The healthcare industry is one of the most significant of all, making the existence of any country and its development possible. There are many actors in health care, including physicians, researchers, and laboratory technicians. However, there is one healthcare profession, the impact of which on the processes of care and recovery is constantly underestimated. Nursing specialists are frequently viewed as merely doctors’ assistants whose opinions should not be requested or taken into consideration when deciding on a treatment plan for a particular patient. Nurses are hardly ever invited to participate in research projects, although it is they who spend the most time at the bedside and who know patients’ needs better than anyone. Hence, it seems that the improvement of new technology implementation and saving costs can be promoted by increasing nurse involvement in research projects and medical technology hackathons.
Medical Technology Hackathons and Research Projects: New Opportunities
In order to gain successful innovation in health care, it is necessary for various stakeholders to cooperate. As Mantzavinou et al. (2018) note, these include healthcare professionals, engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and end users. Health hackathons are events lasting for one-three days, the aim of which is to promote innovative technology (Mantzavinou et al., 2018). The word ‘hackathon’ is a blending of ‘hack’ and ‘marathon,’ meaning an innovative solution plus “an event of defined length and concentrated effort” (Olson et al., 2017, p. 37). Research indicates that the outcomes of hackathons are highly positive, including drafting business plans, conducting pilot tests, creating new companies, and raising funds for research (Olson et al., 2017). Due to the diversified teams, hackathons provide quick solutions to burning issues within a short period of time.
Hackathon platforms commonly include the participation of specialists from various areas. However, in the majority of cases, nurses are not a part of them. While doctors closely cooperate with engineers and businessmen on developing innovative approaches to health care, the neglect of nurses considerably eliminates the success of such projects. The same concerns research projects: whereas their initiators take care to invite professionals with medical degrees, they do not pay due attention to the experience of nurses and their ability to give useful advice. The restricted involvement of nurses in research committees and medical hackathons leads to limitations in the innovation sphere. Meanwhile, Walker and Ko (2016) note that apart from “developers and business-savvy entrepreneurs,” it is crucial to invite healthcare specialists to such events (p. 98). Specifically, more prominence in this respect should be given to nurses. Whereas researchers and physicians pay effort to create innovative approaches to health care, none of them spend as much time looking after patients as nurses do. Hence, the exclusion of nurses leads to less effective outcomes and prevents new effective technology from being created.
Rebecca Love: A Pioneer of Nurse Entrepreneurship
The first person to raise the question of nurses’ insufficient participation in research committees and hackathons was Rebecca Love. Currently, she is a successful businesswoman running a variety of projects. Recently, however, she was a nurse with no bright prospects about the future both in medical and entrepreneurial dimensions. Love (2018) remarks that the involvement of nurses in hackathons is crucial since only these specialists know exactly what is best for patients, as well as for professionals taking direct care of them. Love (2018) describes an example of an unsuccessful technological innovation introduction from her nursing career. The speaker notes that the administration of the hospital where she used to work decided to enhance the work process by making nurses wear a device that was support to simplify their workflow. Instead, the device turned out only to complicate nurses’ work due to being inconvenient (Love, 2018). This example signifies how unthoughtful decisions made by those not involved in the process of care directly can lead to creating obstacles and wasting valuable resources.
The reason why Love (2018) is convinced that nurses should be involved in the innovation process is that every clinical interaction starts and ends with the nurse. Furthermore, Love (2018) emphasizes that nurses are the end users of almost every medical product created and introduced. Hence, it is their opinion that should be considered first of all. And in order to find out that opinion, it is necessary to invite nursing professionals to research projects and hackathons. Silver, Binder, Zubcevik, and Zafonte (2016) also find healthcare employees important players in the innovation process and end users of medical innovation. The scholars note that disengagement of these professionals leads to ineffective solutions and low rates of adoption. However, Silver et al. (2016) put emphasis on physicians’ rather than nurses’ role in the process of innovation. Meanwhile, Love (2018) mentions that when she attended her first hackathon, she was the only nurse there, which she found rather strange. The entrepreneur strives to inspire hospital administrations, researchers, and engineers not to exclude nurses from their projects since their involvement can enhance the outcomes significantly.
Challenges to Nurse Involvement in Innovation
Barriers to nurses’ participation in the innovation processes start at the core of this job’s requirements. Basically, some of the greatest obstacles are the level of nurses’ responsibility and the amount of work they have to cover within their shift. Even prior to that, there is the difficulty of entering the profession, including such aspects as a six-year education process, certification, and training (Rozga, 2018). However, even when one copes with these difficulties and starts working as a nurse, he or she suffers from being underestimated compared to other healthcare professionals, specifically doctors. Unfortunately, nurses’ determination to help others rarely receives deserved recognition (Rozga, 2018). Still, many people decide to become nurses merely out of the desire to help those in need.
Nurses’ roles are versatile and are hardly ever limited by one or two functions. These specialists have to handle several tasks at once, including the physical, mental, and emotional support of patients, educating patients and their families, and administering medicines (Rozga, 2018). Additionally, nurses have to take care of discharge and follow-up plans, as well as to record patient data. Besides these clinical responsibilities, nurses also collect supplies and equipment necessary for patients and deliver samples to laboratories.
Along with the mentioned challenges, there is the issue of innovative processes being implemented without considering nurses’ opinions. Among such novelties, there are electronic medical records (EMRs), the primary aim of which was the simplification of patient data recording and processing. However, research indicates that the use of EMRs poses difficulties to nurses and considerably increases their workload. Harris, Haskell, Cooper, Crouse, and Gardner (2018) have found that nearly 50% of advanced practice registered nurses admit that EMRs increase their daily frustration. Furthermore, almost all of the research participants (97%) say they do not have enough time to complete the documentation process (Harris et al., 2018). This is yet another indication of the failing attempt of researchers and hospital administrations to implement a change without discussing its efficiency with nurses.
Due to an increase in the aging population and alterations in the health insurance system, nurses experience more and more pressure at work. In addition, longer life expectancy leads to overcrowding in healthcare institutions. All of these aspects negatively affect nurses, who become exhausted both physically and emotionally. Introducing innovative technologies would be a viable solution to these problems. However, it will bring positive results only if nurses are involved in the process of developing and evaluating the practicality of new devices.
The Moxi Robot: An Example of Effective Innovation
One of the examples of productive innovative solutions is the Moxi Robot created by Diligent Robotics. This robot helps to eliminate the amount of time nurses are forced to spend on non-patient logistical tasks (Rozga, 2018). Currently, nurses are reported to spend about one-third of their time on such duties. At the same time, research indicates that direct patient care is the most important factor influencing patient satisfaction (Rozga, 2018). Moxi is a social intelligence robot that helps nurses by performing logistical assignments, such as collecting and delivering supplies. The robot frees time for nurses to spend it directly looking after patients and tending to their needs. Ultimately, Moxi helps to decrease the level of burnout experienced by nurse professionals (Inventions World, 2019). Nurses working in units that have Moxi admit that the robot is like a member of the team that strives to alleviate the level of stress and to reduce the workload.
The creators of Moxi emphasize that care is not an effort of a single person but rather of the whole team. The innovation helps to make hospital care more consistent and efficient (“Care is a team effort,” n.d.). Additionally, it is expected to decrease the nursing shortage by the year 2024 (“Care is a team effort,” n.d.). What is more, the invention is believed to eliminate the turnover rate in the profession. Moxi is proactive and autonomous, but at the same time, it functions as a responsible member of the team. The robot is socially intelligent and can learn under human guidance. All of these features serve as an effective help to nurses who admit that Moxi is a rather useful device. The Moxi Robot is an example of how innovation in health care can be practical if nurses’ needs are carefully analyzed prior to creating new technology.
Nurse Innovators: Achievements and Opportunities
While some underestimate the ability of nurses to participate in positive change generation, there is evidence that nursing specialists are quite successful innovators. Marion Leary, the director of innovation at the University of Pennsylvania, remarks that in order to move innovation forward, multidisciplinary teams are needed (Hilton, 2019). Innovation is not only about creating new things but also about finding novel solutions to already existing problems and making the available devices more useful. As Leary posits, nurses can and should be at the forefront of such processes (Hilton, 2019). Being closest to patients, nurses are the first ones to notice difficulties and suggest viable solutions to them.
Nurses serve as promoters of change aimer at enhancing processes and influencing technology to gain more affordable and beneficial care for patients and communities. According to Blakeney, Carlton, McCarthy, and Coakley, innovation incorporates three crucial components: the team’s creativity, “innovation itself,” and the environment in which it emerged (as cited in Thomas, Seifert, & Joyner, 2016, para. 10). It is self-evident that the healthcare settings and nurses as the most important team members dealing with patient care are the key determinants of innovation’s success.
The American Academy of Nursing emphasizes the role of nurses engaged in innovative practice changes. One of such teams is Edge Runners, which is the team of nursing specialists working on the enhancement of patient experience by redesigning and reimagining health care and creating new approaches to care (Thomas et al., 2016). Nurses have proven to be effective in introducing programs on eliminating community health issues and increasing the level of care both in hospital settings and at patients’ homes. Overall, the practice of excluding nurses from innovation development is a great mistake that is currently prevailing among researchers and engineers.
Conclusion
By involving nurses in research projects and medical technology hackathons, innovation developers are likely to increase the success of their ideas. Nurses represent the link in the healthcare process chain that holds together the hospital administration, physicians, patients, and families. Therefore, not taking into account nurses’ opinions on the need for and functionality of new devices and technologies is the factor influencing the whole innovation process adversely. Nurses are highly knowledgeable and experienced, so hospital administrations should acknowledge the value of such experience by involving nurses in the innovation process.
References
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