The 14 Forces of Magnetism
As we begin our journey toward Magnet™ status, there is no better place to begin than with the remarkable achievements for which Jefferson nurses are known. You’ve taken the first step. Now it’s time to go the extra mile.
The 14 Forces of Magnetism cover three basic categories:
Forces 1-4 Organizational Structure
Forces 5-8 Quality of Nursing Care
Forces 9-14 Professional Environment
Force 1: Quality of Nursing Leadership
 The quality of Jefferson’s nursing leaders is instrumental in creating and maintaining a collaborative work environment in which every nurse is valued as an integral member of the health care team. Jefferson’s nursing leaders are strong advocates for their staff and responsible stewards of departmental resources.
Effective nursing leadership assures that nurses “have a seat at the table,” playing a vital role in further elevating Jefferson’s standing as a national leader in healthcare delivery, patient safety, and improving the quality of services and the patient care experience. Nursing leaders are active participants in organizational decision-making, and have been the catalyst for system-wide initiatives.
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Force 2: Organizational Structure
 Jefferson’s Department of Nursing is decentralized, facilitating unit-based decision-making for a diverse range of clinical specialties and sub-specialties. This organizational structure encourages staff resulting in strong and highly visible representation among the hospital’s wide array of intraprofessional groups.
Shared decision-making and development of policies and procedures enhance nursing practice and improve patient care. In this way, Jefferson’s Department of Nursing takes a pro-active rather than reactive stance, contributing to achievement of hospital-wide goals and increasing effective advocacy for our nurses.
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Force 3: Management Style
 Jefferson’s nursing leaders possess the vision and clinical knowledge to influence members of the healthcare team at all levels of the organization. Communication with nursing staff is consistent, effective, and bi-directional, underscoring a reciprocal relationship where staff’s opinions are heard and valued. Nurse managers play a vital role in mentoring staff and encouraging professional growth
Jefferson nursing leaders provide opportunities for staff members to provide feedback using instruments such as employee satisfaction surveys. Furthermore, policy development and new program implementation is accomplished using staff nurse input.
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Force 4: Personnel Policies and Programs
 Policies and programs established by Jefferson’s nurse leadership are in compliance with ANA Principles of Staffing, the Pennsylvania Nurse Practice Act, and other regulatory considerations. Far-ranging in their scope and impact, these include: performance appraisal and peer review; advocacy for employee safety; recruitment and retention; career development; and opportunities for promotion.
Complementing Jefferson’s role as a leading provider of quality health care, nursing leadership adapts personnel policies and programs to the dynamic nature of patient needs and a rapidly changing healthcare environment.
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Force 5: Professional Models of Care
 Jefferson nurses are consummate professionals, adapting their expertise to fulfill the regulatory stipulations of the National Patient Safety Goals, the Pennsylvania Nurse Practice Act, and ANA Standards. Nursing staff are leaders in caring for patients with respect, accountability, interdisciplinary collaboration, and evidence-based practice guiding their care delivery.
With appropriate support and resources from the Jefferson organization, nursing staff coordinate care on each unit that appropriately reflects the individual needs of patients.
With the over-riding goal of patient-centered care, Jefferson nurses adapt and modify care delivery to meet the specific needs of their patients.
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Force 6: Quality of Care
 Basing their practice in evidence-based research in diverse clinical settings, Jefferson nurses deliver the high quality care for which the Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals is known. Quality nursing care is an expectation shared by all members of the healthcare team.
Built upon a stable infrastructure of evidence-based practice, Jefferson’s quality nursing care reflects the ANA Scope and Standards of Practice and professional nursing organizations’ standards and guidelines. These clinical practices, enhanced by nurses’ active participation in resource groups and interdisciplinary committees, have a positive impact on nurses and patients, alike. Patient safety initiatives, staff safety programs, and advocacy for patient rights are all wonderful examples of the primacy of quality nursing care at Jefferson.
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Force 7: Quality Assurance
 Jefferson’s staff nurses fully participate in quality improvement processes and understand that their input enhances system-wide efforts to improve patient care. Together, The ANA’s Safety and Quality Initiative and unit-based research are fundamental to identifying empirical links between nursing practices and patient outcomes. The Department of Nursing’s quality plan is congruent with the overall hospital-wide quality plan for patient care.
At Jefferson, staff nurses are encouraged to design and implement research projects that capture nurse-sensitive and patient outcome indicators. Clinical and operational processes are benchmarked and thus enable Jefferson nurses to utilize their findings to improve the quality of patient care.
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Force 8: Consultation and Resources
 Consultation with members of our strong infrastructure of Jefferson nursing professionals, including Advanced Practice Nurses, is available to all nursing staff and utilized by nurses at all levels of their professional development. In providing supportive resources, both from within and outside of our organization, every Jefferson nurse is assured ample opportunity to advance his or her knowledge base and, in doing so, to contribute to Jefferson’s goal of improved patient care.
Participating in professional organizations, forging academic partnerships, and working in healthcare and community organizations are just some of the ways Jefferson nurses create networking opportunities, develop new avenues of peer support, and disseminate to the broader community the scholarship of our talented nurse educators. Looking within, Jefferson nurses draw valuable insights on patient care from such organizational resources as Pastoral Care, Information Systems, and our hospital’s Ethics Committee.
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Force 9: Autonomy
 Consistent with the Nurse Practice Act and ANA standards, nurses are allowed and expected to work autonomously. Utilizing evidence from many care settings, literature and research findings, peer reviews, and close adherence to Jefferson’s policies and procedures, our nurses consistently maintain the highest standards as vital members of an interdisciplinary team. Independent decision making is encouraged and bolstered by continuing education in such areas as wound care.
Jefferson is especially proud of the numerous examples of RN leadership in patient care management and practice. In many instances, nurse-initiated protocols have been adopted on a system-wide basis, resulting in improved outcomes and visibility for nursing professionals.
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Force 10: Community and Healthcare Organization
 Underscoring Jefferson’s mission to provide quality healthcare to patients in the Philadelphia region and beyond, Jefferson nurses play a vital role. There is a long history of Jefferson nurses developing and organizing health screenings and long-term outreach programs that aim to improve the health of the community.
Through collaboration with community-based organizations and local academic institutions, Jefferson nurses gain valuable networking skills and develop partnerships to promote improved outcomes.
Within the Jefferson organization, the Chinese Health Center, Women’s Health Programs, Trauma, and Sickle Cell Initiatives, each serves a vital role in reaching out to the many diverse patient groups that comprise the broader community.
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Force 11: Nurse as Teacher
 One of the most rewarding aspects of nursing is that nurses teach at all levels of their practice. At Jefferson, peer-to-peer teaching, mentoring, patient and family education, community lectures, and teaching in a formal academic setting are just some of the ways our nurses successfully incorporate teaching in their profession.
Beginning with Jefferson’s orientation for new nurse graduates and following through with a wide range of clinical leadership development and scholarly activity, our staff nurses and leaders prove daily their commitment to education as a core value of nursing and as a fundamental means of advancing the profession of nursing.
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Force 12: Image of Nursing
 At Jefferson, nurses are seen as valuable members of an interdisciplinary team who are essential to the hospital’s delivery of quality patient care. Our nurses receive recognition for their many accomplishments in ways large and small. From thank you notes penned by grateful patients, to internal awards and accolades from professional organizations, Jefferson nurses frequently receive validation for the excellent care they provide and for serving as positive role models.
Jefferson nurses are consistently nominated by peers, as well as by other members of the health care team, for such prestigious honors as Nursing Spectrum’s Excellence Awards and the Nightingale Award. These nominations underscore Jefferson’s collaborative work environment and the positive relationships our nurses have forged with many department members throughout the health system.
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Force 13: Interdisciplinary Relationships
 Jefferson strives to promote a culture of mutual respect among members of the many diverse disciplines working within our organization. An example of successful communication is the rigorous exchange of ideas between the Department of Nursing and many other hospital departments. Collaboration in developing guidelines, policies, and standards of care are encouraged and lauded.
Our nurses play an important role in many successful intraprofessional initiatives, including those addressing patient-centered clinical outcomes such as falls reduction, pain management, infection control, and palliative care. Jefferson nurses are instrumental, as well, in collaborative working groups addressing fiscal planning, conflict resolution, and nursing governance, among others. With the dual goals of building mutual respect among disciplines and fostering continuity of care for patients, these relationships are integral to the Jefferson reputation for quality patient care.
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Force 14: Professional Development
 The Department of Nursing places enormous emphasis on professional development. Particular areas of focus include orientation, continuing education, formal academic degree programs, and career development. Nursing leadership promotes a culture that deeply values life-long learning and encourages professional growth from the outset.
Jefferson nurses are made aware of and participate in numerous educational offerings on topics such as ethics, cultural competency, research, and conflict resolution, to name just a few. Our nurses participate in local, regional, and national professional organizations and legislative bodies. Many Jefferson nurses hold multiple certifications, representing a wide range of clinical expertise. By continually encouraging professional growth and development, Jefferson supports every nurse in his or her journey toward excellence as clinicians, nurse educators, and leaders.
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