Less than 400 hospitals nation wide can call themselves a nursing magnet — and now Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital is one of them.

After a two year process with the American Nurses Credentialing Center, the Downers Grove hospital was notified Aug. 19 it was the 21st hospital in Illinois to be a magnet.

“All the award does is validate that you have created the environment for excellence in nursing care that contributes to the great clinical outcome,” said Marj Maurer, vice president of clinical operations and chief nurse executive.

Sharing in her excitement was about 300 staff members who sat in on the conference call announcement, which was also broadcast throughout the hospital.

Though the process may have taken two years, Maurer said it has been her goal for about eight years.

“What I did was took the magnet criteria, and we started creating the environment that way,” Maurer said.

Hospitals achieving the magnet honor had to display 14 criteria including leadership, research, patient practice and roles in the community.

Maurer said the honor shows the nursing staff is meeting all requirements and exceeding them.

The board of commissioners for the magnet recognition program voted unanimously to give Good Samaritan the honor, according to Maurer.

The amount of teamwork present at Good Samaritan is much appreciated by Maurer.

“I didn’t realize that until we through this process and realized how we work as a team,” she said. “Everybody worked really hard to get this.”