Magnet exemplars are concepts, practices or programs worthy of imitation that highlight excellence in nursing practice with positive outcomes. The exemplars underscore the five components of the Magnet Model: transformational leadership; structural empowerment; exemplary professional practice; and new knowledge, innovations and improvements — with outcomes embedded throughout. In addition to meeting demanding criteria, Suburban Hospital received nine exemplars:

Exemplary Professional Practice

Exemplar One: Nurse Satisfaction

On 21 of 23 inpatient and ambulatory units, our nurse satisfaction data outperformed national benchmarks and comparison cohort in autonomy, leadership access and responsiveness, interprofessional relationships and adequacy of resources and staffing.

Exemplar Two: Central Line-Associated Blood Stream Infection (CLABSI)

All inpatient unit-level data, across all units (behavioral health was excluded) for central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) outperformed national benchmarks for the majority of the eight quarters reported.

Exemplar Three: Device-Related Hospital-Acquired Pressure Injuries (HAPI)

Our data outperformed national benchmarks for device-related hospital-acquired pressure injury (HAPI) on all inpatient units (behavioral health was excluded) for the majority of the eight reported quarters.

Exemplar Four: Perioperative Measures

Our ambulatory setting nurse sensitive clinical indicator surgical errors data outperformed the mean for the majority of the eight reported quarters on 100% of the units. Reporting units included the operating room, cardiovascular operating room, interventional radiology and cardiac catheterization lab. Surgical errors measured included wrong site, wrong side, wrong patient, wrong procedure and wrong implant.

Exemplar Five: Patient Experience – Engagement/Patient Centered Care

Patient experience is central to our mission at Suburban. Our data in the ambulatory patient satisfaction category for patient engagement/patient-centered care outperformed national benchmarks for the majority of the eight reported quarters in the emergency department, clinical decision unit and outpatient behavioral health unit.

Exemplar Six: Patient Experience-Patient Education

Ensuring our patients receive the education they need and understand instructions is essential and goes together with our emphasis on patient experience. The ambulatory patient education category for patient education data outperformed national benchmarks for the majority of the eight reported quarters on 100% of units. Reporting units included same-day surgery, cardiovascular holding, cardiac catheterization lab, operating room, post-anesthesia care and preoperative holding.

Exemplar Seven: Patient Experience-Patient Safety

Understanding our approach to patient safety was noted in this exemplar. The ambulatory patient satisfaction category for safety data, which included discharge instructions, reviewing medications and skill of the nurses, outperformed national benchmarks for the majority of the eight reported quarters in the following ambulatory areas: same-day surgery, cardiovascular holding, cardiac catheterization lab, operating room, post-anesthesia care, preoperative holding and emergency department.

Transformational Leadership

Exemplar Eight: Improvement of Patient Care

The continued work to keep patients safe from falls emphasizing high-reliability behaviors aligned with Suburban Hospital's Professional Practice Model elements of "Patient First" and "Innovation" was exceptional.

The development of the organizational fall prevention campaign – "See Something, Say Something" – to engage all hospital employees in patient fall prevention and the new innovative cross-check cards and visual management boards to track progress were highlighted initiatives in this exemplar. This interprofessional project to reduce falls with injury across all inpatient units was an exemplary example of shared decision-making, interprofessional collaboration and how a real-time peer review process can improve patient safety and quality.

Exemplar Nine: CNO-Led Strategic Organizational Change

The organizational response to the pandemic was an exemplar. Nurses and others shared accounts of their COVID experience and expressed their complimentary views of Dr. LeighAnn Sidone and the leadership team. Their stories were divided into three themes:

1. A sense of pride about what had been accomplished together
2. Gratitude for having learned new skills as a result of deployment to unfamiliar areas
3. The enhanced strength of the team resulting from the shared experience and the way they took care of each other

Nurses noted Dr. Sidone's exemplary influence evidenced by her:

• Exceptional communication
• Extraordinary visibility
• Culture of caring

Colleagues noted:

"Dr. Sidone ensured the safety of all patients and family members, but she strategically also kept a laser focus on the safety of the clinical teams. She modeled the way."

"Dr. Sidone’s exceptional leadership drove the organizational change required to enable the Suburban administrative and clinical teams to not only survive, but thrive, during a time of extreme chaos and uncertainty."