UMC Nursing

UMC Achieves Highest Honor for Nursing Excellence

University Medical Center of Southern Nevada has become the first and only hospital in the Silver State to achieve Magnet recognition as a reflection of its nursing professionalism, teamwork and superiority in patient care. The American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Magnet Recognition Program® distinguishes organizations that meet rigorous standards for nursing excellence.  

With this credential, UMC joins the global community of Magnet-recognized organizations. Just a small and select group of U.S. health care organizations have achieved Magnet recognition.  

“Magnet recognition is a historic achievement for UMC and speaks to the quality of our patient care,” said UMC Chief Nursing Officer Debra Fox. “Achieving Magnet recognition reinforces the culture of excellence that has supported our community-focused care for nearly a century. This honor also serves as also tangible evidence of our nurses’ unwavering commitment to providing Nevada’s highest level of care to our patients.”  

 Research demonstrates that Magnet recognition provides specific benefits to health care organizations and their communities, such as: 

• Higher patient satisfaction with nurse communication, availability of help and receipt of discharge information.  
• Lower risk of 30-day mortality and lower failure to rescue rates.  
• Higher job satisfaction among nurses.  
• Lower nurse reports of intentions to leave their positions.  

 Magnet recognition is the gold standard for nursing excellence and is a factor when the public judges health care organizations. U.S. News & World Report’s annual showcase of “America’s Best Hospitals” includes Magnet recognition in its ranking criteria for quality of inpatient care.  

 The Magnet Model provides a framework for nursing practice, research and measurement of outcomes. Through this framework, ANCC evaluates applicants across a number of components and dimensions to gauge an organization’s nursing excellence.  

 The foundation of this model comprises various elements deemed essential to delivering superior patient care. These include the quality of nursing leadership and coordination and collaboration across specialties, as well as processes for measuring and improving the quality and delivery of care.  

Nursing Vision

UMC’s Department Of Nursing, through it’s clinical practice, scholarship and research efforts, professionalism, strategic partnerships, and professional transformation, will set the standard for nursing across Nevada’s health care continuum.

Nursing Mission

• To deliver safe, excellent, quality-directed clinical care to our patients
• To provide clinical care in a way that is compassionate, caring and heartfelt
• To provide a nursing practice and work environment that meets Magnet standards
• To advance the nursing discipline through scholarship and research
• To aspire to a culture that is just, excellence-oriented, evidence-based, collegial and enjoyable

Professional Practice Schema & Model

The UMC Professional Practice Model Schema was established in 2015 by clinical nurses representing the full practice spectrum across the Department of Nursing. The words formalized within the schema define the core behaviors and professional components that UMC clinical nurses believe represent who they are as professionals and individuals. Over time, the professional practice model has been reviewed, and clinical nurses continue to feel it is relevant and reflective of who they are as a Department of Nursing. In the schema, keywords are superimposed on the cityscape of Las Vegas. This cityscape represents UMC’s long history of providing healthcare to the Las Vegas community. It is easily recognizable and has come to represent our commitment to “Vegas Strong,” meaning we rise and strive together as a hospital and community in all things.

Organizational & Nursing Integration:

UMC upholds the following mission, vision and values to define who we are as a healthcare organization. They provide an overarching framework from which the nursing department has defined its mission, vision, values and professional cultural crosswalk. This ensures mutual alignment and integration. 

• UMC Mission: to serve our community by providing patient-centered care in a fiscally responsible and learning-focused environment.
  
• UMC Department of Nursing Mission: to serve our community by providing nursing care that is compassionate, competent, and safe to our patients and community in a fiscally responsible, innovative, research and learning-focused manner.
• UMC Vision: to be the premier academic health center.
• UMC Department of Nursing Vision: to be the most empowered, innovative and practice-advanced nursing department in the state of Nevada, and to drive UMC to be the first Magnet-designated hospital in the state.
• UMC Values: compassion, accountability, integrity and respect.
• UMC Department of Nursing Values: caring, integrity, practice excellence, interprofessional teamwork and commitment.

Nursing Cultural Crosswalk:

The UMC Department of Nursing grounds its clinical care delivery, professional code of conduct, shared decision-making and action standards in its Professional Nursing Cultural Crosswalk. This cultural framework integrates Kristin Swanson’s Theory of Caring, Servant Leadership expectations, UMC’s ICARE principles, and both Pathway to Excellence and Magnet standards. The crosswalk helps to explain how clinical nurses and nurse leaders at all levels engage with each other, the patients we serve, and the nurse-centered and empirically driven elements that support our Journey to Excellence and positive practice environment.

UMC joins a premier group of organizations that have received Pathway to Excellence^® designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). The Pathway designation is a global credential that highlights UMC’s commitment to creating a healthy work environment where nurses feel empowered and valued. For more information on the Pathway to Excellence recognition program, visit ANCC’s website at https://www.nursingworld.org/pathway.

UMC’s Nursing Residency Program has received Accreditation with Distinction from the American Nurses Credentialing Center Practice Transition Accreditation Program^®. UMC’s evidence-based curriculum offers residents a collaborative learning environment to successfully transition into clinical practice. For more information on the Practice Transition Accreditation Program, visit ANCC’s website at https://www.nursingworld.org/organizational-programs/accreditation/ptap/.