INNOVATION IN NURSING
Innovation in Nursing
Introduction
The modern healthcare sector has experienced a proliferation of innovations for enhancing treatment and caring options, diagnosis, quality, life expectancy, as well as cost-effectiveness and efficiency of the healthcare system. Even though innovation in nursing is mainly associated with technological advancement, the innovation process is, to a large extent, a communicative and social process (Leeuwis and Aarts 2011). The input from nurses potentially improves the generation of valuable and novel ideas that drive innovation. For sustainable improvement of healthcare outcomes, nursing professionals are obligated to utilise their skills and knowledge to enhance nursing practice by creatively generating and creating new ways of doing things drawing on theories, systems, technologies, and stakeholders. Nursing care is a continually changing practise owing to changes in demographics and the ever-rising burden of diseases (Salmond and Echevarria 2017).”Healthcare is therefore an industry that must always move forward” (Janzen, 2017). Nursing innovation is fundamental in ensuring progress for the healthcare sector, and nurses should therefore be supported in the efforts to provide innovative solutions to the demands and challenges of healthcare services provision.
This essay discusses change management in healthcare settings as a driver of innovativeness in the healthcare sector.The basis of this essay is a discussion of the idea of introducing innovative rooms within hospital settings to help improve nurse’s innovativeness. The essay will also discuss the relevance of the proposed change and the need for innovativeness in nursing in the contemporary healthcare sector.The essay will be based on Kurt Lewin’s change model. As innovators, nurses act as agents of change to drive policy and processes, and relevant technology promotes better and more affordable care for communities and individuals. Healthcare student rooms within the hospital setting offer an opportunity for nurses to actively collaborate with and receive opinions and feedback from peers and share ideas, thereby promoting innovativeness. Nursing innovativeness is significant because it aids in developing nurses’ skills and competence and, consequently, healthcare outcomes.
Background
In the process of adapting to a changing environment and continued growth and prosperity, change is an essential element in the healthcare sector. According to Spear (2016), change should be considered and embraced as a necessity for survival in today’s world of medical discoveries and technological advancements. The healthcare sector has never been flux as it is today, making change through innovation inevitable. Recently, nurses have been aggressively encouraged by global nursing experts to pursue innovation and creativity for improved nursing outcomes. Nurses’ creativity plays a fundamental role in health and well-being promotion. Nurses are responsible for providing approximately 80% of the primary healthcare services(Pesec et al.2017), a phenomenon that positions the nursing profession as a critical contributor to creative solutions for the contemporary and future healthcare challenges.
The primary factor behind the strategic need for innovation in nursing is that healthcare is rapidly changing. While innovation is not a new concept in the nursing profession, failure to acknowledge and encourage nurses’ innovativeness may be a stumbling block to future innovations and developments in nursing science and nursing practice (Zuber and Moody 2018). Healthcare organisations therefore have an obligation of facilitating innovative responses to increasingly complex healthcare problems. Healthcare organisations must innovate and institute changes as healthcare demands and needs shift. To effectively meet the prevailing healthcare challenges, complete use of the available mental and human resourcesis necessary (NHS). A significant resource in this endeavour is creativity which denotes the ability to approach old problems in new dimensions to create useful and novel approaches or change organisations perspectives of meeting the patients’ needs (Isfahani, Hosseini, Khoshknab, Peyrovi and Khanke, 2015).
Nursing education seldom focuses on active learning and instead overemphasises traditional teaching methods such as classroom lecture learning (Padilha, Machado, Ribeiro and Ramos 2018). However, students-centric learning approaches are now being utilised and are considered more effective as they encourage creative thinking and active participation. A primary student-centred learning method is peer learning, which entails “students learning from one another, involving active student participation and where the student takes responsibility for their learning” (Stone, Cooper and Cant 2013).According to Eastern Illinois University (2019), education and learning do not stop after graduation. While providing services in a healthcare setting, nurses trend on a lifelong learning path, which is a continuous process throughout the nurse’s career. Therefore, it is critical for student healthcare professionals to have private innovation rooms that they can use for ‘on the job’ training and learning.
Nursesoften encounter unexpected scenarios, particularly regarding a wide diversity of patients and health conditions that prompt them to go beyond the nursing routine to provide innovative remedies.Hospitalists act as role models and teachers for hospital staff, trainees, and students. Healthcare organisations such as hospitals should therefore have facilities that ensure proximity and availability of hospitalists to nurse students(Tess, Vidyarthi, Yang and Myers 2015).The innovation rooms are essential because they offer long-life training to nurses that aid in overcoming the contemporary healthcare challenges concurrent with the growing complexity of nursing practice. The learning experience gained via innovation rooms equips nurses with innovative problem solving and critical thinking skills needed to resolve healthcare issues that they may encounter.
Discussion
Changes in Healthcare
Knowledge and skills taught to nurses form the foundation of their competency. However, nursing training is a combination of practical and theoretical learning experiences that enable nursing students to acquire attitudes, skills, and knowledge for nursing care provision. Unlike classroom education, clinical nursing training occurs in complex clinical learning environments that allow students to learn experimentally, thereby converting theoretical knowledge into skills. In addition to attending academic classes,Students in health education programs complete practicums in clinical learning environments. The practicums are considered vital for professional competence in a majority of health-based professions. However, according to research conducted by (Henderson, Cooke, Creedy, and Walker (2012), “students find that staff in their clinical placements are seldom open to innovation or challenges to routine practices.” Rather than feeling the sense of belongingness that nurses under placement hope for, they may feel alienated, thereby expressing discomfort and fear in their relations with staff.According to Papathanasiou, Tsaras, and Sarafis (2014), clinical learners have felt rejected, devalued, and ignored. The findings suggest the need for change in the way clinical training is conducted.
The millennial generation is likely to replace the baby boomer generation in the nursing workforce. Research shows that millennials learn differently from previous generations since they are the first generation to be born and raised in the modern technology-driven society. Educators therefore need to adapt to the contemporary ways of doing things and capitalise on the use of innovative techniques in nursing education. Furthermore, millennials are more innovative than the previous generations, and healthcare organisations should install appropriate resources to help harness the innovative potential of modern-day nurses.
Change management
One of the primary concerns in the healthcare sector is change management. According to Grol, Wensing, Eccles, and Davis, eds. (2013), managing change denotes the act of handling the complexities of the change process that entail planning, evaluating, and implementing tactics, strategies and operations and ascertaining that change is relevant and worthwhile. The healthcare sector has undergone a tremendous transformation, and healthcare facilities should create a conducive environment for contemporary nurses to develop innovative approaches to solving emerging healthcare issues. In the face of change, people often feel intimidated by the challenge of disrupting the status quo. People get comfortable with the status quo most of the time and develop a feeling that things are okay; therefore lack the urgency to trend on the unknown. Change theories suggest that change is challenging and should also be embraced as it is healthy (Weiner 2020; Collins 2018)). The contemporary healthcare sector acknowledges that change is essential in the effort to promote healthcare outcomes.
Change leadership Approach
Transformational Leadership
Over and above the provision of the necessary resources for change, leadership is an essential element of effective change programs. Transformation leadership is derived from the word ‘transformation,’ which denotes the process or act of changing in the form.’ The leadership approach is effective in managing the introduction of innovation rooms for student nurse professionals because of several elements. First, the approach focuses on idealised influence or charisma. When leaders behave desirably and admirably, the subordinates with them making it possible for subordinates to express their ideas and opinions to the management (Fischer 2016). Second, the leadership strategy focuses on inspirational motivation. The approach would therefore help the student nurses to accept leaders’ innovation goals, thereby reducing the degree of resistance to change. Transformational leadership also incorporates intellectual stimulation. According to Xie et al. (2018), intellectual simulative leaders encourage their subordinates to be creative and would therefore inculcate the value of innovativeness among student nurses.
Lewin’s Change Theory
The change theory of nursing was developed by a social psychologist known as Kurt Lewin. Lewin theorised a three-stage change model known as the unfreezing-change-refreeze model (Burnes 2020). The fundamental principle of the model is that prior learning must be rejected and replaced by new techniques (Rotondo 2017). Unfreezing denotes the process that involves finding a formula of making it a possibility for people to abandon an old and counterproductive pattern. For the effective introduction of innovation rooms, the adoption of innovative techniques would be a sound strategy to help drive organisations to develop an awareness of the need to promote innovation. After preparing the stakeholders for change, the change stage is implemented where the new norm is instituted. At this stage, there may exist considerable resistance from individuals or even groups, making it necessary for the program to be supported by sound change leadership. The refreezing stage involves positioning the new ways of doing things as the desirable habit to make it the ‘standard operating procedure’ and avoid drifting back to the old habits (White 2019).
Application of the Model
Unfreezing
The primary goal of the unfreezing stage of the change model will be to prepare the relevant stakeholder to avoid the incidence of resistance. The preparation would involve creating awareness among student nurses and hospital staff on how the status quo hinders nursing innovation. A careful examination of ways of thinking, organisational structure, old behaviours, and processes will be conducted to show employees the urgency and necessity of innovation rooms. Communication will form the basis of the execution of unfreezing. Sufficient and necessary information will be provided to the student nurses and all other stakeholders to ensure adequate knowledge regarding the imminent change.
Changing
When the traditional nursing clinical training is unfrozen, both the staff and nursing students can begin to move into a new state of being. At this stage, the implementation of change would occur where an innovation room would be set up. The nursing students would be encouraged to use the room during their reflection time, supervision or mentorship time, and break time to interact and share experiences and innovative ideas. The room would be designed to be private to enable nurse students to share their ideas and opinions about how healthcare outcomes can be improved without the fear of surveillance. During this stage, the nurses develop new processes, behaviours, and ways of thinking, thereby promoting innovativeness. The nursing trainers and mentors would also be encouraged to visit the innovation rooms concessionary to mentor and motivate student nurses to innovate.
Refreezing
At this stage, the reinforcing, solidifying, and stabilising the new norm would be the primary objective. From time to time, a review of the effectiveness of the innovation rooms in promoting nursing innovation will be conducted and improvements made. According to NHS (2015), “Innovation Challenge Prizes encourage, recognise, reward and celebrate front line innovation, and drive spread and adoption of these innovations across the NHS.” Student nurses who develop innovative practices would therefore be acknowledged and rewarded appropriately. To ensure that the student nurses develop the virtue of teamwork, the management would emphasise on team rewards instead of individual rewards. The nursing students would also be encouraged to take risks and innovate without the fear of failure. Students who make mistakes would be motivated and encouraged rather than punished for avoiding suppressing their morale to innovate.
Advantages and disadvantages of the theory
The primary advantage of adopting Lewin’s model of change is that it is the simplest model that makes it inherently easy to plan. The implementation of change using Lewin’s model does not require an organisation to be accustomed to the science of change management. The model is also effective in minimising the difficulty associated with opposition and resistance to change. The model also has downsides since it approaches change as a one-time process rather than a continuous process. The model is also somewhat vague on the most appropriate unfreezing strategies. According to Smith (2013), “Many also frown on how truncated the model is, not really fleshing out the transition or freezing processes.”
Stakeholder Analysis
The introduction of the innovation room strategy would only succeed if backed up by the relevant stakeholders. According to Lewis and Sahay (2019), any organisational change, large or small, carries change management risks, and only effective and timely engagement with stakeholders can mitigate the risks. In the shareholder’s analysis for the introduction of innovative rooms in hospitals, the involvement of two key stakeholders is paramount- the hospital management and the student nurses. The nurse students who are the end-users of the innovative rooms should be involved throughout the change process to motivate them to embrace the change. Martek et al., (2019) connotes that early engagement with end-users of a change program helps build commitment towards the success of the new system. The hospital management is also an essential stakeholder in the change program as they are responsible for the authorisation of the resources and work of putting up an innovation room.Successful implementation of the program is also highly dependent on management leadership, goodwill, and support.
Possible Barriers to Change
The introduction of an innovation room in a hospital setting may face resistance from both the staff and management. The nurses may resist the change owing to a wide array of factors, including lack of adequate knowledge and awareness about the new program, lack of motivation to disrupt the status quo, nurse’s individual beliefs and acceptance, or even lack of appropriate resources or personnel (Barach, 2016). The factors are however controllable and can be overcome through the establishment of effective communication protocols to ensure that the nurses have access to timely and accurate information, the establishment of motivation strategies like rewards, development of an innovative culture, and provision of necessary resources for change. To overcome resistance, key individuals can also be targeted to act as change leaders in the innovation room program implementation.The organisational culture may also present a barrier to the change initiative. The hospital management may lack the goodwill to facilitate the change if they consider the traditional strategies more effective. The introduction of innovative rooms presents risks- for example, cost-related risk, and lack of management control over student nurses. The barrier can however be overcome by the development of risk-taking values among the organisational leadership.
Conclusion
Innovation in nursing is a fundamental concept in healthcare. Hospitals and healthcare facilities should therefore institute appropriate measures to encourage innovation that would help alleviate the disease load in modern society going to the future. One such measure is installing innovation rooms that would offer a conducive environment for nurse students to innovate. The healthcare sector is one of the most rapidly changing sectors today, and the way of doing things should certainly change to keep up with modern trends. For meaningful change to be achieved in the healthcare sector, healthcare leaders need to be equipped with relevant change management skills and leadership to help drive change programs. Healthcare facilities should also be ready to invest in innovative initiatives and encourage healthcare providers to be innovative. Innovative rooms, particularly in hospital settings, are a fundamental innovative approach as they would help disrupt the traditional learning approach. By allowing student nurses to interact with their peers, mentors, and supervisors, the nurses would be able to nurture their innovative ideas positively, thereby improving the people’s quality of health. The innovative rooms would give the new generation of nurses the freedom, motivation, and courage to try new things that would help promote public health outcomes.
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