A History of Nurse Making and Stealth Innovation

Abstract

Making in health as the intentional activity when individuals shape, form, assemble and transform objects with their own hands-on skills and nearby resources. It represents the integration of a skillset, a toolset and a mindset. Nursing has a rich tradition of making -- one that has produced numerous devices and tools that created a direct path to improved patient outcomes. For this report, we looked back at more than 100 years of nursing history to uncover this rich tradition of creating and spreading tangible, nurse-made devices and discover how nurse making has evolved over time -- including its links to nursing research and clinical innovation. We examine the transformation of making in nurse practice from it's heyday in the early part of the 20th century, a resurgence in the midcentury, and its transition to a state of stealth making. Nurses formed a network of innovators in history and in the present that are changing the way care is delivered, redefining the role of prototyping, and highlighting the importance of creativity over evidence as the source of innovation in practice.

Keywords: user innovation, nursing, medicine, stealth innovation, nursing history