Nationally Renowned Nursing Researcher to Speak at Sixth Annual National Magnet Nursing Conference at Mayo Clinic Oct. 13-15

Wednesday, October 09, 2002

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Linda Aiken, Ph.D. will be a keynote speaker at the Sixth Annual National Magnet Nursing Conference to be held at Mayo Clinic. Dr. Aiken will present "New Research Findings Related to Magnet Hospital Performance" at 8:10 a.m. on Oct. 15 in Phillips Hall, Siebens Building, 100 Second Ave. S.W.

The Magnet Award, conferred by the American Nursing Credentialing Center, is the highest level of national or international recognition available to nursing departments. Only 59 health care organizations in the country have achieved the designation. Mayo Clinic Department of Nursing first received the designation, which is granted once every four years, in 1997. The Department has since been redesignated.

The Magnet Nursing Conference is geared toward organizations that are interested in achieving Magnet status. Experts in the field of nursing will discuss the impact the Magnet Award has on the nursing profession, patient outcomes, and recruitment and retention of nursing staff. The conference, which runs from Oct. 13 through 15, will include keynote presentations and breakout sessions on best practices, the nursing shortage, preparing for Magnet status and strategies for achieving Magnet status.

Dr. Aiken has received national attention for her research on the nursing shortage, hospital restructuring and patient outcomes. Her research on Magnet institutions has shown that they are better able to recruit and retain nurses, have lower patient mortality rates and foster collaborative relationships among nurses and other health care staff.

Dr. Aiken is the Claire M. Fagin Leadership Professor of Nursing, Professor of Sociology, and Director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Previously, Dr. Aiken was Vice President of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and directed its research and evaluation program. She is a member of the Board on Health Care Services at the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and the Council on the Economic Impact of Health System Change, and served on the Medicare Physician Payment Review Commission for six years. Dr. Aiken conducts research on health-care outcomes and health-workforce policy. She is the principal investigator of a hospital-care outcomes study in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland and Germany. Dr. Aiken also directs the Behavioral and Social Sciences Program at the University of Pennsylvania Center for AIDS Research and is a senior fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics and the Population Studies Center.

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Contact:
John Murphy
507-284-5005 (days)
507-284-2511 (evenings)
e-mail: newsbureau@mayo.edu

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