“I’ve seen through our magnet journey how the nurses here light up when they’re talking about the projects they’re involved in,” says Iris Mayoral, a clinical nurse at the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA, which was awarded Magnet Designation by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. “I’m involved in the falls prevention project. Patients in the geriatric psych unit are on medications that cause them to feel dizzy and fall, or their diagnosis of dementia or Alzheimer’s puts them at a greater risk for falling. Patients are here for us to take care of. Their families are entrusting us with their care, so we need to make sure we’re meeting those expectations. As a team we tried to identify what the main fall contributors were and address those with interventions and education. A project like this doesn’t end abruptly. It’s something we want to keep building on, so we’re still working.”

Tags: featured, Magnet Designation, Mental Health, Nursing, Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA