Erin Kozlowski, MS, an ICU at University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, said the effort to get her master's degree has paid off.

UC Davis has had Magnet status for four years and Kozlowski says one thing the program emphasizes is and looking to systemwide thinking. For her that has meant looking at all the ways a patient in the hospital is connected to people and industries. “If a patient is in the hospital, the patient is a provider and family member and a worker, so all these other industries are affected by the health of this one person,” she said. “I had never thought about healthcare in that way.” Magnet culture and education are intertwined, she said. “An institution creates an environment that is friendly to going back to school and going back to school fosters a Magnet culture.” Kozlowski said she wasn’t pressured to advance her education, but encouraged to do so with mentorship, tuition benefits and time built in for professional development. She said nurses receive 40 hours for professional leave which can be used for things like conferences or online continuing education. Flexible scheduling also helped her achieve her goals. “I always got the days off I needed for school and I never felt I was a burden to my coworkers,” Kozlowski said. Magnet culture, education and work constantly feed each other. As part of her master’s degree, she conducted a survey at her own hospital as nurses prepared for Magnet recertification. Her project was to identify what they were struggling with and where nurses felt most comfortable in the Magnet process. She said she hasn’t ruled out getting more education. The Magnet atmosphere makes you want more, she said, and when one nurse makes the commitment to get a degree or , others follow, she said.

Susan Okuno-Jones, DNP, was at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Ill., when it achieved its first Magnet designation in 2005. It achieved Magnet designation for the fourth time in 2019.

Okuno-Jones, who has been in the Advocate system for more than 30 years, said Magnet designation shifted the culture. “The question was no longer ‘are you going back to school?’ but ‘when are you going back to school?” she said. Now chief nurse officer at Advocate Good Samaritan in Downers Grove, Ill., Okuno-Jones is part of the leadership encouraging students to get higher education. She pursued several certifications of her own in high-risk neonatal intensive care, staff development and as a certified nurse executive. “My personal philosophy is leaders go first,” she said. “It would be hard for me to encourage someone to be certified if I’m not willing to do it myself. It would be hard to tell others they need to get their terminal degree if I was not committed to that myself.” The goals should be the same as they are for physicians, Okuno-Jones said. “I say to my nurses — would you go to a physician who was not board certified in the specialty for which you were going to see them?” she said. “Their answer is 100% no. So then why would it be OK for our specialty nurses to not have that level of expertise? It’s not only important to us professionally but to the patients we serve.” Part of her work toward the DNP she received in 2010 was a project on compassion fatigue. She wanted to study whether it was more prevalent at a certain age or gender or with a certain type of degree. Her school work fed directly back to her professional work, Okuno-Jones said. “The counter measure to compassion fatigue is compassion satisfaction,” she said. “I think that’s been my driver as a leader in engaging my staff.  If I can provide them an enriching environment, they will be more satisfied and have a different level of relationship for those they care for.”

Magnet has supported UC Davis’ mission for inspiring nurses to continually build skills in their specialties, said Joleen Lonigan, MSN, RN, NE-BC, executive director for Patient Care Services at UC Davis Health.

In addition to time off for professional development, tuition help and flexible schedules, nurses are rewarded financially with ongoing stipends as they achieve and reapply for certifications. “In addition, I think we do a great job of celebrating nurses,” Lonigan said. Every year, leadership takes out a full-page ad in the Sacramento Bee to honor all the nurses who have been certified. They post certification rates in the units to build internal motivation and put certifications on name badges. Magnet helps foster the atmosphere of “a thirst for knowledge,” she said, which leads to improved outcomes and satisfaction.