International Council of Nurses Innovations Database

[rwingo]

I just recently ran across something called the International Council of Nurses Innovations Database:

The International Council of Nurses (ICN) is pleased to present the ICN Innovations Database – a web based resource designed to facilitate the dissemination of nursing innovations globally. This initiative is in response to ICN's strong commitment to fostering innovation and promoting an environment for knowledge sharing.

The ICN Innovations Database is of interest to all those wanting to learn about and share innovative nursing practices and concepts from around the world. This includes nurse clinicians, researchers, educators, managers, leaders, student nurses, other health professionals, industry, employers, government and the public.

What constitutes innovation has been the focus of numerous discussions in the academic literature. In the context of this initiative, innovation is defined as the generation of new ideas, or the application of existing ideas to a new situation, resulting in improvements to a service, programme, structure, product, and/or system.

Innovation is not a new concept to the nursing profession. Nurses worldwide are engaged in innovative activities on a daily basis; activities motivated by the desire to improve patient care outcomes and the need to reduce costs to the health system. Many of these initiatives have resulted in significant improvements in the health of patients, populations and health systems. However, nursing's contribution to health care innovation is seldom recognised, publicised or shared amongst nursing and the wider public. Through this and other initiatives, ICN wishes to ensure innovative nurse-led projects are promoted and shared.

What a great idea!

However, I was a little disappointed that there were only 32 entries in the database and a search for Nurses Innovations Database on Google only returned 46 pages! (and several of those pages are from the ICN site.)

So, please get the word out... and if you have something to contribute to the database, please add it! I know there has to be a LOT more nursing innovation out there that we need to let the world know about!

Learn more about the International Council of Nurses Innovations Database