Four Questions to Linda Aiken

The phenomenon of Magnet® hospitals was initially studied scientifically in the USA in the 1980s by Dr Linda Aiken. The research of the renowned nursing researcher and co-leader of the Magnet4Europe study has had a major impact on nursing research and practice globally. In our "Four Questions to" column, we asked Linda about Magnet4Europe

​After almost 2 years into the Magnet4Europe study, what fulfills you most in your work in the project?
 
The Learning Collaboratives and the thrilling examples of accomplishments achieved by the twinning partners in such a short period of time shows how much progress is being made, even despite the Covid pandemic.  What we are doing is clearly a catalyst for transforming hospital work environments.  I love to see the sense of pride among the Magnet hospital nurses in their partners’ accomplishments.    
 
In your opinion, what have been the greatest achievements in the Magnet4Europe project to date?
 
Everyone who knows about Magnet4Europe including our European Commission Project Officer and 3 external evaluators in a recent review are all amazed that nurses and nursing leaders in 134 hospitals in 7 countries are working productively together to improve clinician wellbeing in hospital workplaces.  That would be a great achievement at any time but in a pandemic is an extraordinary testament to the commitment of nurses to improve healthcare.
 
In such a large project involving many countries and hospitals across the EU and U.S., what have been some of the challenges or risks and how have they been overcome?
 
Recruiting a critical mass of hospitals to volunteer and stay committed to the project was a major challenge and it is a credit to nurses and nursing leadership that so many made the commitment and have stayed the course.  A big question at the outset was whether nurses from different cultures, differently organized healthcare systems, and speaking different languages could communicate effectively enough to achieve jointly established goals. So far, it seems that nursing is a universal language and commitment that overcomes such differences.
 
Thinking ahead, what would be an achievement of the project you would personally be particularly proud of?
 
I will be particularly proud if many of the twinning partnerships last beyond the official project period.  I hope that the partners find in the work they do together resilience, imagination, perseverance, joy, and success that will bind them together like old friends.   

​About Linda Aiken

Dr Linda H. Aiken is a renowned nurse academic whose research into nurse staffing levels has had a widespread impact around the world. She is the Claire Fagin Professor of Nursing, Professor of Sociology, Director of Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, and Senior Fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA. Her research, in more than 30 countries, focuses on the use of performance measures to demonstrate relationships between the proportion of more highly qualified nursing staff on wards and patient outcomes. She is an elected member of the US National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a former President of the American Academy of Nursing, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing. ​​