Periodic Reporting for period 3 - Magnet4Europe (Magnet4Europe: Improving Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Health Care Workplace)
Reporting period: 2022-07-01 to 2023-12-31
Magnet4Europe aims to redesign the clinical work environment, particularly of nurses and physicians by applying the Magnet® concept and to evaluate its transferability to the European context. The Magnet concept originally derived from the American healthcare context where it has been shown to successfully improve well-being of staff including lower burnout and improved clinical outcomes. However, despite the large body of evidence, Magnet© organizational redesign initiatives have not yet taken hold in Europe. Magnet4Europe follows a multi-country, hospital-based, matched-pairs wait-list cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT), with a nested qualitative process evaluation. An innovative multi-methodological approach is applied to facilitate organizational redesign to 69 hospitals in six European countries (Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, and United Kingdom). By doing so, each hospital participates in a twinning relationship with a Magnet® recognized hospital promoting the successful implementation of the original Magnet® Recognition Manual blueprint. The intervention is complemented by annual Europe-based learning collaborative and critical mass creation maximizing network exchanges, knowledge sharing, and opportunities for feedback. The primary aim of Magnet4Europe is to evaluate the effect of organizational redesign in general acute care hospitals on nurses’ and physicians’ wellbeing that will be measured by survey among nurses and physicians. The main outcome measure is burnout measured at the individual level. The implementation of the intervention is evaluated using a nested mixed-methods process evaluation, based on focus groups and individual interviews with a selection of hospitals in the participating countries. The secondary aims are to analyze patient outcome data and the cost-effectiveness of the intervention.
Disclaimer: Intervention Hospital Magnet® is a trademark of ANCC registered in the United States of America and other jurisdictions, and is being used under license from ANCC. All rights are reserved by ANCC. ANCC’s consent to the use of the Intervention Hospital Magnet® mark shall not be construed as ANCC sponsoring, participating, or endorsing the Magnet4Europe intervention.
By focusing our work in hospitals, we have the potential for “double-impact” whereby worker mental health can be improved and translated into better outcomes for patients. There is ample evidence that unsafe care is highly influenced by the work environment and the clinical staff. A recent EU report on the cost of unsafe care estimated that - in general - about 4–17 percent of patients experience adverse events, whereby 44–50 percent of these events are preventable. In addition, a potential “Triple Impact” was reported by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health (APPG) in 2016. The triple impact means that the focus on health care will not only improve health, support economic growth but will also contribute to gender equality as it allows all health professionals (the vast majority in all health professions are women) to work to their full potential. Developing and investing in health professionals will help empower them economically and as community leaders. Improving health and empowering women will in turn strengthen local economies.