A Comparison of Working Conditions Among Nurses in Magnet® and Non-Magnet® Hospitals

Objectives: To compare working conditions (ie, schedule, job demands, and practice environment) of nurses working in American Nurses Credentialing Center-designated Magnet(R) and non-Magnet(R) hospitals. Background: Although nurse retention has been reported as more favorable among Magnet hospitals, controversy still exists on whether Magnet hospitals have better working conditions. Method: A secondary data analysis was conducted of the Nurses Worklife and Health Study using responses from the 837 nurses working in 171 hospitals: 14 Magnet and 157 non-Magnet facilities in the Wave 3 follow-up survey. Contingency tables and t tests compared working conditions by Magnet status. To accommodate clustering of nurses in hospitals, the Huber-White sandwich estimator was used to obtain robust SEs and variance estimates. Result: Nurses in Magnet hospitals were significantly less likely to report jobs that included mandatory overtime (P = .04) or on-call (P = .01), yet hours worked did not differ. They also reported significantly lower physical demands (P = .03), although the means for Magnet hospital nurses and non-Magnet nurses were quite similar (30.1 vs 31.0). Furthermore, comparison of the groups on nursing practice environment and perceived patient safety found no significant differences. Conclusion: Working conditions reported by nurses working in Magnet and non-Magnet hospitals varied little.