Dartmouth Health Hosts Nursing Innovation Hackathon
On Feb. 9, Dartmouth Health announced via a press release that it hosted a two-day event—a Nursing Innovation Hackathon—that focused on the contributions of nursing and creating change in the healthcare space. The event was attended by registered nurses, nurse practitioners, medical assistants, licensed nursing assistants and licensed practical nurses to pitch innovations for solving the problems they face daily.
The press release states that “In their daily work caring for patients, nurses are innovators, change-makers, problem solvers, engineers, and more. Their experience in ‘front line’ healthcare settings gives nurses an outstanding ability to identify unique issues that exist in a hospital and possible solutions to solve them.”
Further, “The Hackathon was held on January 26 and 27 at Dartmouth Health’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC). Described as ‘Shark Tank for nurses,’ participants were divided into five teams to learn about design thinking, how to pitch a problem, the future of artificial intelligence (AI), and how to move ideas forward to reality. Each team then pitched their innovative solutions to a team of judges made up of nurses from DHMC, Dartmouth Health and the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice’s Levy Incubator, the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship at Dartmouth, and Massachusetts General Hospital.”
The winning team, according to the release, created a “Go-Getter” strap. The strap assists in the discharge process by putting two wheelchairs together, as opposed to one. The team received books on nursing innovation and a six-month mentorship with nursing innovation leaders to further their work on their innovation.
The second-place team designed a “Throughput Fairy,” which assists in reducing length of stay by a patient in one unit through a system that tracks patient flow and movement, and sends alerts for needed collaboration to improve communication through case management.
The third-place team proposed the HEART Project, a peer-to-peer support program aimed at connecting nurses.
All participants received a one-year membership to SONSIEL (Society of Nurse Scientists Innovators, Entrepreneurs and Leaders).
Susan A. Reeves, EdD, RN, chief nursing executive of Dartmouth Health and executive vice president of DHMC was quoted in the release saying that “Nurses are the backbone of our healthcare system. The creativity that they demonstrate every day to solve problems is perhaps as valuable to their patients and colleagues as are their clinical skills. The nursing professionals who took part in our first Hackathon, and the innovations they developed, are prime examples of how nurses have the power to transform healthcare.”
