When nurse Rebecca Love, MSN, RN, ANP, addressed the National Student Nurses’ Association Convention recently, she labeled her herself a “Nurse Innovator Entrepreneur.” Those are three words that typically don’t go together, but Love invoked the words of Florence Nightingale, acknowledged as the founder of modern nursing, in making her case for why the profession needs more nurse innovator entrepreneurs:
“Were there none who were discontented with what they have, the world would never reach anything better.”
Love asked the student nurses to redefine the nursing profession through innovation and entrepreneurship in order to initiate healthcare change, telling them three things must happen for them to become successful innovators.
1. Change the conversation from “I’m just a nurse” to proudly declaring, “I am a NURSE,” as the first step in increasing the understanding of what nurses actually do each day.
2. Nursing was founded on innovation. Student nurses today must embrace their role as innovators, from creating new technologies that improve patient care to inventing “workarounds” to produce better results from the equipment they use and processes they follow. Love believes innovation is transforming and uniting all nurses everywhere.
3. Nurses are in a great position to utilize the helpful knowledge they’ve gained working bedside to create successful, beneficial solution in patient care. But, they need to be more bottom line-oriented in who they present their improvements to administrators. Learn the business side of healthcare, Love advises; managers who don’t understand the empathetic side of nursing are swayed by the improved finances nurses can produce.
In wrapping up her presentation, Love challenged students and nurses to be more like Florence Nightingale, who clashed with then-accepted medical routines when implementing better nursing procedures and processes. “Challenge the status quo,” Love told the convention-goers.
Ready to challenge nursing’s status quo? The first step is to become one yourself. Fortis can help through its respected nursing programs offered at campuses across the country. Check out our Nursing programs page to learn more about the profession and what you need to do to be part of it. Then…Innovate!
