Nurses at UCI honored again for providing care

The UCI Medical Center nursing staff celebrated its second time being honored as a Magnet hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center this week.

Established in 1993, the Magnet Recognition program is bestowed upon those nursing staffs that provide patients with the ultimate benchmark to measure expectations of care.

Magnet enforces rigorous standards on those it gives its four-year designation. Only about 5% of the nation’s hospitals receive Magnet Recognition, UCI officials said.

The American Nurses Credentialing Center conducts a review of patient outcomes and satisfaction linked to nursing practices in order to determine if a hospital can be a Magnet institution. The hospital’s environment and the organization’s ability to recruit and maintain the best employees is also reviewed.

UCI Medical Center was first designated a Magnet hospital in 2003. Since then, the hospital has hired 330 more nurses and its retention rate has increased, officials said.

— Daniel Tedford