€4 Million Grant to Improve Mental Health and Wellbeing of Health Professionals and Patient Safety

€4 Million Grant to Improve Mental Health and Wellbeing of Health Professionals and Patient Safety

LEUVEN, BELGIUM and PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, USA (December 10, 2019) – The largest initiative to improve hospital work environments to date has officially begun, with an award of 4 million Euros from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program. The grant will support the international partnership of some of the world’s leading Universities led by KU Leuven and the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing’s Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research. The aim of the initiative is to redesign hospital workplaces to improve the mental health and wellbeing of nurses and physicians and to improve patient safety.  This initiative begins in January 2020, aligning with 2020 being the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife as designated by the World Health Organization.

The U.S. National Academy of Medicine has prioritized enhancing health professionals’ mental health and wellbeing as a public health goal. Burnout, depression, and fatigue are far too common among nurses and physicians in fast paced hospital settings, and suicide rates are alarming. Patient safety depends upon vigilance, quick thinking, and intense attention to detail by health professionals which is made more difficult by stressful work settings.

“Hospitalized patients can only be assured safe and effective care when their nurses and physicians are able to perform at their best,” says Linda Aiken, PhD, Professor and Director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, and co-lead on Magnet4Europe, “and this requires healthy work environments.”

Magnet4Europe will implement an evidence-based intervention based on the successful Magnet Recognition Program^®, a voluntary hospital designation for nursing care excellence by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Countless studies have shown that Magnet-recognized hospitals have lower health professional burnout and safer patient care. Sixty hospitals in five European countries (Belgium, England, Germany, Ireland, and Sweden) will receive a full-blown redesign of their workplaces– supported by one to one twinning with an experienced Magnet recognized hospital and an annual learning collaborative. A rigorous research evaluation will determine the success of the initiative. 

“Our research points to specific features of complex organizations,” adds Dr. Walter Sermeus, European coordinator of the initiative at KU Leuven, “that if modified can significantly improve the wellbeing of health professionals and patients alike. Magnet4Europe will translate these research findings into practice to expedite much needed workplace redesign in hospitals and other healthcare settings.”

There are currently 502 Magnet Recognized hospitals in 8 countries, with most located in the US. Only one hospital in Europe has achieved Magnet recognition. This initiative will test the feasibility and sustainability of the Magnet Model^® for organizational redesign in the context of health care in Europe.

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MEDIA CONTACT

Penn Nursing                                                                           

Ed Federico                                                                             

[email protected]                                                                      

215.746.3562

PROGRAM CONTACTS

KU Leuven, Belgium

Program Director: Walter Sermeus, PhD, [email protected]

University of Pennsylvania, US

Program Co-Director: Linda Aiken, PhD, [email protected]

University of Southampton, UK

Jane Ball, PhD, [email protected]

University College Cork, Ireland

Jonathan Drennan, PhD [email protected]

Technische Universität Berlin, Germany

Reinhard Busse, MD, PhD, [email protected]

Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

Lars Eriksson, PhD, [email protected]

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK

Martin McKee, MD [email protected]

King’s College London, UK

Anne-Marie Rafferty, DPhil, [email protected]

University Hospital Antwerp, Belgium

Paul Van Aken, RN, MSc, [email protected]

Meplis

Oliver Sergeant, MSc, [email protected]

 About the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing

The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing is one of the world’s leading schools of nursing. For the fourth year in a row, it is ranked the #1 nursing school in the world by QS University and is consistently ranked highly in the U.S. News & World Report annual list of best graduate schools. Penn Nursing is currently ranked # 1 in funding from the National Institutes of Health, among other schools of nursing, for the second consecutive year. Penn Nursing prepares nurse scientists and nurse leaders to meet the health needs of a global society through innovation in research, education, and practice. Follow Penn Nursing on: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, & Instagram.

About KU Leuven Institute for Healthcare Policy, University of Leuven, Belgium
The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing is one of the world’s leading schools of nursing. For the fourth year in a row, it is ranked the #1 nursing school in the world by QS University and is consistently ranked highly in the U.S. News & World Report annual list of best graduate schools. Penn Nursing is currently ranked # 1 in funding from the National Institutes of Health, among other schools of nursing, for the second consecutive year. Penn Nursing prepares nurse scientists and nurse leaders to meet the health needs of a global society through innovation in research, education, and practice. Follow Penn Nursing on: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, & Instagram.About the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing

The KU Leuven Institute for Healthcare Policy is a world-leading research and education institute for healthcare management and policy. It is recently designated as a WHO Collaborating Center for Human Resources Research and Policy. http://www.kuleuven.be.

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