal preceptor-ship programs
- RN re-entry
- New nurse support and TIPS
- Clinical Grand Rounds
- Community involvement in health fairs, clinics and various fund raisers
- Shared governance in Unit and Organization wide councils
- Multiple research and PI opportunities
- On Site RN to BSN and RN to MSN programs
- Leadership and staff nurse involvement in new service development and renovations
- The Professional Nurse Ladder program was designed and implemented through the Professional Development Council in 2005. Since its inception, eighty-four nurses have attained Ladder status. Click here to find out more about the Ladder and if interested, click here to see the re-formatted 2006-2007 Ladder. Exemplar portfolios may be viewed in the Health Resource Center 2^nd floor. Mentor exemplars will work with applicants toward successful Ladder attainment.

Click here to see some of the staff members who keep the forces of magnetism alive at MCCG!

We would love to share our Magnet journey with you. Click here to contact our Magnet Program Coordinator or ask a question of any of our exceptional “magnetic” nurses!

MAGNET JOURNEY

Magnet Announcement	Magnet First Anniversary Celebration

Our Magnet Journey has been exciting and meaningful. We strongly encourage other hospitals who meet the rigorous standards set by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) to work toward attaining this hallmark. However, as we learned along our journey, it is not a destination, it is the development and sustaining of an environment which attracts and retains the best nurses and other professionals to provide exceptional care to patients both in the hospital and across the continuum of care.

Coming soon to this section are:

Co-hosting 11^th annual Magnet Conference in Atlanta Oct. 3-5, 2007

opportunities for site visits at MCCG

Highlights of our journey
FAQs
Tips for successful Site Visits, engaging staff, implementing shared governance and many more

Opportunities for site visits: International visitors coming October 1 and 2.

MCCG nurse volunteers getting ready to go to Atlanta. Our nurses are excited to meet the 4500 nurses who have registered for the conference. We'll see you at exhibit #624.

We hope by sharing our Lessons Learned, others may be encouraged along the Magnet™ journey.