Mayo Clinic nurses are leading the global transformation of nursing practice to enhance patient care for everyone, everywhere. Mayo Clinic's Magnet designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) recognizes nursing excellence, a commitment to quality patient care and innovations in nursing practice. ANCC's Magnet designation is the highest international recognition that a health care organization can attain, and Mayo Clinic's campuses in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota have achieved this recognition.
Mayo Clinic nurses work in every medical and surgical setting — hospital, rehab center, hospice, outpatient clinic, surgical center, laboratory — and in all specialty areas.
In addition to its three campuses, Mayo Clinic includes Mayo Clinic Health System. The system's clinics, hospitals and other healthcare facilities are in 39 communities in Minnesota and Wisconsin. These sites provide highly skilled professional nursing services to their local communities.
Team-based care
Every day, Mayo Clinic nurses apply their knowledge and expertise to the care of people with increasingly complex conditions. Mayo Clinic recruits the best nurses. These nurses integrate into the high standards and unique work environment of Mayo Clinic to provide an unparalleled patient experience.
Mayo Clinic nurses are vital members of your care team. They are part of a talented interdisciplinary team of doctors, pharmacists, patient educators, dietitians, social workers, integrative medicine and health practitioners, and others, depending on your needs and plan of care.
Contributions of professional nursing at Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic's nursing excellence is based on a professional practice model that centers on you and your family. That core commitment is enhanced by a culture that values clear communication, diversity and inclusion, professional growth, and support for nursing's voice in effecting meaningful changes to patient care and the work environment.
Nurses' skills extend far beyond the bedside. Mayo Clinic nurses contribute to the discovery, translation, application and diffusion of new medical solutions and innovative care models to provide novel, best-in-class diagnosis and treatment.
Mayo Clinic nurses fulfill many roles, including:
- Caring healer. The compassionate care offered by Mayo Clinic nurses incorporates evidence-based best practices, research and feedback from patients. Your nurses assess, evaluate and monitor you, and they carry out many other responsibilities, such as taking your vital signs. They listen to your concerns so that they can provide individualized care.
- Teacher. Mayo Clinic nurses are health educators for patients, families and communities. They are supported in this work by premier patient education centers at each Mayo Clinic campus.
- Navigator. Your nurse advocates for you and guides you and your family on your health care journey. Your nurse also coordinates with other members of the care team. Clinical nurses help prepare you for discharge from the hospital and transition to the next level of care.
- Problem-solver. Professional nurses are trained to be proactive problem-solvers in every care setting. That may involve coordinating the care of people with complex medical needs, assessing processes to enhance value and efficiency, anticipating a complication in a patient's condition, and responding to unexpected challenges.
Mayo Clinic nurses are educated to provide care that considers patients and their families in a holistic manner, including their support systems and their physical, psychological and social needs.
Other contributions of professional nurses at Mayo Clinic include:
- Participating in shared decision-making on the unit and in departmental and organizational committees
- Leading, participating in and disseminating evidence-based nursing practices that yield safe, high-quality patient care
- Partnering with interdisciplinary teams to drive change that improves patient care
- Committing to process simplifications that remove barriers to excellent care
- Implementing and using new technology to meet patient needs
- Conducting research to improve patient care
Learn more about nursing roles at Mayo Clinic.
Mayo Clinic is committed to nursing excellence through education, research and outstanding patient care and innovation. The Mayo Clinic Department of Nursing is one of the largest and most respected groups of nurses in the world.
Magnet designation
Mayo Clinic's campuses in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota have been awarded Magnet designation for excellence in nursing. In the nursing profession, Magnet status is considered the gold standard that demonstrates a commitment to quality, safety and improvement, teamwork, evidence-based practice and research, and formal nursing education. The ANCC Magnet Recognition Program awards this prestigious designation to health care organizations that exemplify transformational leadership, structural empowerment, exemplary professional practice, and continual innovation and improvement in professional nursing practice.
In 2020 Mayo Clinic in in Rochester, Minnesota, was one of six organizations in the United States to receive a sixth ANCC Magnet designation. Since then Mayo Clinic in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota has each achieved designation or re-designation through a process of continual improvement and an unwavering commitment to excellence in nursing.
Level 1 Surgery Center
Mayo Clinic Children's Center is a Level 1 Children's Surgery Center, the highest verification awarded by the American College of Surgeons (ACS). This distinction recognizes the surgical excellence of our multispecialty teams — including surgeons, anesthesiologists, physicians, nurses and more — who meet or exceed ACS criteria for quality of care for newborns, babies, children, and teenage surgical patients.
Top-ranked surgical programs
Mayo Clinic is consistently ranked as one of the best hospitals in the nation by US News & World Report, reflecting overall excellence but also high scores in the ranking's surgical categories, including but not limited to:
- Cardiology & heart surgery
- Ear, nose & throat
- Gastroenterology & GI surgery
- Neurology & neurosurgery
- Pulmonology & lung surgery
Learn more about Mayo Clinic's quality rankings.
Mayo Clinic supports the conduct of nursing research. Mayo Clinic has doctorate-prepared nurses that lead and partner in original research studies that address unmet patient needs to advance patient care. Nurses at Mayo Clinic, regardless of educational level or position, are encouraged to engage in research through unit-based clinical trials and interactions with investigators.
In 2021 Linda L. Chlan, Ph.D., R.N., Mayo Clinic associate dean for nursing research, was inducted into the International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame, an honor bestowed by the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. She is one of many researchers at Mayo Clinic whose work has achieved significant and sustained national or international recognition and has advanced science to improve human health and well-being.
Research studies by Mayo Clinic nurses include:
- Testing the efficacy of self-management of sedative therapy for anxiety among critically ill patients receiving mechanical ventilatory support
- Assessing sources of discomfort among patients during stays in the intensive care unit
- Developing interventions to improve the well-being of people with life-limiting illnesses
- Developing interventions for family caregivers to manage stress
- Developing interventions to manage chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy
- Developing interventions to improve brain health in older adults admitted to the intensive care unit
- Investigating the contribution of the microbiome to symptoms associated with chemotherapy in people diagnosed with cancer
Learn more about nursing research at Mayo Clinic.
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