Cleveland Clinic Nurses Share Innovative Practice Ideas

By Kelly Hancock, DNP, RN, NE-BC

Each year, from February to April, Cleveland Clinic nurses are encouraged to share their previously implemented innovative ideas with the Cleveland Clinic Nursing community.

By way of a call for applications, nurses who put innovative ideas into practice in the previous calendar year can tell their stories through Cleveland Clinic Nursing’s novel ‘Innovation Inventory’ program.

Created by Associate Chief Nursing Officer for Cleveland Clinic’s Office of Nursing Research and Innovation, Nancy Albert, PhD, CCNS, CHFN, CCRN, NE-BC, and the Innovation Peer Review Committee, the Innovation Inventory acknowledges nurses for their success in implementing processes or systems as part of usual work to meet desired outcomes. Awards are presented for the top submission and recipients are publicly recognized.

In some cases, nurses are also given the opportunity to work with a team of innovation experts to further develop their ideas via commercialization, copyright and publication so innovations can be used externally in other settings and practices.

Last year, after thorough evaluation of all submissions, the Nursing Innovations Peer Review Committee, which provides an objective viewpoint on the worth and return on investment of novel solutions, awarded its first place ‘Innovation Inventory’ honor to Karen Graves, BSN, RN, Operation Coordinator and Clinical Program Manager for Cleveland Clinic’s Critical Response and Resuscitation Committee.

Graves’ innovative idea helped to solve intake problems that were occurring during emergency calls because of challenges with a new system used by Cleveland Clinic phone operators. After taking note of the issues, she devised a method to improve the transfer of information during emergencies.

A center for innovation

Since its inception in 2012, the ‘Innovation Inventory’ program has received a remarkable 156 entries. And this inventory is just one of three unique nursing innovation programs offered at Cleveland Clinic.

The two other programs are ‘I Innovate’ and ‘Step Forward’ and all are part of the nursing institute’s Innovation Center, also known as Ideas 2 Innovation.

Through ‘I Innovate,’ nurses can submit new ideas for unit change, improvement or growth. Submissions may lead to an ideation session to strategize the best solution. Nursing leaders include idea generation in caregiver annual performance reviews, and submissions can be used to show evidence of thinking innovatively, which is part of the Professional Ladder program.

The ‘Step Forward’ program is designed to help nurses further develop their preconceived ideas into solutions. Upon idea submission, an innovation coordinator helps the originator(s) to cultivate the idea in preparation for completing an Inventor Disclosure Form that is submitted to Cleveland Clinic Innovations for processing.

With all three Ideas 2 Innovation programs, idea submissions are assessed for feasibility and outcomes as well as potential commercialization through Cleveland Clinic Innovations.

A professional responsibility

From leadership to bedside nursing, innovation is an important part of every nurse’s professional responsibility. Nurses have always found new ways to improve quality and patient care. And all nurses – no matter their position or role – can bring new dimensions of possibility to their work and share ideas, issues or concerns that may lead to solutions, or suggest creative alternatives to known best practices and past successes.

Every day, nursing innovations are altering how patients are managed and cared for, how compliance regulations are met, how new technologies, processes and protocols are utilized, and more.

To ensure that your nursing organization is delivering benefits to its caregiver teams, patients and communities, make sure you are giving nursing innovation the attention it deserves.

Kelly Hancock is the Executive Chief Nursing Officer of the Cleveland Clinic Health System, and Chief Nursing Officer of Cleveland Clinic Main Campus.

Follow Kelly on Twitter at @kkellyhancock.

Nursing innovation can revolutionize healthcare by improving patient outcomes, streamlining processes and reducing healthcare costs. The 6th Annual Nursing Innovation Summit will highlight successful invention experiences, provide education on the cultivation of ideas, offer resources to create solutions and much more. Join us on Friday, Oct. 19 in Warrensville Heights, Ohio. Click HERE to register!