How hospitals and at-home care providers are empowering nurses to innovate

An upcoming HIMSS21 Global Conference Digital session will put the focus on how RNs and NPs are changing the way their organizations operate for the better.

By Mike Miliard

July 21, 2021

02:19 PM

Photo: Morsa Images/Getty Images

As more than half of the healthcare workforce, nurses are indispensable to effective care delivery. But too often they're hamstrung with suboptimal equipment, burdensome processes and inefficient workflows.

And that's under normal circumstances. After the chaos and stress of the past year and a half, many nurses are burnt out and exhausted – and some estimates predict that half a million of them will leave the workforce by next year.

In an upcoming HIMSS21 Digital session, nursing leaders will discuss ways these critical frontline workers can be empowered to do their jobs better, and innovate new approaches and strategies that fit their needs.

The presentation, Nursing Innovators: A Driving Force in Health Care Reform, will explore how these nurses – these "MacGyvers of the supply closet," who routinely improvise dozens of more efficient tech workarounds and workflow fixes in the course of their 12-hour shifts – are being given the tools they need and support they deserve in inpatient, outpatient and at-home settings.

Mary Lou Ackerman, vice president of Innovation at Ontario-based Saint Elizabeth Health Care; Hiyam Nadel, director of Massachusetts General Hospital's Center of Innovations in Care Delivery; and Rebecca Love, president of the Society of Nurse Scientists, Innovators, Entrepreneurs & Leaders, will discuss the many ways nurse innovation is shifting the paradigm.

They'll explore "the impact of nursing innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as the disruptive thinking, innovation methodology and systems and networks available to support nurses to continuously improve patient care and outcomes."

And their conversation will cover the ways "a-ha moments" are being cultivated and sustained into lasting solutions and process redesigns that are improving nurse and patient experience alike.

The HIMSS21 Digital presentation, "Visionary Keynote: Nursing Innovators: A Driving Force in Health Care Reform," is scheduled to air on Thursday, August 12, from 10:40-11 a.m. PST. Read more about the HIMSS21 Digital program here.