You recently obtained your BSN degree and began work in the cardiovascular progressive care unit at a 900 bed Magnet Hospital serving a densely populated urban center in the Northeastern United States. The hospital has received past awards for technological innovation in cardiac care with the use of virtual surgery consults, quality and safety with pharmacy robots, and client education with a digital repository of resources supplemented with videos, evidence-based recommendations, and links to social media health and wellness groups.
Recently the healthcare organization launched a “Renovate and Innovate” campaign, including a competition among all employees to identify the next technological innovation for purchase.
Rules of the campaign stated:
All employees from all departments are eligible to participate.
Groups can submit suggestions but must include names of all participating.
All suggestions must be submitted in an email titled “Renovate and Innovate” no later than Friday, October 31st at 7 pm.
Each employee may not submit more than one idea, so think carefully.
The idea must impact the facility in at least one of these key areas: financial savings, improved client outcomes, improved staff performance.
The idea can be a new idea not currently in use or an idea to renovate and improve an existing innovative practice.
The winning participant or team will receive a $5,000 cash bonus.
The idea of researching innovative ideas seems overwhelming, so you and a teammate decided to collaborate. Each of you will take a week and identify external and internal sources for innovative ideas which you will share via email.
Compose an email to a teammate to brainstorm innovative ideas for the healthcare facility’s
“Renovate and Innovate” campaign including:
Two internal sources for innovative ideas related to financial savings, improved client outcomes or improved staff performance
Include a supporting rationale for each choice and a descriiption of at least one type of innovation for practice expected to find in this source with support from credible resources.
Two external sources for innovative ideas related to financial savings, improved client outcomes or improved staff performance
Include a supporting rationale for each choice and a descriiption of at least one type of innovation for practice expected to find in this source with support from credible resources.
Common Sources for Innovative Ideas – Internal
Internal Sources of Innovation
Traditional paths to innovation at healthcare institutions were linear with closed leadership ideas and little input from staff and clients. Lack of input from multiple sources slowed the process of innovation with many ideas taking years to materialize only not to be valuable to the end user.
Recent trends in healthcare innovation show collaborative promise with the emergence of human centered design within healthcare settings (Bhatti, Castillo, Olson and Darzi, 2018). This type of design strategy is “a mind-set for solving problems, discovering opportunities, and generating innovative solutions focused on people’s needs (Zuber and Moody, 2018, p. 62).” When thinking of ways to innovate, explore internal and external resources for ideas.
Don’t generate random ideas that often lead to small tasks and waste time, focus your time and energy. Assess the needs of the organization and the workplace, think about impact.
Common internal sources of innovation include:
Organizational Culture
A common strategy to promote collaboration among individuals in a workspace is suggestion boxes involving rewards for innovative ideas (Albert, 2018). Overcome the fear of rejection and submit a thought for innovation, your organization is asking for help to problem solve.
Internal Creative Spaces
Most organizations have a research and development department that will help you identify and refine innovative ideas. These interdisciplinary innovation teams review internal data for trends and prioritize need and include a variety of members such as service designers, healthcare providers, project managers, staff members, and information technology specialists. Volunteer to serve with like-minded individuals and teams in these creative spaces (Bhatti, Castillo, Olson, and Darzi, 2018).
Creativity Workshops
Join or lead a formal or informal creative gathering of individuals interested in pursuing innovation. These meetings can be virtual or in person. Consider interprofessional teams as a method for strong collaboration of individuals with critical capabilities and heightened abilities to problem-solve (Lloyd et al., 2018). These creative teams must function in a noncompetitive culture to avoid dysfunction and impose a reluctance to share information (Birckhead, 2015).
Clients
The end user of most healthcare innovations is clients. Innovation is more than asking satisfaction with a product or experience but soliciting specific feedback from clients related to ideas for improvement. Encourage clients to become designers of innovation and assume accountability for their healthcare experience (Bhatti, Castillo, Olson. and Darzi. 2018).
Common Sources for Innovative Ideas – External
External Sources of Innovation
Connecting with others is critical for innovation. Consider an open model for innovation “which allows and supports the integration of knowledge from sources external to the organization, as a way of enhancing the limited internal capabilities, for innovation to take care (Marin and Bermejo, 2015, p. 710).
Three common external sources of ideas for innovation include:
External Sources of Innovation
Health Department Community Town Hall
Publication, American Heart Association
Holistic Nursing Conference
Internal Sources of Innovation
Policy and Procedure Committee
Reflective Journaling
Results from client satisfaction survey
This list contains just a few examples of internal and external sources for innovative ideas in healthcare. Many more options exist and are often formed based on unique characteristics of communities. So, explore your setting, look, listen and observe, be open to new ideas. Resist the urge to fall into a mindset detrimental to innovation. Don’t quickly categorize innovation ideas as not worth the effort and state “we have done that before or there is no way we could ever accomplish that type of innovation in our workplace.” Don’t fear failure as you can’t hear the door of opportunity close if you are watching the door of failure close. Start with the thought you can and you will.
RUBRIC
A – 4 – Mastery
Clearly stated detailed descriiptions of two internal sources for innovative ideas related to financial savings, improved client outcomes or improved staff performance. Each source contained a supporting rationale for choice and a descriiption of at least one type of innovation for practice expected to find in this source with support from credible resources.
A – 4 – Mastery
Clearly stated detailed descriiptions of two external sources for innovative ideas related to financial savings, improved client outcomes or improved staff performance. Each source contained a supporting rationale for choice and a descriiption of at least one type of innovation for practice expected to find in this source with support from credible resources.
A – 4 – Mastery
Appropriate conversational style reflected throughout the email including no spelling, grammar, or APA format errors present.
THANK YOU
