Receiving a Beacon Award: Facility Guide and FAQ

Nursing excellence can be celebrated in a number of ways. The Daisy Award honors nurses who excel both clinically and personally, while Magnet designation recognizes facility-wide efforts to improve outcomes through strategic nursing care. But what about the units within facilities that are fundamentally built off of nursing teamwork? This is where the Beacon Award comes in.

If you’re a nursing leader who wants the collective efforts of your team to be recognized, you may be considering applying for the Beacon program. We’ll walk you through everything you need to know — from what this program is to how it can benefit your unit.

What Are Beacon Awards?

In response to growing concerns about healthcare quality and safety standards, the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) created the Beacon Program in 2003 to facilitate and recognize unit-based improvements in clinical care. As part of this program, a Beacon Award for Excellence is designated for nursing units that showcase exceptional care under three program modules:

1. Patient outcomes
2. Work environment
3. Nursing workforce

Beyond national recognition, this award also provides an actionable roadmap for achieving optimal care delivery by defining distinct levels that units can work toward:

• Gold-level Designation: Units providing excellent and sustained work performance and patient outcomes.
• Silver-level Designation: Units showcasing continuous learning and efforts to achieve optimal patient care.
• Bronze-level Designation: Units demonstrating success in developing and adopting new performance criteria to strive for optimal outcomes.

Who Can Participate in the Beacon Program?

Any unit that delivers nursing care upon a patient’s admission to a hospital is eligible to apply for a Beacon, and AACN membership is not required. Since the Beacon is awarded at the unit-level, each unit at a facility must submit separate applications. The results of one unit don’t affect the results of another unit at the same hospital.

Why Should Units Apply?

The Beacon is the only national award that recognizes unit-based nursing performance. Because of this, each unit that applies for the award can reap many unique benefits, such as:

• Recognition: Receiving a Beacon is considered a significant achievement. Nursing teams are able to celebrate and recognize all the hard work they’ve been contributing to deliver high quality care.

• Retention: Beyond positive patient outcomes, a Beacon also exemplifies a healthy working environment. Certain evaluation criteria are based on collaboration and teamwork, which helps units foster nurse empowerment and reduce turnover.

• Credibility: A Beacon showcases a unit’s commitment to upholding quality and safety standards. This gives patients and families a reason to entrust facilities with their care.

• Improvement: The AACN provides comprehensive feedback to each unit that applies. This allows teams to continuously improve their care delivery over time.

What Is the Application Process?

To apply for consideration, a unit must first submit a Healthy Work Environment Assessment (HWEAT) through the AACN’s online portal by December 31st. Upon completion, this grants a unit access to purchase and complete a full Beacon Award application in February of the following year.

Units must then submit a $3,500 application fee ($2,500 for first time applicants) and complete all three module assessments (patient outcomes, work environment, and nursing workforce) by August 31.

Once all three modules are completed, units will be notified about their applications between September and December. Applications are reviewed in the order that they’re received, so units should aim to complete the application as soon as possible to hear back earlier.

How Are Units Evaluated?

Under each of the three modules, facilities must submit data on a variety of quantitative, qualitative, and process measures that are evaluated alongside the initial HWEAT assessment. The topics covered by these measures are broadly outlined in the table below.

It’s important to note that AACN makes regular updates to the program, so this evaluation criteria may change from year to year. You can stay up to date with the latest application information directly on AACN’s website.

What Steps Can Units Take to Earn an Award?

Earning a Beacon is a testament to a unit’s strong teamwork, culture, and efforts to deliver high quality patient care. It’s never too early to strive toward better care delivery, and nursing leaders can take these steps to prepare for upcoming application cycles.

1. Read all of AACN’s guidelines: Familiarize yourself with the application instructions, deadlines, and evaluation criteria so that you can begin implementing a plan for meeting program standards.

2. Create a Beacon team: Consider forming a designated Beacon team made up of clinical staff and administrative leaders to help keep the unit on track, keeping up with program requirements, and gathering data to complete application questions.

3. Utilize collaborative decision-making: Ensure clinical nurses on the floor are engaged by soliciting regular team feedback about program participation and the application submission process.

4. Apply feedback from AACN: If you’ve participated in the past, utilize any feedback from AACN to make improvements to your quality improvement strategy for future applications.

5. Strive for excellence, regardless of the outcome: While recognition is a great way to celebrate your unit’s efforts, don’t let unexpected results bring your morale down. Participating in the Beacon program is an accomplishment in itself and a great opportunity to achieve excellence in the long-run.

Discover More Ways to Improve Care Delivery

Making unit-based improvements isn’t limited to receiving a Beacon award. Nursing leaders can read more tips, strategies, and guides on how to support their staff and improve workflow through IntelyCare’s free newsletter.