Healthcare is an $800+ billion industry in the United States, and the U.S. leads the world in many areas of medical innovation. While we generally think of the technology sector as being the primary source of innovation these days, the truth is more complex.
Here is a look at how nurses can help inspire innovation in the healthcare business.
Understanding the Nurse’s Perspective of the Healthcare Business
It’s fair to say that nurses spend more face time with patients than any other medical professional. It follows that the nurses operating on the front lines of care delivery would have meaningful insights into innovating in your healthcare business.
Nurses are Hands-On with New Technologies and Procedures
Nurses utilize new medical technologies and devise clever ways to keep old technology useful. They implement new procedures and protocols and have first-hand experience of what works and what does not. This can guide innovation by tempering it with relevant first-hand experience.
Your Nurses Know What’s Happening on the Ground
Because they care for patients directly and use the tools and procedures provided to them every day, perhaps no one is more qualified than your nurses to tell you what’s actually happening on the ground. This makes the nurse’s perspective extraordinarily valuable. Without it, any device, application, or plan is based largely on theory rather than practice.
Nurses Know How to Adapt and Overcome Challenges
No one would argue that nursing is not a challenging profession. In addition to keeping patients comfortable and monitoring their condition, nurses frequently face crises. Nurses are the ones who are directly impacted by compromises made due to cost-cutting.
Nurses Are the Most Aware of Vulnerabilities in the System
Because nurses operate within the engine of your healthcare business daily, they see how it operates when it’s pushed beyond its limits. They see the real-world impact of staffing shortages, administrative paralysis, and obsolete technology that still serves in critical roles.
Working With What They’ve Got When Lives Are At Stake
Not only do nurses know where your healthcare business is weakest, but they often have simple, clever solutions to vexing problems. When lives hang in the balance, nurses must work with whatever they’ve got. The high-pressure environment demands quick thinking, making the nurse an invaluable resource in healthcare innovation, whether designing a procedure, EHR system, or medical device.
Empowering Nurses as Innovators and Collaborators
Many of the biggest players in healthcare have recognized the inherent value of the nurse’s perspective to medical business innovation. One great example is the NursePitch™ Initiative. Major healthcare businesses, including HIMSS and Becton Dickinson (BD), are actively promoting NursePitch™, which brings nurses’ ideas to fruition.
Nurse Innovation in Medical Devices
One of the innovative medical products developed by a nurse and supported by the NursePitch™ initiative is the Impact Wearables device. Impact Wearables is an innovative earbud device developed by Linda Rowan, NP. It can wirelessly monitor a 2-lead EEG and variable heart rate.
Collaborating with Nurses to Build a Better Business
Nightingale Nurses is another organization that empowers nurses in their careers and incorporates nurse-led innovation into their everyday business. Nightingale became one of the leading travel nursing agencies in the United States by letting nurses lead the way. Their innovative business model was developed with direct input from nurses.
Nurses are Pros at Technology Adoption and Training
If your healthcare business is developing a new service or medical product, you will find nurses are the most effective advocates you can have in your corner. Not only can a nurse tell you what your service or device does right—they can expertly promote it to others and deliver first-rate training to personnel.
Advocacy and Policy Influence
Nurses are passionate. They advocate strongly for ideas and products they truly believe in. Their opinions carry weight with hospital leadership and management, and the people who make purchasing decisions listen to what nurses have to say.
Expert Training from Experienced Hands
The ideal person to demonstrate and train others on what you have to offer is one of the nurses who has used it themselves or even had a hand in its development. Nurses and other clinical staff, especially when it’s within their area of expertise.
Engaging Nurses to Fuel Innovation in Your Healthcare Business
If you already have nurses on staff—you’re halfway there. The key is to give nurses a seat at the table as stakeholders. It’s often not enough only to hear and consider their opinions. Your best bet is to involve nurses from the start, wherever possible.
Well-Begun is Half Done
Having nurses involved in the early stages of developing your product or service is a smart way to ensure you stay on the right track. With a nurse advising you early on, you’re less likely to overlook a design flaw and more apt to develop something that functions well and appeals to its target audience more.
Workshopping and Collaboration
If your healthcare business doesn’t already have nurses on staff, you could bring them into the development and testing processes in several ways. Consider inviting nurses with relevant experience to a workshop or contact a nursing school or university with a nursing program and inquire about collaborating with them. You might also hold a hackathon or innovation challenge or invite nurses to participate in pilot testing and prototyping.
Nurses Merit a Seat at the Table Where Healthcare Innovation Occurs
In summary, any healthcare company that sees itself as an innovator would be remiss if it did not invite practicing nurses to influence its product, procedure, and software development processes.
It’s common sense. You want to hear from the people who will use your product or process the most and who are most familiar with the environment it’s destined for.
Nurses will have insights no one else will. They will spot problems no one else can. They’ll identify opportunities to improve the product that someone who isn’t a nurse would likely never think of. If your healthcare organization doesn’t currently involve nurses in developing new products and ideas, it’s time to consider doing so.
