As nurses, we’ve all experienced moments of desperation. Desperation for ourselves, for our colleagues, for our patients, and even for the families and loved ones we provide care for. We often find ourselves driven by a want to solve the problem before us, yet we are limited by a lack of the tools needed to do so. We are regularly faced with wondering what future advancements might someday improve treatments and patient quality of life. In these moments of overwhelming desperation, frustration, and empathy for our fellow humans, that is when the seeds of innovation take root, branching out into advancements in care and treatment, revolutionizing the patient care continuum.
Innovation has always been a key component of nursing practice, education, and science. For decades, scholars here, at the University of Washington School of Nursing, have been vanguard in generating science that impacts every setting in which nurses practice. We conducted the first research examining the relationship between sleep patterns and chronic illness; we were among the first to characterize the menstrual cycle and menopause, enabling women to understand how to age well; the first to describe how building resilient communities can improve the health of immigrant families; and we were the first to create a rocking bed for infants to help them grow, a tool which continues to be the standard in hospital nurseries today. These discoveries, and the hundreds of others incubated in our school, have improved our nation’s health, helping to form the basis for nursing practice today. We are a community where science has never been limited by tradition, scarcity, fear, heartbreak, or inertia.
Over the past few years, I have been continually inspired by the incredible array of scientific innovations developed by our faculty, staff, students, and alumni. A sampling of these recent innovations include:
• Developing a new program to help parents AND their children deal with a new diagnosis of cancer,
• Expanding the potential of artificial intelligence to promote diversity and inclusion in research studies,
• Integrating virtual reality into new tools to help reduce the stress experienced by so many adolescents,
• Inventing a smart phone app to help older adults with dementia de-escalate behavioral disturbances,
• Creating the first implicit bias clinical education tool to reduce health disparities throughout our region, or
• Building an AI-assisted platform to support healthcare workers delivering care to those with Tuberculosis in low resource settings.
Innovation is the lifeblood of the University of Washington School of Nursing. In 2023, to further support this work, we launched the Digital Health Innovation Hub. Its intent is to convene scholars, students, patients, and family members, bringing a diverse array of voices together to envision the digital health innovations that advance health and wellbeing for all members of our community.
In recognition of this growing work, and our dedication to supporting nurse innovators, we have re-named the Office for Nursing Research to the Office for Nursing Research & Innovation (ONR&I). We will continue to provide the same excellent support throughout the research lifecycle and look forward to constructing new infrastructure to support innovation. If you have thoughts or ideas regarding new tools, resources, or networks that ONR&I can provide your team to support scientific innovation, we encourage you to connect with us. We look forward to supporting all of you as you develop nurse-led innovations that will advance the health of all. Together, we can be limitless.
~Allison Webel, PhD, RN, FAAN