While there are other projects that deal with the issue of how healthcare and the industry can collaborate more simply, these projects rarely originate from nursing organizations themselves and are thus, not owned and led by the nurses. Innovation projects in healthcare are often not involving nurses, so the project is unique as it focuses on the vast possibilities to improve healthcare by utilizing the experience and knowledge of nurses in an efficient way. Moreover, most models for innovation hubs are not based on the characteristics and pre-requisites of a nursing organization, which is very unique in nature.

Our framework for innovation readiness within nursing organizations and the concept for a nurse-led innovate hub is based on scientific research and broad involvement of nurses, nursing managers, industry representatives and academia. We are using design thinking techniques to jointly develop a framework and concept that will efficiently increase nurse-led innovation.

In 2022, we designed a framework for increasing innovation readiness within nursing organizations, including an assessment tool. Implementation of this started in 2023 and is still ongoing, including:
• Creating a small Innovation Team of nurses acting as innovation ambassadors and learning innovation techniques.
• Developing a straightforward process for managing nurse-led ideas.
• Introducing simple measures to evaluate the impact of nurse-led innovation.

Additionally, we're collaborating with 25 nurses and nursing managers, 10 industrial representatives, and 5 other medical professionals to conceive a concept for a nurse-led innovation hub. The main objective is to simplify collaboration between nursing organizations and industry partners to jointly develop new healthcare solutions. The concept features a roadmap detailing activities needed to successfully establish such a hub.

The project is owned by Karolinska University Hospital (public sector) and is a close collaboration with the industry, academia and patients. EY is the co-development partner of the project, contributing with innovation expertise and InnoReadi is participating as researcher and innovation coach. Several life science companies of different sizes, as well as academia and patient representatives, are participating in the development of the concept for a nurse-led innovation hub.

The main beneficiaries of the project are ultimately patients, as the goal is to improve healthcare by increasing nurse-led innovations. Moreover, healthcare staff is positively impacted as they gain potential to impact the development of healthcare, which improves the feeling of autonomy and in turn wellbeing and retention. Finally, life science companies are positively impacted as they more easily can collaborate with healthcare and develop needs-based solutions.

In our pre-study involving 36 nursing managers, a significant 81% believed that nurse-led innovation could improve the working environment. An encouraging 70% predicted this could boost patient safety, and on average they believed that half of the nurses who left in the last year would have stayed longer.

In 2023, we developed metrics to measure the effect of increasing nurse-led innovation. The metrics include both hard values, such as healthcare production, administrative time, staff retention and staffing costs, and soft values based on employee surveys indicating the satisfaction and wellbeing among nurses. The baseline was measured in 2023 and follow-up measures will be conducted in 2024 to follow the effect of the project.

The main challenge that the project is facing is securing needed time and resources to develop and implement the innovation. Hospitals are under financial pressure, and we are experiencing challenges in funding these types of innovations aiming at changing systematic challenges. Moreover, healthcare staff is often overworked, and many do not have time to work on innovation projects. A solution has been to find industry partners that can co-develop the innovation. However, to successfully implement the innovation, there is a need for this to be put higher on the hospitals’ agenda to make sure nursing organizations get the right time and resources. This can in the end help our hospitals work more efficiently and deliver higher quality care.

To successfully implement the innovation, it needs to be  put high on the hospital’s leadership’s agenda to make sure nursing organisations get the right time and resources. Without the needed time and resources, it is difficult driving the change needed.

Strong leadership in the nursing organization is also crucial to be able to drive these types of changes, which usually takes both bravery and patience. Moreover, everyone involved in the project needs to be open-minded and embrace change.

Our ultimate goal is to broaden the reach of the framework for innovation readiness within nursing organizations and the concept of a nurse-led innovation hub beyond our confines, to other hospitals within Sweden and eventually to other countries. We are already in dialogue with several other hospitals in Sweden who are interested in our innovation. Moreover, we presented the innovation at an international healthcare summit in the Netherlands where healthcare representatives from several countries attended and were very interested in the framework and hub concept. It is easily replicable and adjustable for other hospitals and there specific needs.

We have learned a lot about implementing innovation and addressing systematic challenges in healthcare over the past 2 years:
1. Change takes time – addressing these types of systematic challenges takes a lot of time and effort, and patience and endurance is therefore key.
2. Quick wins and communicating results – to get the right investments in these types of innovations, you need to be able to show results. Focusing on quick wins and measuring results is therefore important.
3. The people makes the difference – we have always put the nurses in the driving seat of the project, to make sure we base our innovation on real needs and help secure commitment to achieve success.