Colleagues from Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital (RACH) are preparing to welcome visitors from the American Nurses Credentialling Centre (ANCC) at the end of April as part of their journey towards achieving Magnet® designation for care excellence.
As part of the process, patients, family members, staff and members of the wider public are invited to have their say.
RACH is on track to become the first children’s hospital in the UK and the first hospital in Scotland to achieve Magnet designation. If successful, it will be a huge boost for attracting new staff and retaining talent in the North-east.
NHS Grampian's Chief Nurse for Combined Child Health, Caroline Clark explained: “Magnet has given us a roadmap to nursing excellence and benefits staff across RACH by helping to prioritise a culture of shared decision making, education and development through every career stage. It also helps teams make evidence-based improvements to clinical practice that benefit patients and families; these practical solutions are making a real difference.
“As well as the extensive variety of nurse-led improvement projects making an incredible difference to patients, Magnet has helped teams improve the student nurse induction process, develop staff-led training support and improve our appraisal rates. We have also reduced staff turnover at RACH by almost half between 2023 and 2025.”
Representatives from the ANCC will spend three days meeting nurses and multi-disciplinary team members from the children’s hospital and other parts of NHS Grampian. Part of the process has already involved teams inviting regular feedback from families receiving care, and ahead of the visit members of the public and staff can have their say on care provided. Since surveys started in 2023, patient experience and satisfaction has increased from around 75% to 95% overall.
The ANCC Magnet Recognition Program® is the highest credential a healthcare organisation can achieve. A Magnet designation indicates to patients and the public these organisations have met the most stringent, evidence-based standards of nursing excellence in patient care delivery.
Please follow this link to find all the details you need to provide feedback to the Magnet team.