Impact of MAGNET hospital designation on nursing culture: an integrative review

Twenty-nine key studies were identified and were evaluated utilising two study quality appraisal tools; National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC) levels of evidence and the Polit and Beck critical appraisal tool. Three key categories emerged from the data: (1) nurse practice environment; (2) structure and process models; (3) measurement scales. A key finding was that MAGNET designation appears to enhance organisational culture for nurses and the framework used to introduce MAGNET helps to empower nurses to direct organisational culture in their facility. Conclusion and Implications for Nursing and Health Policy: MAGNET appears to have a positive impact on organisational culture, particularly for nurses. However, lack of standardised evaluation tools used to assess organisational culture associated with MAGNET designation limits comparability of the studies. Generally, the quality of evidence used to develop recommendations was poor to very poor. More, well designed studies undertaken outside of the USA are required. Impact Statement: An in-depth integrative review exploring the impact of MAGNET designation on organisational culture has not been undertaken. In this paper, we have used an integrative review methodology to identify, examine, thematically group and critically evaluate published literature around the impact of MAGNET designation on organisational culture within designated hospitals.