In an effort to build on the Medical Center’s reputation for nursing excellence, the nursing leadership has applied to the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) for the Magnet Recognition Award. The award, conferred upon hospitals and medical centers that deliver sustained excellence in nursing care, requires an institution’s nursing organization and staff to demonstrate a level of excellence and interdisciplinary collaboration through a rigorous evaluation process.

A Magnet for Nurses: With higher-than-average retention ratios, NYU is thriving while nationwide nursing vacancies are soaring.

By applying for Magnet status, the Medical Center hopes to further enhance its reputation for nursing excellence. With higher-than-average nurse retention ratios and cutting-edge programs in nurse recruitment,NYU is thriving at a time when nationwide nursing vacancies are alarmingly high. For example, the success of the Medical Center’s Nurse Residency program—created to ease nurses into their professional environment through mentoring relationships—is reflected in NYU’s selection last summer as one of only six academic medical centers in the country to take part in a five-year project to standardize a curriculum for such a program.

“As a Magnet, the Medical Center will have an even stronger ability to recruit and retain outstanding nurses, and by extension outstanding physicians and other healthcare professionals,” says Susan Bowar-Ferres, R.N., Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer of the Medical Center.

Following review of the initial application, the ANCC will further examine nursing practices at NYU over the next months. The formal application will be submitted in March 2004, and the final evaluation customarily occurs within several weeks of that review.