Developing Infrastructures to Infuse Innovation Into Research, Practice, and Teaching

Value based health care, complexity in managing complex illness, and the integration of technology in healthcare are some of the drivers of innovation in health care. In addition, innovation in educational settings is being driven in universities by the demands of students, and entrepreneurship opportunities driven by students and industry. This context brings challenges and opportunities in nursing education, research, and practice. How should we think about innovation in nursing? What approaches should be integrated in research to both foster and sustain innovations? How do we educate our students to be innovators? Who are key partners in supporting innovation in nursing? This presentation focuses on the processes and strategies used to infuse innovation into education, research, and practice at a major research-intensive school of nursing. Important to the process was recognizing that nurses are inherently innovators; defining the nature and scope of innovations in practice and research; articulating the contributions of nursing in the innovation process; identifying partners and champions to advance innovation; and identifying resources and approaches to advancing innovation.

This process involved widespread consultation with nurses in practice settings and interdisciplinary colleagues in medicine, business, design, and engineering. We also received great advice and support from the School’s Board of Overseers. From these consultations, we developed areas of focus and identified learning needs of faculty and students and developed a foundation for using innovation as a methodology. Within the university, extensive consultations and engagement led to having seats at many tables regarding campus-wide innovation initiatives. Partnering with health system based centers for innovation provided opportunities for select faculty, students, and clinicians to be engaged in designing, implementing, and evaluating new innovations to improve patient care and outcomes. Key to this experience was adding design thinking in the health care environment to core knowledge. Consultation with businesses resulted in select projects in which nurse researchers were involved in the design and evaluation of specific innovation projects. We also invested resources to support our strategic direction, including an innovation specialist and consultant, to support faculty and student engagement in innovation efforts. Results to date include the formation of several start-up companies formed by nurse researchers, the development of a course to integrate innovations in nursing, and involvement of students, faculty, and clinicians in innovation efforts within the health system and on campus. Further, we recognize the importance of building a culture of innovation not only within the school but within the discipline of nursing. Based on our experiences, we offer several recommendations: 1) recognize and articulate nurses a innovators; 2) engage in discussions with a broad network to build relationships and identify opportunities in innovation; and 3) set a vision for how you will operationalize innovation in research, practice, and teaching given your context