Brennan Lewis (Host 1): Welcome to Nurses Connect, a podcast from Children's Health dedicated to exploring critical issues and dynamic topics that shape the nursing profession today. I'm Brennan Lewis, Senior Vice President of Nursing Excellence, Innovation, and Patient Experience.

Christi Welter (Host 2): And I'm Christi Welter, Program Director of Nursing Excellence, Communications, and Events. We are your co-hosts for Nurses Connect, and we're so happy you've joined us today. On this episode, we're discussing the importance of innovation in nursing.

Joining us today is Children's Health Nursing Innovation Specialist, Dr. Jeniffer Dolinta. Thank you for joining us on Nurses Connect, Jeniffer.

Dr. Jeniffer Dolinta: Hi, thank you for having me.

Host 2: Well, to lay the foundation for this discussion, I want to direct our first question to Brennan. As the executive who oversees nursing innovation, can you tell us about the journey of nursing innovation at Children's Health?

Host 1: Absolutely. A couple of years ago, just looking out at the healthcare landscape and seeing how fast healthcare is changing. And certainly within nursing, we knew that we needed to focus in on strategic priorities around nursing innovation. So, we did a deep dive looking at current structure, what do we have in place to support nurses through innovation. And we really had large gaps. One of which, we know that nurses are always innovators, natural innovators. And if you think about how they redesign workflows, in alternate ways when things aren't working for them, we really didn't have a structure to support them.

So as we did our deep dive, we uncovered that we wanted to bring in a nursing innovation specialist that was solely focused on helping nurses through design thinking methodology to come up with a problem and then reach a solution. And that was a real gap for us. We didn't have that kind of a specialist in place. And so, we found Jeniffer. And so, Jeniffer, we'd love for you to tell our audience a little bit about your role as a nursing innovation specialist.

Dr. Jeniffer Dolinta: As a nursing innovation specialist, I think I'm in a very unique role. I have not seen a similar role at any other organization, particularly within the nursing department. And I always tell people I'm not the one doing, I really help support. And so, supporting our bedside nurses that identify challenges and problems in creating solutions, as well as working within the organization to help innovation initiatives that impact nurses. Broadly, that's a little bit about the scope of the work that I do, and that kind of falls into some of the different innovation buckets, which I don't know if we'll expand on that.

But I think a lot of times when people think about innovation, they think about technology. And so, it automatically goes to that really broad, like AI, virtual reality, all of those big technology initiatives that we're talking about. But I think when it comes to nurse-led innovation, it's looking at it frontline clinical nurses that are doing the work at the bedside, because they're the ones that are spending the most amount of time with our patients. And so, they really know what's going on.

I think the great thing about innovation is that it takes it from being a workaround, which is what I think Brennan was talking about earlier, where these nurses are creating or changing workflows, and it brings it into a more structured pathway where then we can scale it. And it's not just one nurse on one unit, but how do we then take that innovation and bring it across the organization?

Host 1: We had one nurse reach out, and this was before Jeniffer was with us in our department, and she reached out, and she had this idea for this new pulse ox, and she wanted to make it more kid-friendly and not so scary for our patients. And we really didn't have a pathway for her, and it became really prevalent for us. It became obvious for us when Jeniffer started, and we've been partnering with a different organization to help nurses go from idea to solving for that and then getting to a prototype. And so, do you want to share a little bit about the work that you've been doing in that space and how many nurses we're supporting? What types of things?

Dr. Jeniffer Dolinta: Yeah. In the past year, we have partnered with a healthcare innovation company. And they saw a need to support nurses in that prototyping space, right? Because they have an idea, but then how do we actually get to creating a solution that's a tangible item? That is not something that we're taught how to do in nursing school.

In the past year, we actually currently have 10 nurses at different phases of iteration within the program. The nurse that Brennan is talking about with the pulse ox is actually getting ready to pilot in the next month. And so, she's gone through different phases of the materials and the concept that she really wanted to be able to create that design for the pulse ox without altering the device itself. Because then, we start talking about FDA approval, and it just becomes a very different process versus creating a solution that can be applied without modifying the actual product.

And so, we have her project. We've got projects on different parts of care. And one of them actually isn't even more of a tangible product, it's more of a workflow design as well. And so, these nurses, through different programs and us speaking about the work that we're doing, have kind of found us really more than us going out and seeking them, where they say, "I have a problem. This is what I think my idea is." And then, we work through them through design thinking concepts and really mapping out what their solution looks like. And then, they go through different iterative processes where they try different parts of what they're trying to create. It might be successful, it may fail, and then they try again and try something else. And so, that's a different mindset for nurses as well, is that try and fail and just keep trying until you find the solution that you want.

We have, like I said, 10 projects currently. We have four that are getting ready to pilot. And then, we have nurses now that are just coming up to me or sending me emails and they'll say, "I've got an idea. What can I do with this?" And I think that's such an amazing thing and such a shift, I think, in not just our culture within the organization, but in nursing as general, because that, again, that's not something that we're normally taught in nursing school where we can just say, "Hey, I have this idea. Help me find a solution. How do I create this and bring this to life?"

Host 2: So, it sounds like there's just a ton of work going on, and I'd really like to hear from both of y'all on why it's so important for nurses to be leaders in innovating within healthcare and within their profession.

Host 1: Much to what Jeniffer just spoke to is that nurses are having ideas each and every day. They just didn't have a pathway of where to go to take their idea to see it to fruition. And in some ways, especially if it's within their authority or scope, that they are able to redesign workflows, work with their leadership. But when it goes beyond that, and it's a maybe out-of-the-box solution, they really need support to be able to lead that innovation and that innovative effort. And we didn't historically have the foundation for them to go or a pathway for them to go, which is why we came up with Jeniffer's position as a nursing innovation specialist.

Dr. Jeniffer Dolinta: And I think nationally, too, we have so many initiatives right now from large nursing organizations. The American Nurses Association has now developed an innovation consortium looking at how do we support organizations that want to design programs around nursing innovation. So, that's one of the committees that I sit on, just because of my particular role being able to guide and help create almost a blueprint because there are especially maybe smaller organizations that want to support nurse-led innovation programs, but they just don't have the capacity or the resources to create those programs.

That just puts it in a more national, global lens, the importance of these initiatives. I think, like Brennan was saying, nurses have always been natural innovators. We just didn't have the resources. And I think this rapid changing healthcare landscape, I think, has really just put a light on why it's so important for nurses to not just be the end users of the innovations, but be involved along the way, either leading it or helping co-create it.

Host 2: I love that. So recently, you hosted, along with one of our physicians, a nursing innovation fair, and it was a collaborative interprofessional effort in our organization. Tell us a little bit about that event.

Dr. Jeniffer Dolinta: For our innovation showcase, we were creating a platform to support our 10 nurse innovators in the work that they were doing. We really needed to make this more of a collaborative effort because innovation isn't just happening in nursing, it's happening across the organization. So, we put a call out to really anyone within the organization that had an innovative process, an innovative product, anything that they wanted to bring to this showcase and display. This was the first time that we had done this within the organization, and it was just amazing to see the amount of people that were willing to showcase their work. I think we ended up having a total of 34 exhibits. And these were people that were displaying actual tangible products across 20 different departments.

And then, the other piece that we had were also what we called flash talks, and those were just little mini lecture series, five to six minutes, where people were just highlighting some of the work that they were doing. And that was a little bit more for the processes and things that weren't tangible items. But we did it across two days on both our Dallas and our Plano campus. Most of our exhibitors decided to display at both organizations, which was also really amazing because time constraints is always something when we're trying to put on these events. And I can say the energy around the attendance, the exhibitors, it was just, I think, such a display of why innovation can bring people together and really sharing that work.

But also, a need for it, I think, within the organization and that desire for people to, one, show what they're doing and, two, the other receiving end of it, where everybody was just like, "I cannot believe that all of this is happening within our organization." So, I thought it was a really great way to bring everyone together, and it was well-received within the organization.

Host 1: I think one of the things that happened that I love to see is those that were doing innovation or innovative projects, they started connecting with each other. Almost like if they had an issue going on here, they were able to reach out to this person over here to maybe solve for it in their innovation. So, there was a lot of collaboration and, I think, connection of learning from one another I thought was really amazing.

Dr. Jeniffer Dolinta: Yes, absolutely. There was one in particular I can think of where the innovator, one of them needed something in the near future that was going to be a 3D-printed design, and there was somebody that had a 3D printer, and they were like, "I can help you create that. Like, let's set up a time and be able to do that." And I think there were also very many instances where nurses that were attending the event would come up and say, "I've got this idea. How do I get in on this for next year?" And so, I've already kind of have a running list of people that are like, "I want to do this. Next time y'all do it."

Host 2: Yeah. It was really cool to see how well-attended the event was and seeing new people walk through, patient families walk through, and get to see some of the work that's being done. On that note, the nurses that are not already involved in innovation, do you have any advice or words of encouragement for nurses that, you know, might want to think about ways to innovate?

Dr. Jeniffer Dolinta: Yeah. I think within our organization, because we are trying to have more of a structured program for innovation, I think that coming to our research and innovation department and really seeking some guidance on what the best path would be because not every idea is going to have the same process or the same approach.

So, we are able to support them in finding the right resources, whether that's through the Maker Health program or partnering them with maybe it's an idea of something that's already happening within the organization, and we could help plug them into those areas as well.

And then, we also have those that want to do more of an entrepreneurial route. It's not necessarily something that's applicable within the organization, and so we can help find resources from some of the national organizations that we're a part of to help plug them into those areas as well.

Host 2: What about organizations that maybe don't have a position like yours or a clear route to innovation for nurses? Do you have any advice for those nurses that are just like, "Oh, I have this great idea, and I really want to bring it forward to help advance the profession"? What would you recommend or are there resources out there for them to be able to access?

Dr. Jeniffer Dolinta: Yeah, I think there's a lot of resources. Again, I keep going back to the American Nurses Association, but I think that's just because of the work that they're doing. And they have a very robust website where they do try to connect nurses that maybe do come from smaller organizations with the resources or the people that might be able to support them. So, I think my advice would be if you have an idea, move forward with it. Don't keep it to yourself. Don't stay quiet. There's got to be somebody out there that's able to help you navigate whatever it is that you're trying to do.

Host 1: And find out what your internal resources are. If you have an office of tech transfer. Reach out and ask your leaders if there is someone within the legal team that can help advise on next steps. And to Jeniffer's point, there's so much happening in healthcare in general, but certainly in nursing and nursing innovation. There are professional organizations that are helping to connect nurses to resources, conference attendance, looking at the agenda and seeing what conferences exist out there because you can take certain pre-conference activities which teach you about design thinking or resources or how to protect your intellectual property, et cetera. And so, there's so much out there. It's just a matter of researching and finding those and connecting. Finding a mentor in that space too would be really great.

It's time to wrap up this episode of Nurses Connect. Jeniffer, thank you for joining us today.

Dr. Jeniffer Dolinta: Thank you for having me.

Host 2: If you want to know more about nursing at Children's Health, we encourage you to visit childrens.com/nursingannualreport. Here you'll find information that summarizes a variety of our nursing initiatives. Thank you to our listeners for joining us today, and we'll talk to you next time on Nurses Connect.