AACN recognizes 122 units from 101 hospitals nationwide that earned Beacon Award for Excellence

Beacon-designated units meet criteria in five categories that are consistent with criteria for national awards, including Magnet Recognition, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and National Quality Healthcare Award. Units that receive the award demonstrate practices that align with AACN's Healthy Work Environment Standards for optimal care.

Recipients of a Gold Beacon Award demonstrate staff-driven excellence in sustained unit performance, improvement and patient outcomes that exceed national benchmarks. Silver-level recipients demonstrate continuous learning and effective systems to achieve optimal patient care. Bronze-level awardees demonstrate success in developing, deploying and integrating unit-based performance criteria for optimal outcomes.

Among the 34 units receiving the Beacon Award's highest distinction, two units at St. Francis Hospital, Roslyn, N.Y., and St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, Houston, each received Gold awards. Thirteen additional hospitals had multiple units honored with an award, demonstrating excellence in caring for high acuity and critically ill patients and their families.

AACN President Vicki Good, RN, MSN, CENP, CPSS, administrative director of patient safety for CoxHealth in Springfield, Mo., praises the exemplary efforts of the unit caregivers who achieved the Beacon Award for Excellence.

"The caregivers in these units are healthcare professionals committed to the best in patient care," Good said. "The fact that more than 30 units have achieved Gold status and a total of 122 units met the stringent criteria for the Beacon Award for Excellence in the last year shows the commitment of the caregivers and their hospitals to work together to achieve evidence-based excellence in recruitment, retention, training and mentoring."

AACN honors units that earn the Beacon Award for Excellence, online at www.aacn.org/beacon and during the National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition (NTI), the world's largest educational conference and trade show for nurses who care for acutely and critically ill patients and their families. The next NTI takes place in Denver May 17-22, 2014.