Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/576097
STRATEGY AND INNOVATION 32 Here's an Idea: Ask Nurses How Your Hospital Can Do Better When it comes to innovation, every hospital has nurses who know the right thing to do As they operate on the front lines of hospitals and health systems, nurses are poised to create innovative solutions to improve patient outcomes and significantly reduce costs. However, too oen nurses' ideas are not championed in national discussions on innovation and the improvement of healthcare. With both in-the-trenches experience and an educator's perspective, Patrick Robinson, PhD, RN, FAAN, dean of Capella University's School of Nursing and Health Sciences, is an active and guiding voice on how hospital leadership and administration can inspire and support its nurses. Here, Dr. Robinson discusses the importance of fostering empowerment and creativity among a nursing staff — and how leaders can do just that. Question: What is Capella doing to help foster innovation in nursing? Dr. Patrick Robinson: We believe strongly in competency- based education. Whether in nursing, administration, public health or any of our offerings, we clearly define what it is the graduate needs to be doing in the professional work place and we design authentic assessments around that to measure their performance on a standard scale. is enables us to report on the attainment level of specific competencies. Everything we do in our degree programs is carefully aligned to the standards of the respective profession. Beyond this, we are thoroughly engaged with high-performing healthcare employers. We reach out to them and ask, "What are you looking for in potential graduate prepared nurses or those seeking master's degrees or doctorates in healthcare administration? What are the skills they need to have?" We then tailor our offering around those answers to stay responsive and prepared for the challenges put forth not only by the current market, but by the emerging market. Q: What is the benefit of administrators and executives including nurses' voices in decision- making? PR: Nurses are the absolute largest number of healthcare workers in the workforce. Right now we have approximately 2.8 million practicing nurses, more than 62 percent of whom are BECKER'S 7 th Annual Meeting 2016 April 27-30, 2016 | Hyatt Regency, Chicago Register at http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/conference/