How to Support Innovation in Nursing: 5 Tips for Facilities

Supporting creativity and innovation in nursing empowers staff to navigate inevitable healthcare changes and reshape processes that improve patient outcomes. Nurses are uniquely positioned to identify systemic shortcomings and develop workarounds that fill gaps in care delivery. Throughout history, this has paved the way for the creation of several nursing inventions that have transformed patient care.

But, what exactly does “innovation” look like in healthcare settings and what steps can leaders take to promote it at their facility? In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of nursing innovations in clinical practice and provide tips for reinforcing staff creativity and engagement at your facility.

What Is Innovation in Nursing?

Nursing innovation is defined as the creation of a new solution, method, or device that improves patient care. While innovation often starts with a novel idea, it’s actually much more than that. It involves a comprehensive process of assessing a problem, finding a solution, and applying the solution in a way that’s both practical and sustainable.

Because nurses spend more face-to-face time with patients than any other professional role in the hospital, they’re often the first to encounter an issue that warrants change. By encouraging innovation, organizations foster an improvement mindset that promotes problem solving through practical solutions.

Why Is Innovation Important in Nursing?

Healthcare is constantly evolving, both at the individual level (as patient needs shift) and systemwide (due to technological advancements, for example). Innovation and nursing responses follow this multilevel pattern. They both use a systematic process for implementing change so as to improve patient (or organizational) outcomes.

The best nursing care often incorporates evidence-backed innovation to drive safer, more effective outcomes. This means that all nurses who believe in an improvement mindset are engaged in innovation, whether as participants or creators.

Examples of Innovation in Nursing

To give you a better sense of what this process looks like, we’ll walk through two real-world nursing innovation examples that demonstrate how new ideas have turned into sustainable practices in the workplace.

Example 1: The HAPPEN Program

In 2016, Shannon Munro, a nurse researcher at the Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital in Virginia, recognized the need to bring more attention to oral care among veterans due to the relationship between poor oral health and hospital-acquired infections. To help decrease rates of infection, she created a program called the HAPPEN initiative, requiring nurses to provide and document daily oral care in the electronic health record (EHR) system.

This simple yet effective initiative ultimately prevented over 200 cases of hospital-acquired pneumonia and saved at least 42 veterans’ lives. Munro then began sharing her expertise and takeaways from this program with healthcare professionals all over the country.

Example 2: The Crash Cart

In the 1960s, nurse Anita Dorr realized that it took a painfully long time to gather medical equipment during patient emergencies. In collaboration with her peers, she formulated a list of items that were necessary during these emergencies and put together the very first crash cart. Crash carts are now widely used in critical care units across the nation, ensuring that essential equipment is readily available while saving care teams valuable time.

5 Ways to Support Nursing Innovation At Your Facility

According to Roger’s diffusion of innovation theory in nursing, innovation involves a long-term process of spreading word about an idea until it’s widely adopted and used in practice. While some of this occurs from the initial conception of an idea, facility leaders play an important role in helping nurses scale-up their inventions and programs. With this in mind, here are five ways that you can support new innovations in nursing at your facility.

1. Encourage Shared Governance

In order for nurses to feel empowered to contribute ideas, leaders must actively include them in the decision-making process. Implementing models of shared governance enables nurses to stay involved in quality improvement and influence decisions at the leadership level. This keeps nurses engaged and supports staff-lead ideas that could potentially inspire future innovations.

2. Create an Infrastructure That Leaves Room for Creativity

Nursing innovation stems from a personal drive or desire to improve care efficiency. However, studies have shown that this drive can be stunted by a poor work environment. Nurses who are overworked likely won’t have the time and motivation to innovate if they’re feeling worn out from their day-to-day responsibilities.

In order to create an infrastructure that leaves room for innovation, leaders should focus on supporting their nurses as talent, rather than labor. This involves a comprehensive approach to reducing risk factors of burnout and cultivating an environment that values nurse input. To start, consider implementing the following strategies:

• Improve staffing levels to reduce workload and demands of staff.
• Consider reworking your staffing strategy to eliminate the need for 12-hour shifts.
• Lead with open-mindedness and a willingness to retire outdated practices.

3. Develop Funding and Reward Systems for Nurse Innovators

There’s no standardized approach to supporting avenues of innovation in nursing. As such, leaders must take the time to reflect on what innovation means to their facility and develop their own systems of funding and rewarding nurse-led initiatives.

Consider setting aside a budget for quality improvement projects so that your nurses have the resources to trial new inventions and programs. Implementing a structured program will encourage your nurses to get involved with innovation while having the administrative support to scale-up their ideas.

4. Partner With Local Universities

If your facility doesn’t have the budget to implement your own innovation programs, consider partnering with local universities. Academic researchers often seek collaborations with hospitals to conduct studies and trial new nursing interventions. They also highly value working with nurses who can contribute fresh perspectives from the floor. This can be a mutually beneficial partnership, as academic institutions often have ample funding to support innovation, while hospitals provide an avenue for translating these innovations into practice.

5. Support Transdisciplinary Learning and Collaboration

Many great nursing innovations have also stemmed from interdisciplinary collaboration. Thus, facility leaders should support the exchange of information and encourage nurses to participate in professional development opportunities.

Consider setting aside funds so that your nurses are able to attend conferences, workshops, and seminars across the country. If your nurses are testing out new ideas at your facility, this gives them opportunities to disseminate their work and connect with other health professionals who could become future collaborators.

Want to Make the Most of Your New Initiatives?

Fostering innovation in nursing can facilitate better patient care and staff engagement. For help with your change management processes and staff buy-in, use our expert-backed healthcare management insights and tips and improve outcomes across your organization.