Nurse led innovation and the power of partnership

5-minute read

Applying creativity and problem-solving to improve healthcare quality

The ANA Innovation Awards – sponsored by Stryker – highlight, recognize, and celebrate nurse-led innovation. Awards are presented to an individual nurse and a nurse-led team whose product, program, project, or practice best exemplifies nurse-led innovation in patient safety and/or health outcomes.

We recently published articles about the 2024 award winners:

• Nurse-Led Team Award: Wallena (Lena) Gould, EdD, CRNA, FAANA, FAAN, founder and CEO of The Diversity in Nurse Anesthesia Mentorship Program, a 501(c)(3) a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and advancing diversity within graduate nurse anesthesia programs.
  
• Individual Nurse Award: Kwamane Liddell, JD, MHA, BSN, founder and CEO of ThriveLink, a company that uses a voice-activated AI tool to enable people to enroll directly into social and clinical programs like drug discount programs, health insurance, utility assistance, food assistance and more.
   

Meeting needs in a new and different way

The ANA views innovation as “the application of creativity or problem solving that results in a widely adopted strategy, product, or service that meets a need in a new and different way,” as defined by Lachman et al and explained by Oriana Beaudet, the ANA’s Vice President of Innovation. The definition adds that “Innovations are about improvement in quality, cost effectiveness, or efficiency.”¹

For this year’s award winners, improvement in quality is the dynamic that stands out.

The World Health Organization maintains that quality health services should be effective, safe, people centered, equitable, integrated and efficient. Equitable care, in particular, “does not vary in quality on account of gender, ethnicity, geographic location, and socio-economic status.”²

For both of this year’s ANA innovation award winners, innovation began with an observation that elements of quality – health equity, in particular – were broken or absent. Each innovation was carried out by way of an unwavering belief and determination that a better way is possible.

Dr. Gould observed a profound lack of diversity in nurse anesthesiology and its bearing on healthcare quality for minoritized populations. She created The Immersion Model as a way to change that. In the more than 20 years since she began her work, she has built an empowering community and influenced the careers of close to 1,000 nurses of color – and quality of care for an incalculable number of patients as a result.

Kwamane Liddell observed that patients and families couldn’t access social and clinical programs available to them, and created a way for them to do so in founding ThriveLink. His innovation impacts social determinants of health and health equity by removing barriers to accessing these programs.
 

The power of mentors and partners

Both of these nurse innovators have made an impact not just on healthcare, but on society as well. And both are quick to credit the mentors and partners who guided, supported and collaborated with them on their journey.

Dr. Gould has described the power of mentors as “priceless.” She gives tremendous credit to two of her early mentors, Dr. Art Zwerling, DNP, CRNA, DAAPM and Goldie Brangman, CRNA, MBA, M.Ed. They helped shape her perspective during her early years as a CRNA, and the foundation of the program she built.

Liddell describes having more mentors than he can count. “Everywhere I went, health systems and organizations and leaders were supportive in helping me build the skill set and the tools that I needed to be able to do what we do now at ThriveLink,” he said.
 

Embracing innovation, making healthcare better

At Stryker, we are proud to sponsor the ANA Innovation Awards to support and honor nurse leaders who are creating solutions to, in Oriana Beaudet’s words, “some of the greatest challenges of our time.”

Our partnership with the ANA informs our own innovation.

“Stryker has learned so much from our partnership with the ANA and its nurses,” said Scott Sagehorn, VP/GM for Stryker's Acute Care business. “It has helped us to create solutions that make a difference and accomplish our mission to make healthcare better.”

We are also deeply committed to being a partner in innovation with our customers – listening to them, helping them work through challenges and creating and delivering solutions.

Are you a nurse innovator working on solving a challenge? Are you seeking sponsorship for a nurse-led initiative or program that’s advancing nursing, care delivery and healthcare? Learn more about opportunities at https://www.stryker.com/us/en/acute-care/c/nurse-innovation.html.