A Wrap for One Class and the Beginning for the Next

The teams took classes on innovation that focused on human-centered design, equity-centered design and design thinking methodologies and learned how to apply these ideas to their specific healthcare challenge. They also learned business acumen skills through an innovation lens. The innovation curriculum was provided by Penn Nursing with business training provided through Wharton Executive Education. At its conclusion, the fellows defined the problem and created potential solutions that they brought back to their healthcare systems to implement.

“The first cohort of the Nurse Innovation Fellowship program exceeded all of our expectations” said Marion Leary, PhD, MPH, RN, Director of Innovation at Penn Nursing. “Working with these senior nurse leaders and watching them trust the process and put the innovation methodology into practice has been incredible.”

The teams represented geographically diverse institutions from areas across the US. They came from large and small health systems as well as stand-alone hospitals and public health systems in urban and rural locations. They brought a range of problems to the program that needed solutions: professional fulfillment for clinical nurses; safety in the emergency department; how to ensure equity in continuing education for North Carolina’s public health nurses; heath care team biases in the emergency department; workforce shortages for medical-surgical unit nurses; retention of new graduate nurses; promoting nursing to high school students; relevant and actionable communication between nurse managers and nurses; and transitioning from hospital to home for families with medically complex children.

“The nurse leaders learned how to put aside their assumptions and biases, empathetically listen to their end users, and employ the power of the innovation process. They can now spread this innovation mindset throughout their organization and apply it to other projects within their hospitals and health systems,” said Therese Richmond PhD, RN, FAAN, Andrea B. Laporte Professor at Penn Nursing.

In More Detail

Below are the problems faced by two of our teams. Each Fellow also shared thoughts on how the program impacted their approach to solving it.

West Virginia University Health System: Promoting Nursing to High School Students

“Everyone knows there is a nursing shortage. And what we wanted to do was try to figure out a way to get the profession of nursing, and the caring science that nurses exhibit every day, in front of young adults and high school students in a real way, in a caring way, not a social media inflated way. The fellowship changed my approach to problem solving because it gave us a structure and a framework to utilize. It forced us to think things differently. Do we have the right people at the table? Do we have diversity of thought? Have we really thought through getting all the stakeholders together,” said Melanie M. Heuston, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, Inaugural Chief Nurse Executive.

“The fellowship changed my approach to problem solving because as nurses were always wanting to rush to the solutions. And it really gave us a chance to slow down, to look at the problem, and to really get the people that are using the product or the innovation at the table. It involved our community stakeholders, as well as our organizational stakeholders,” Lya M. Stroupe, DNP, Director of Professional Practice and Education

Blythedale Children’s Hospital: Transitioning from Hospital to Home for Families with Medically Complex Children

“The problem that we really focused upon was the transition from hospital to home for parents who have medically complex children. And what we were seeking to solve is the lack of preparation of community health care providers to manage these children in the community. And often the majority of it falls upon the parents to really care for the medical management of their child. I think as nurse executives, we are often under time constraints to find the solution. I think what the last year has taught me is to really pause and invest more of my energy, our energy, in our assessment phase and really understand and define the problem,” said Jill M. Wegener, MSN, RN, Senior VP, Chief Nursing Officer, & Patient Care Services.

“I think recognizing the importance of the stakeholders and their role in the solution development is what I really took away from the process,” said Kara Dyer-Dombroski, MSN, RN, Director of Nursing.

Our New Cohort

As one group’s tenure with our program ends, another one begins. We are excited to announce the new cohort for the 2024-25 Nurse Innovation Fellowship program. Through human-centered design, equity-centered design and design thinking methodologies, combined with training to boost their business skills, these teams will take on health care issues specific to their institutions.

Our new fellows are:

AdventHealth New Smyrna Beach

• Darla Fish, RN, MSN, CCRN, Vice President / Chief Nursing Officer
• Carla Johnson, RN, MSN, NE-BC, Executive Director of Nursing

Baylor Scott & White Health-Hillcrest

• LaJuana Jones, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, Chief Nursing Officer
• Melissa Shemek, EdD, CI, MSN, Ed, RNC-NIC, NEA-BC, Director of Nursing Professional Development

Cook County Health System

• Beena Peters, DNP, RN, FACHE, FABC, System Chief Nursing Executive
• Elizabeth Vaclavik, DNP, RN, OCN, NEA-BC, Associate Chief Nurse Executive, Ambulatory Services

Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Hospital

• Jeanne Dzurenko, MPH, BSN, NEA-BC, Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer
• Jolene Klotz, RN, MSN, CRRN, Director of Nursing

Inova Health Systems

• Marguerite Cunningham, DNP, NEA-BC, NI-BC, CPHIMS, Vice President and Chief Nursing Informatics Officer
• Dina Dent, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, Vice President of Nursing, Medicine Service Line

Rutland Regional Medical Center

• Elizabeth Kyhill, MSN, RN, Vice President, Medical Group Operations
• Kelly Watson, DNP, MHA, RN, FACHE, Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer

St. Joseph Hospital

• Anthony Esposito, DNP, Chief Nursing Officer
• Kimberly Ross, DNP, RN, NE-BC, TCRN, Director of Nursing

Seattle Children’s Hospital

• Mary Field, DNP, MBA, RN, CPHON, NEA-BC, Senior Director, Nursing Innovation & Strategic Initiatives
• Bonnie Fryzlewicz, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer

University Medical Center of El Paso

• Amy Daher, MSN, RN, NE-BC, Chief Nursing Officer
• Nohemi Galindo, MPH BSN, RNC-OB, NPD-BC, C-ONQS, C-EFM, Director, Nursing Special Projects

Christiana Care Health System

• Michelle Collins, DNP, APRN, CNS, ACNS-BC, NPD-BC, NEA-BC, LSSBB, Vice President, Nursing Professional Excellence
• Danielle Weber, MSN, MSM, RN-BC, NEA-BC, Chief Nursing Executive and Chief Nursing Officer