Innovation Summit 2021

by Tyler Saunders

Wherever there’s a nurse, there is an idea. That was the message of the virtual Innovation Summit hosted in October by the College of Nursing. The summit aimed to impact healthcare and nursing through the spread of information about innovation.

In her opening remarks, Bernadette Melynk, PhD, APRN-CNP, FAANP, FNAP, FAAN, said, “We need more innovation in academia and in healthcare. Our country spends more money on healthcare than any other western world country, yet we rank in the bottom for health outcomes.” She added, “We’ve got to get dreaming again. COVID-19 has zapped people’s ability to dream and innovate, which is needed desperately right now.”

Key speaker Tim Porter-O’Grady, DM, EdD, APRN, FAAN, FACCWS, professor of practice and leadership scholar at Arizona State University College of Nursing and Health Innovation, discussed the foundational challenges of innovation learning and practice. Melynk introduced  O’Grady as an icon in innovation, healthcare and academia.

O’Grady remarked that “an idea is not an innovation, a need is not an innovation, and neither is an opportunity. An innovation is the product of the processes that respond to all of those demands.”

A panel of experts discussed how to make innovation ignite and prosper. David Marshall, JD, RN, CENP, NEA-BC, FAAN, FAONL, senior vice president and chief nursing executive at Cedars-Sinai said, “Wherever there’s a nurse, there is an idea, and either it’s an idea to make themselves more efficient, or to make their patients more comfortable or safer.” To make innovation possible, there has to be an openness to creativity and new ideas, he added.

Hospital management can ensure openness to creativity and new ideas by creating an environment where people can see possibilities. This includes treating nurses as individuals and not only as workers. “Developing a place that hears people and is open to hearing them is part of what has been successful for us,” Marshall said.

“There are always solutions,” Connie White Delaney PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI, FNAP, professor and dean of Population Health and Systems Cooperative at University of Minnesota School of Nursing said. “We never use the word ‘problem’; we only use ‘challenges,’ and we are always looking for solutions.”