In June 2016, the Northeastern School of Nursing hosted its first Nurse Innovation & Entrepreneurship Summit & Hackathon. The three-day event attracted hundreds of attendees from around the country. Nurses and students of all disciplines participated in a contest, unlike anything they had experienced before. The resulting outpour of positive feedback made the message clear: Nursing Innovation & Entrepreneurship was much greater than a single event. The opportunity for nursing students to engage at the forefront of healthcare innovation was essential—and virtually untapped.
From this, Dean Nancy Hanrahan Ph.D., RN, FAAN, dean and professor of the School of Nursing and associate dean of the Bouvé College of Health Sciences created an official directive at Northeastern School of Nursing to foster innovation and entrepreneurship. She has since launched a lineup of events to engage with nurses/students at every level of development.
The mission is clear: advance nurses/nursing students to the forefront of healthcare innovation and entrepreneurship. Moreover, the program supports health care initiatives through various efforts, such as matching applicants from other disciplines with focus groups of nurses to review products and proposals and by offering a nurse leadership and entrepreneurship certificate.
To date, the Nurse Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative program has hosted forty-eight events, fifteen speakers, and housed more than 700 attendees. It also has provided American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) contact hours for students.
The Nurse Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative hopes to develop students that are thoughtful, nimble, and outstanding nursing professionals who can become entrepreneurs. It looks to attract and retain the most sought-after innovators in nursing. It hopes to advance cutting-edge research in healthcare. It will identify new business, governmental, and co-op partnerships. It will serve as a platform for nurse entrepreneurs to establish themselves as leaders in their fields. And ultimately, it will create a legacy for our students, faculty, alumni, and donors, while changing nursing and healthcare in ways we have yet to discover.
In essence, NIE’s objectives are 1.) Create innovation by assessing and anticipating trends in healthcare 2.) Bolster entrepreneurship in the nursing field by applying business planning/concepts to healthcare 3.) Apply technology to tackle healthcare challenges through games, apps, websites, etc. 4.) Build teams of students and nurses that collaborate on ideas and share best practices.
The School of Nursing’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship initiative is designed for the twenty-first-century learner and worker. It will address an increasing shortage of programs available to those in the healthcare field that seek to become entrepreneurs. The rapidly growing world of technology and innovation requires that the healthcare sector deliver qualified innovators and leaders-this program aims to do just that.