St. Luke's Receives Highest National Nursing Honor

St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital on May 7 became the first hospital in Texas and the Southwest to achieve the nation's highest honor for excellence in nursing and patient care. St. Luke's was designated a Magnet hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, the nation's largest and foremost nursing accrediting and credentialing organization. St. Luke's now joins such prestigious Magnet hospitals as the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. and Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles with this designation.

Achieving Magnet status serves as a "magnet," explained Rosemary Luquire, senior vice president for patient care and chief quality officer at St. Luke's.

"This honor communicates to our patients, families and staff that, like a magnet, St. Luke's attracts and retains some of the top nursing professionals in the country," she said.

The Magnet Program (its full name is the Magnet Nursing Services Recognition Program for Excellence in Nursing Service), was established in 1994 to recognize those health care organizations that provide the very best in nursing care and support professional nursing practice. The program provides consumers with the ultimate benchmark to measure the quality of care they can expect to receive. It is the highest level of recognition that the American Nurses Credentialing Center can accord to organized nursing services in health care organizations.

"An environment that encourages autonomy in professional nursing practice results in higher job satisfaction among nurses. Recruitment and retention of nurses is enhanced, and patients ultimately are the biggest beneficiaries because they are receiving care from nurses who are tops in their fields," Luquire said. "And patients interact with nurses more than any other hospital staff ... nurses are at the bedside every hour."

The Magnet distinction has reached such a high level of status that the Wall Street Journal recently reported that consumers should find a Magnet hospital when needing hospital treatment, she added.

In a May 7 press conference announcing the designation, a number of high-profile St. Luke's former patients came together to extol the virtues of the nursing care they experienced. Among the notables were Baseball Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan, former Mayor Bob Lanier, former City Councilmember Margarette Robinson, and U.S. Rep. Ken Bentsen, whose uncle, former U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, has been treated at St. Luke's.

During the press conference, Ruth Ryan, wife of Nolan Ryan, said, "When we first came here, I thought Nolan received special treatment because he was a celebrity, but in no time, I found out that you all treat everyone like a celebrity."

Specifically, the Magnet Program recognizes excellence in the management philosophy and practices of nursing services; adherence to standards for improving the quality of patient care; leadership of the chief nurse executive in supporting professional practice and continued competence of nursing personnel; and attention to the cultural and ethnic diversity of patients and their families, as well as patient care providers.

The magnet recognition status is valid for four years, after which the recipient must reapply.

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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