Nemours Children's Orlando Earns Magnet® with Distinction — Raising the Bar for Pediatric Nursing
The Central Florida health system becomes the only organization in the region — and just the third in Florida — to reach the ANCC's highest tier of nursing excellence.
Nemours Children's Health, Central Florida team celebrates the Magnet® with Distinction Recognition announcement.
Apediatric health system in Orlando has quietly redrawn the map of nursing excellence in the southeastern United States.
On March 26, Nemours Children's Health, Central Florida announced it had earned the American Nurses Credentialing Center's (ANCC) Magnet® with Distinction Recognition — a designation reserved for hospitals whose nursing programs don't just meet the Magnet® standard, but substantially exceed it. Nemours Orlando is now the only system in Central Florida to hold the credential and one of only three organizations in the entire state of Florida to reach that tier.
A Credential Few Hospitals Ever Touch
The Magnet® recognition program, administered by the ANCC, is widely considered nursing's highest organizational honor. Of the roughly 6,000 hospitals in the United States, only about 10% achieve Magnet® designation — and fewer still are elevated to Magnet® with Distinction. For a pediatric system, the achievement is rarer still.
What the Reviewers Saw
In recognizing Nemours Central Florida, the ANCC cited 16 exemplars — specific areas in which the system's nursing practice materially exceeds the baseline. Reviewers singled out patient experience, clinical quality, nurse satisfaction, and the organization's Advanced Care at Home program as domains where the health system set standards rather than met them.
The Leadership Voices
For Dr. Nicole Johnson, the health system's Chief Nursing and Patient Operations Officer, the designation is a credit the bedside has earned.
The Work Behind the Honor
Magnet® is not a badge awarded on paper. It is the end of a multi-year process in which hospitals demonstrate nursing-led governance, measurable improvement in patient outcomes, ongoing professional development for clinical staff, and an embedded culture of evidence-based practice. Nemours Central Florida has been building that infrastructure systematically, and the Distinction tier reflects how far that building has gone.
A Growing Nemours Footprint
With this announcement, the Central Florida system joins its sister region in Delaware Valley, which has held Magnet® status continuously since 2012 and was re-designated in 2017 and again in 2022. Across both regions, Nemours is now one of the most comprehensively Magnet-credentialed pediatric organizations in the country.
Why It Matters Beyond Orlando
For the nursing profession, Magnet® with Distinction at a pediatric institution signals something specific: that the rigor of structural empowerment, exemplary professional practice, new knowledge and innovation — the pillars of the Magnet® framework — can translate fully into the pediatric setting. For patients and families in Central Florida, it means the nurses caring for their children are credentialed against the same standard as the best in the country.
About the Magnet Recognition Program®
Administered by the American Nurses Credentialing Center — the largest nurses credentialing organization in the world — the Magnet Recognition Program® identifies health care organizations that deliver the very best in nursing care and professionalism in nursing practice. It is considered the highest national honor for nursing excellence. More at nursingworld.org/magnet.
