Nurses: inspiring innovators

Editor in Chief,

ANA’s theme for this 12 months’s Nurses Week is “Inspire.” Innovate. Influence.” – I feel it’s perfect. This is what we’ve got all the time done, from our earliest beginnings and in every setting. Here are a few of my favorite examples (and articles from the archives can be available without spending a dime to read during Nurses Week! Click on the pdf version for one of the best reading experience).

was the primary to prepare nursing care and introduced unprecedented care measures (a very powerful are cleanliness and fresh air – how radical it’s!). Simplified and based on common sense, but until she and her cadre of nurses walked into Scutari Hospital and implemented these measures, nobody thought to use them in a consistent way. And when the military didn’t conform to the changes it proposed, it used its contacts and influence to present its arguments and gain public sentiment.

he was a visionary leader and is taken into account the founding father of public health. Its community health model is an example of how we’ve got come full circle – community health centers at the moment are considered the perfect option to develop healthy communities and supply preventive care. Wald had recently graduated from nursing school when she and friend Mary Brewster founded the Henry Street Settlement visiting nurses in 1893 after they recognized the urgent need for health care amongst immigrants. They began with nine nurses; in 1916 there have been 250 nurses. A trademark of their practice was visiting homes and caring for the sick, teaching moms methods to take care of infants and kids, and promoting general hygiene. They added a clinic, a kid’s playground and a camp. Later, the New York Visiting Nurse Service became independent, but Henryka Streetcurrently in 125^vol 12 months, continues to supply a full range of social services to over 60,000 people annually.

Wald also began working as a faculty nurse after she convinced the New York City School Board that faculty nurses could reduce absenteeism. She placed it Lina Rogers, a nurse from Henry Street, at the college where she taught basic hygiene and the treatment of minor ailments. By the tip of the method, the college board had hired 12 more nurses.

he founded Border Nursing Service in 1925, when maternal and infant mortality rates within the Appalachian region were grim. She and two other nurse midwives on horses visited 800 families each, providing care and teaching health. The overall maternal death rate between 1925 and 1954 averaged 34 per 10,000; in her area it was 9.1 per 10,000 births.

The American Academy of Nursing recognizes the critical role nurses play in improving care, which is why they created this system: Edge Runners – to acknowledge nurses who’ve shown creativity in meeting challenges. From creating independent birthing centers to reducing pneumonia in ventilated patients or making a clinic for racetrack staff, nurses are on the forefront of improving care. Recently joined this group Sara Szantonwhose modern program (a house care team consisting of a nurse, an occupational therapist and a handyman) enabled older people to remain safely at home.

Today’s healthcare system is being disrupted by many changes, from telehealth, digital documentation to a changing patient population requiring changes in care models – now could be the time to think innovatively. Take a go searching – what in your environment requires nursing ingenuity? What innovations have you ever or your colleagues implemented or considered? Maybe it is your turn to affix the ranks of nursing innovators. There is not any higher time than now.
AND