Open access peer-reviewed chapter
Abstract
To innovate is to bring forward positive change for a population of people who are affected by a pervasive unmet need. In nursing and healthcare, new innovations must address how to advance quality outcomes. These advancements can be through one or more of the six domains of quality (e.g., safe, efficient, effective, equitable, timely, and patient-centered). Nursing history is rich with innovation efforts to advance the profession. Nursing has recently experienced a new resurgence of focus on innovation through academics, practice, research, and scholarship. Nursing must continue to evolve and meet the contemporary needs of our peers and the people which we serve. Embracing the power of innovation as a profession can help us address the many pervasive unmet nursing and healthcare needs across the globe. This chapter will aim to: Define innovation, nursing, and healthcare innovation 1. Describe aspects of nursing innovation throughout history 2. Describe the role of quality as an outcome measure for innovation efforts 3. Examine how innovation can be a focal point in academics, practice, research, scholarship, and policy 4. Critique the risk of not embracing innovation in nursing and healthcare for the future.
Keywords
- nursing
- innovation
- future of nursing
- nursing advancements
- innovations in healthcare
1. Introduction
The nursing profession has seen a growing focus on innovation over the last decade. Yet, more work remains to solidify innovation as a necessary learning element for the benefit of the care delivery and professional nursing contributions to individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations at large [1, 2]. Yet, innovation remains a new domain for many in nursing and healthcare. The purpose of this chapter is to describe how the nursing profession can advance through the integration of innovation into our knowledge, skills, and abilities across all areas where nurses work. The chapter is broken into five topical areas. Each topical area builds on the one(s) before it.
1.1 Chapter objectives
Define innovation, nursing innovation and healthcare innovation.
Describe aspects of nursing innovation throughout history.
Describe the role of quality as an outcome measure for innovation efforts.
Examine how innovation can be a focal point in academics practice research and scholarship.
Critique the risk of not embracing innovation in nursing and healthcare for the future.
2. Define innovation, nursing innovation, and healthcare innovation
What does it mean to innovate, to be innovative, or to create an innovation? This is a common question for many when innovation is discussed in conversation. At times, innovation can lead to misconceptions, be seen as something ethereal (e.g., magic), be resisted, and may also be misunderstood. Innovation may be perceived by some as risky to healthcare while others may see it as the panacea for current challenges. In this section, innovation will be clearly defined and measurable for those reading along. By the end of the chapter, one will be confident in knowing that innovation can be taught. One can learn to innovate, be innovative, and develop an innovation for nursing and healthcare at large. The terms
Innovation is all around us in the marketplace, society, and how we interact with the world each day. Yet, it can be difficult to pinpoint innovation without a clear definition of the term. An
These new innovations emerge to address an
2.1 Example one: hard boiled egg
An example of an unmet need may be the desire to have a quick and easy way to peel a hard-boiled egg without making a mess and taking too much time. Peeling a hard-boiled egg often is frustrating to experience with little pieces of the shell breaking off as well as parts of the egg. An example of an innovative solution to this unmet need is the ability to purchase pre-peeled hard-boiled eggs (and avoid the egg peeling experience).
2.2 Example two: hanging a picture on the wall
Another example of an unmet need may be the desire to hang a picture on the wall. One needs a tool to be able to have the picture displayed on the wall. A hammer may serve as that tool to meet that need with a nail. While a hammer is not an innovation today, there was a time when it did not exist. A more recent innovation that addresses this unmet need would be double-sided tape that is designed for hanging pictures on a wall. This is a more recent innovation that avoids the need for a hammer and nail.
For an innovation to be successful, there must be a
2.3 Nursing and healthcare innovation
Now, the definition of innovation from above
Nursing innovations will also take on forms of new products, processes, and/or services. Some examples of nursing innovation products include the crash cart [4] and neonatal phototherapy [5]. A nursing innovation process example is the Wong-Baker Faces Pain Scale to evaluate pediatric pain [6]. Nursing innovation service examples include the American Red Cross [7] and the role of the Nurse Practitioner [8].
Healthcare innovation has similarities to nursing innovation in definition. Healthcare is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as
Nursing and healthcare commonly rely on workarounds to address unmet needs that affect the ability to reach quality nursing and healthcare [10, 11]. Workarounds can take the form of products, processes, and/or services. Workarounds require innovative behaviors of others, but workarounds are not innovations. Workarounds are indicators of system, organizational, and/or societal unmet needs that need innovative solutions [10].
2.4 Theories of innovation
To further understand the concept of innovation, one must also be aware of the prominent innovation theories. The prominent innovation theories are grounded in business, economics, and sociology (to name a few). The prominent innovation theories help us understand how to look at innovation and become better at creating new innovations that can be explained by innovation theories. Eight prominent theories and the associated theorist are listed below. An original source for each of the theorists is provided as a reference for the reader.
Jobs to be Done, Anthony Ulwick [12].
Disruptive Innovation, Clayton Christensen [13].
User Driven Innovation, Eric Von Hippel [14].
Open Innovation, Henry Chesbrough [15].
Free Innovation, Eric Von Hippel [16].
Democratizing Innovation, Eric Von Hippel [17].
Purposeful Innovation, Peter Drucker [18].
Diffusion of Innovation, Everett Rogers [19].
3. Describe aspects of nursing innovation throughout history
Innovation looks into the future while history reflects on the past. These two may seem to be on opposite ends of the spectrum. However, they are interrelated disciplines. Reflecting on the past allows for us to influence the future. We can look back and see how innovations came to be, the problems they were solving, and the new problems that were introduced in need of newer solutions. Innovations are built on the past that is no longer meeting the needs of others.
For nursing, this is no different. Innovation is not new to nursing. From the very beginning of the profession and even leading up to it, nurses have innovated to meet the needs of others. However, the term innovation has not been as prominently used. Yet, the actions led to innovative developments to foster improved care, systems, tools and more for those who are in need. Those in need include patients, families, communities, and populations. One does not need to be a patient to need the care of nurses.
Innovations emerge through the minds, creativity, and resourcefulness of others. There was a time when nursing was not a profession. There was a time when we did not have resources that we depend on today to provide quality nursing care. Examples of such resources include nursing as a profession, public health nursing, the crash cart, nurse practitioners, simulation education tools, the American Red Cross, the stretcher, pediatric pain scale, neonatal phototherapy, and even the emergence of electronic health records has roots from a nurse. Each of the innovations mentioned above are briefly described below. The descriptions are organized according to either nursing roles or nursing resources for care.
3.1 Nursing professional roles
The science of caring is a foundation of the nursing profession [20]. The profession today consists of over 27 million nurses across the globe [21]. Yet, there was a time when a nurse emerged as a new professional role and educational career path. There are many nurses in history who have had a profound impact by innovating within the nursing profession. Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole are two of those nurses. Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole were both instrumental in supporting soldiers during the Crimean War [22]. Florence Nightingale’s innovative efforts focused on is often referred to as the founder of modern-day nursing [23]. Nightingale had many contributions during the Crimean War however her efforts to connect sanitation, nutrition, and overall cleanliness on the health status of wounded soldiers were new contributions to nursing [24]. Mary Seacole also provided significant contributions during the Crimean War. Seacole, who was known by many as “Mother Seacole” identified many ways to support and positively impact the British troops. Seacole used her Jamaican herbal remedies to provide nursing care to the ill and wounded. Additionally, she created the British Hotel that served as a storehouse where British soldiers were able to get necessary food, medicine, and supplies. The contributions of Nightingale and Seacole during the Crimean War led to their acknowledgements as Crimean Heroines [25]. Innovation was inherent in their abilities as nurses. Throughout the profession’s history, nurses have continued to exhibit innovativeness in their nursing contributions. The examples shared in this section are just a few of the many nurses who have created necessary innovations that are staples today.
3.1.1 Public health nursing
In March 2020, the whole world became very aware of the need for public health nurses and public health expertise. Public health nursing is defined by the American Public Health Association [26] as “the practice of promoting and protecting the health of populations using knowledge from nursing, social and public health sciences”. With 8 billion people in the world [27] and the World Health Organization defining health as “the state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” [9] there absolutely is a need for public health nurses. The origins of public health nursing date back to 1893 and the innovativeness of Lillian Wald [28]. Lillian Wald was a nurse who advanced the nursing profession to establish the term public health nurse. Today, there are nearly 16,000 public health nurses in the United States.
3.1.2 Nurse practitioners
In 1965, the United States established Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare and Medicaid provided greater access to healthcare services for more people. With more access to care, there was a need for many more primary care providers. Loretta Ford, a nurse, and Henry Silver, a physician, got together and innovated to create a new provider role: the Nurse Practitioner [29]. At the time, there was a shortage of available pediatric primary care providers. The new provider role and educational experience led to the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner role. From that first Nurse Practitioner role, others began to emerge (e.g., Adult Primary Care, Family) for nurses to pursue. Today there are over 355,000 Nurse Practitioners in the United States [30].
3.2 Nursing innovations for care
As nurses are in a profession of caring. The actions of their efforts are directed toward others (either directly or indirectly). Those who are recipients of care experience the greatest health outcomes when care is of high quality (more on that in Section 4). To provide high quality care, nurses need appropriate resources and tools to address care needs. Anything that does not exist naturally in nature was created by an individual or a group of individuals. The impetus for creating new innovations, as mentioned in Section 2, stems from an unmet need affecting a target group of people. As nurses are the healthcare professional group who spend the most time with patients, they are also able to recognize gaps, or unmet needs, in available resources (or solutions) that could enhance their caregiving. A nurse is attributed to many nursing resources depended upon today that are staples of caregiving for nurses and the healthcare team at large. Those resources include, but are not limited to, the American Red Cross, simulation mannequins for education, the crash cart, the stretcher, electronic health records, and one of the most prominently used pediatric pain scale tools. Each mentioned innovation is briefly described below.
3.2.1 American red Cross
The American Red Cross was founded in 1881 in the United States. Clara Barton advocated for the United States to establish a Red Cross for some time before its inception. She led the organization for 23 years. Barton provided nursing care during the Civil War and earned herself the nickname of Angel of the Battlefield. In 1869, Barton went to Switzerland and learned of the Red Cross while there. She saw that America could benefit from an organization that provided resources to those injured and brought the idea to the U.S. Twelve years later, the American Red Cross was established in the U.S. Barton saw that America did not have a comparable resource to support people who were hurt or in need of aid because of the war. The American Red Cross recognizes Barton’s innovative efforts that has sustains over 140 years, “because of one woman, Clara Barton, the American Red Cross brings help and hope across the nation and around the world.” [31].
3.2.2 Simulation mannequin for nursing education
Nursing education today has advanced to include the use of simulation mannequins that can present clinical scenarios to students that they may not see while in their clinical rotations. The evolution of simulation in nursing education can be traced back to nurse A. Lauder Sutherland in 1910. Sutherland invented the first simulation mannequin that became known as Mrs. Chase at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut [32, 33]. Mrs. Chase is now on display at Hartford Hospital’s Innovation Center. Today, simulation is a core learning experience of nursing education.
3.2.3 Crash cart
The modern-day crash cart was invented by Anita Dorr. In 1967, Anita Dorr was working in an Emergency Department. Dorr recognized the lack of efficiency and organization to gathering necessary supplies when patient emergency situations would occur. Dorr decided to work with her husband to develop the first crisis cart that was made out of wood. She painted it red and added wheels to the bottom for ease of transport to and from areas within the emergency department. The crisis cart supported more effective patient care. Her innovativeness and invention led to the staple nurses and healthcare professionals depend upon today, the modern-day crash cart. Every care area has a crash cart in the event of a patient emergency [4].
3.2.4 Stretcher
Stretchers are a common form of transporting a patient within a hospital or healthcare facility. The origins of the stretcher date back to 1926. The inventor and innovator, Elizabeth Kenney, was caring for patients during World War I. Kenney saw the need for a more comfortable and easy way to transport patients to minimize their suffering in transport. Today, stretchers are a necessary piece of equipment within hospitals and healthcare facilities [32, 34].
3.2.5 Wong-baker faces pain scale
Prior to 1983, there was not a systematic way for pediatric patients’ pain to be communicated and measured to the nurse. Donna Wong, a registered nurse, and Connie Baker, a child life specialist, both saw the need for a better way to help these children and their pain. Through their collective innovative research, the Wong-Baker Faces Pain Scale was developed and put into practice. Today, the Wong-Baker Faces Pain Scale is used around the world with people over the age of 3 [35].
3.2.6 Electronic health records
Electronic health records (EHRs) date back to the 1950’s. Harriet Werley was one of the first (if not the first) nurse to examine the possibility of using computer technology to support the use and management of healthcare data and information [35]. Despite the conceptualization and initial versions that emerged in the 1960’s, EHRs did not reach near full adoption until the last few years [36, 37]. While EHRs continue to have areas for enhancement and refinement, digitizing healthcare data creates new opportunities for improving quality care [38].
The nursing profession has a rich history of nurses who exhibit innovative behaviors to create necessary innovations. The innovations shared in this section are just a few of the many innovations that nurses have created to contribute to the unmet needs of groups, communities, and populations for higher care quality.
4. Describe the role of quality as an outcome measure for innovation efforts
Reflecting on the definition provided at the start of the chapter, innovation is a new product, process, and/or service that addresses a pervasive unmet need for a population of people to support optimal healthcare quality. Innovations introduced into healthcare settings must work to improve care quality. Improving care quality is not necessarily a requirement for non-nursing and/or non-healthcare innovations. However, with regulatory requirements, ethical considerations, and more, nurse innovators will increase their likelihood of innovation adoption and use with clarity around how quality of care can be improved through the innovation.
4.1 Quality
In 2000, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) (now the National Academy of Medicine (NAM)) published the seminal report, Crossing the Quality Chasm [39]. Within that report, healthcare quality was defined as “the degree to which healthcare services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge” [40]. More specifically, quality was broken into six different domains. The six quality domains are: safe, efficient, effective, equitable, patient-centered, and timely. Each attribute is defined below as described by the IOM (now NAM).
4.1.1 Safe
Safe care is care that is free from any unintended injury, harm, or error [40]. Nurses and healthcare professionals have an ethical expectation to provide care void of any intentional harm or negligence. While an ethical expectation, there are times when errors do occur. Therefore, one domain of quality is to promote and establish safe care practices, policies, and solutions to reduce the risk of unintended injury, harm, or error to others.
4.1.2 Efficient
Efficient care is care that avoids unnecessary waste and/or costs [40]. Unnecessary waste and/or costs could apply to tangible and intangible items. Tangible waste and/or costs could be medical supplies, exams, tests, procedures, and visits. Intangible waste could be unnecessary wait times, delays, and/or interruptions to care delivery. While not intentional, any lack of efficiency around the unnecessary waste and/or costs has room for improvement toward optimal care quality.
4.1.3 Effective
Effective care integrates evidence-based practice into the care delivery process [40]. Care delivery is largely evidence-based. The evidence-based protocols are based on research outcomes and analysis to determine the most effective procedures and protocols to achieve optimal health outcomes for the affected people. Yet, new evidence-based practice protocols and procedures evolve as patients’ responses indicate the need for new tools to reach a desired outcome.
4.1.4 Equitable
Equitable care is care that is optimally delivered to all people, regardless of gender, ethnicity, geography, socioeconomic status, and more [40]. Every person is deserving of nursing and healthcare that is equitable. However, evaluation of one’s social determinants of health may indicate that there are additional care needs to include and/or adjust to deliver equitable care.
4.1.5 Patient-centered
Patient-centered care focuses on individualizing care to the specific patient [40]. Every patient is a person who has personal preferences and clinical preferences for care [41]. Patients are people first with clinical and personal care needs. Patients want to be treated like a person and not a protocol or diagnosis. Patients have unique insights that must be considered for patient-centered care by nurses and healthcare professionals.
4.1.6 Timeliness
Timeliness of care is care that is delivered without delays [40]. Nurses and healthcare professionals aim to deliver care in a timely manner (void of delays). However, most nurses, healthcare professionals, and patients are aware of instances of delayed care. Delayed care could be the wait time for an available appointment, emergency room wait time and/or time to be admitted or discharged.
4.2 Quality influencing nursing and healthcare innovation
With these six domains of quality, innovators can begin to work backwards with the six domains of quality as the starting place for consideration and exploration of unmet needs affecting a population of users. The population of users could be nurses, patients, family members, groups, communities, all people and/or any other subgroup. The unmet need(s) to identify as an innovator is(are) gaps or limitations in care delivery related to at least one of the six domains: safe, efficient, effective, equitable, patient-centered, and timeliness.
To identify potential opportunities for innovation, consider where there are specific current gaps and/or limitations in care delivery. Once that gap and/or limitation is identified, consider what the implications are for care quality. Go back to the definitions above and identify how that gap and/or limitation is not fully fulfilling the expectation of the domain (or domains if more than one identified). By identifying the gap in quality through one or more of the domains, there is the opportunity to measure the impact of the gap and subsequently the impact of the forthcoming innovation. Next, use the principles of innovation theory and design thinking methodology [42] to formulate an idea and process to develop an innovative solution, prototype, and plan for bringing to the market and/or society.
5. Examples of gaps and/or limitations with possible innovative solution ideas
5.1 Safe
To experience safe care, people would experience care that is free from any unintended injury, harm, or error. Falls are a common unintended injury people experience. Over three million aging adults fall each year. Over eight hundred thousand are hospitalized because of a fall [43]. Preventing falls for safety becomes an unmet need. Therefore, one may begin to study the primary reasons why falls occur and determine an innovation to prevent falls that is not currently available.
5.2 Efficient
To experience efficient care, patients would experience care that removes or reduces unnecessary waste and/or costs. Frequently, patients may experience repetitive tests that are done at different healthcare facilities. However, that repetitive test will lead to increased overall healthcare costs. At times, the repeat test may be necessary. However, unnecessary repetitive tests lead to unnecessary healthcare costs [44]. Thus, one may be interested in investigating how to reduce the use of unnecessary repetitive tests for appropriate specificity and sensitivity.
5.3 Effective
Effective care integrates evidence-based practice into the care delivery process [40]. Care delivery is largely evidence-based. The evidence-based protocols are based on research outcomes and analysis to determine the most effective procedures and protocols to achieve optimal health outcomes for the affected people. Yet, new evidence-based practice protocols and procedures evolve as patients’ responses indicate the need for new tools to reach a desired outcome. Evidence based innovation efforts have a cyclical relationship with evidence-based practice [45]. Yet, new knowledge from research does not tend to be translated to practice for approximately 17 years [46]. One may be interested in determining how to create a model for more seamless integration of new evidence-based innovation toward evidence-based practice in a more effective timeframe.
5.4 Equitable
Equitable care includes addressing social determinants of health. Social determinants of health include the categories of economic stability, education access and quality, healthcare access and quality, neighborhood and build environment, and social and community context. There are variables within each category to be measured. Social determinants of health are part of Healthy People 2030 [47]. One may be interested in exploring how best to either collect such data in an equitable way from people and/or determine how to use such data for creating new healthcare innovations that can contribute to enhanced equity across all care settings.
5.5 Patient-centered
Nurses and healthcare professionals cannot describe what patient-centered care means to patients unless one has also been a patient. To deliver patient-centered care, nurses and healthcare professionals must focus on providing individualized care. At times, patients may feel as though they are treated as a diagnosis or protocol rather than an individual person. This may not be the intention of the nurse or healthcare professional. Therefore, one may be interested in exploring how to reframe patient-centered care in such a way that patients feel known as people.
5.6 Timeliness
Delivering care in a timely manner, void of delays, is important to all. However, delays do occur. Delays in the time desired to obtain an appointment with a provider from the time requested, delays in the time seen when in an emergency department waiting room, and delays in time to discharge from a hospital or facility are three commonly experienced care delays. An innovator may seek to find ways to reduce such delays for the patient.
The examples are meant to offer a way to consider where to start on identifying possible areas for innovation. There are ample opportunities for innovation within healthcare. The more nurses, healthcare professionals, and people in general who opt to engage in innovation, the more advancements, improvements, and transformations nursing and healthcare will see in the future.
6. Examine how innovation can be a focal point in academics practice research, scholarship, and policy
Nursing and healthcare have persistent challenges that are in dire need of innovative solutions. Momentum for integrating innovation into the nursing profession as an active effort has continued to grow over the last decade across the globe. Through innovation, nursing,
People cannot be expected to successfully develop new nursing and healthcare innovations without knowing how to do so. Therefore, nurses can and must be taught about innovation as a concept, prominent theories, methodologies, and how to apply into practice and research. There are five domains where innovation can be a focal point for inclusion. The five domains are: academics, practice, research, scholarship, and policy.
6.1 Academics
To become a nurse, one must experience academic preparation. The nursing profession prepares registered nurses through undergraduate and graduate level education. Students can and must be academically prepared early in their academic nursing education on the foundational concepts, theories, and principles of innovation. Providing students with innovation education during undergraduate education will prepare future nurses with the tools to know how to create positive change as an innovation when faced with gaps in care (e.g., unmet needs). For those nursing students who opt to pursue graduate education, the foundational principles continue to be of importance as well as innovative leadership education (e.g., MS, DNP) and innovative research approaches that may lead to new discoveries (e.g., PhD). Additionally, there must be acknowledgement of the need for faculty preparation around nursing and healthcare innovation. Investing in the preparation of more faculty interested in or having an experiential background in innovation will provide a more effective experience for desired student outcomes.
6.2 Practice
Nursing roles are largely practice based across the globe. The public depends on nurses and healthcare professionals’ commitment to their practice. Yet, there are often areas where there is room for innovation in the day-to-day nursing practice. Workarounds are unfortunately a common nursing practice that are often indicative of a larger organizational level gap. While workarounds require innovative behaviors, the impact of the workaround is for the “n” of 1. If necessary, one might need to redo the workaround again the next day or for the next patient. Innovations also require innovative behaviors however they solve for the “n” of many at scale. As a profession, nursing must recognize workarounds for their clues as to possible innovations needed for development [48]. Nursing must also recognize the need for nurses to shift their mindsets away from workarounds toward innovations. This will require the academic preparation as stated above but also a supportive culture of innovation within the practice settings where new ideas can be shared and considered for development. Innovation centers are an emerging supportive structure at hospitals and academic centers in the United States.
6.3 Research
Research is the discovery of new knowledge. Nursing science advances through conducting research studies to answer questions that remain unanswered about a particular phenomenon. The nursing profession and healthcare industry benefit from nursing research. While this chapter has largely focused on innovation as the outcome, innovative approaches to research may lead to novel outcomes. An innovative research approach may be reflected in the formed research question. Another innovative approach may be reflected in the methodological approach to the larger nursing issue. The approach could be in the methods used and/or the analysis of the data. With new or novel questions and/or approaches, the researcher may uncover new findings that contribute to the larger phenomenon. New findings may also reveal insights needed to determine a suitable innovation.
6.4 Scholarship
Scholarship is the way in which new knowledge is generated and disseminated for the greater good of society. Scholarship may include discovery, teaching, integration, and/or application [49]. Discovery is the action of generating new knowledge and insights for the profession. Teaching is the action of educating students on the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for course content area. Professors aim to scale their knowledge to others through the teaching process. The integration and application of the new knowledge and teachings into practice can be done in many forms as nurses and healthcare professionals.
Innovation is an emerging specialty discipline for the nursing profession. As innovation continues to grow in focus and scope, innovators can recognize that there are four areas of scholarship where more innovation efforts are needed for nursing. The profession needs more innovative discoveries to address the current and future challenges. Professors of innovation are needed to teach students the fundamentals of innovation concepts, theories, methodologies, and applications for effectiveness. Additionally, such students will be needed to scale the knowledge to others across the profession in the same way that the nurse practitioner role and education grew over time. Integration and application will mean that innovators and innovative cultures will emerge for changes to occur throughout the profession.
6.5 Policy
Health care is a highly regulated industry. Regulations determine what is legally permissible for healthcare delivery. Innovations can be advanced because of regulations or deterred to a potential future date. Additionally, healthcare costs are largely paid for by a third party (e.g., not the patient). In the United States, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), is the largest payer of healthcare services [50]. Payer reimbursements can also be influence positively or negatively depending upon whether a reimbursable service. In the United States, telehealth services became a reimbursable service in March 2020 with the onset of the coronavirus global pandemic [51]. Despite the conceptualization of telehealth in the 1960’s [52], adoption had been slow prior to the pandemic due to challenges in a viable business model. Innovators must be aware of the state of regulatory opportunities and challenges when pursuing an innovation. Additionally, innovators must also become participants in the policy process to support the advancement of nursing and healthcare through their eyes on the future.
7. Critique the risk of not embracing innovation in nursing and healthcare for the future
As shared earlier in this chapter, innovation is not new to the nursing profession. Nurses have helped transform and advance the profession. Through their own innovative behaviors and innovation developments, nurses throughout history have identified unmet needs affecting others and the associated optimal health status. Their discoveries and advancements have helped propel nursing and healthcare forward. What was new at that time is now a staple of care delivery for the 21st century.
A difference between the past and the current moment for nursing is the active interest in innovation at a strategic professional level. While the word “innovation” may not always be present, the act of seeking to promote the creation of positive change for optimal health outcomes is indicative of the desire to innovate. Organizations such as the World Health Organization, the American Nurses Association, and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (to name just a few) have all set forth efforts to foster the advancement of nursing [53, 54, 55]. As the health needs of people change and evolve, so will the products, processes, and services that are needed to provide optimal care quality.
Yet, nursing and healthcare has traditionally been slow to adopt change. A commonly used phrase is, “
One cannot expect transformational and impactful change to occur, without embracing innovation in nursing and healthcare for the future. To do so requires acknowledgement of the science of innovation and how nurses and healthcare professionals must have the innovation knowledge, skills, and abilities to be able to provide ideas, innovations, and a supportive culture to meet the unmet needs of the present and the future.
8. Conclusion
Ideally, nursing innovation will emerge as a formalized specialty practice within the nursing profession in the coming years. With a formalized specialty practice, the foundations can be established to create scalable pathways for nurses across the globe to make impactful contributions to nursing, healthcare, and society at large. Innovations occur through people. The more people who have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to innovate, the greater the likelihood for positive change within the nursing profession and healthcare industry. Until that does occur, the reader can feel confident in having the following knowledge from this chapter:
The ability to define innovation, nursing innovation, and healthcare innovation.
Describe several innovations created and invented by nurses throughout the profession’s history.
Describe the role of healthcare quality for identifying unmet needs in innovation efforts.
Examine how innovation can be a focal point in academics, practice, research, scholarship, and policy.
Examine the risk of not embracing innovation in nursing and healthcare for the future.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to acknowledge the University of Connecticut School of Nursing in their ongoing support and contributions to advance the nursing profession through innovation. The author would also like to acknowledge the innovation ecosystem within the University of Connecticut that has embraced the School of Nursing’s ongoing innovation efforts. Lastly, the author would like to acknowledge the Frederick A. DeLuca Foundation for the support of this important work.
Notes/thanks/other declarations
Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this book.
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