Update on 2022 award winner progress

The American Nurses Association (ANA) Innovation Awards, sponsored by Stryker, recognize nurse-led innovation that improves patient safety outcomes.

In 2022, KaSheta Johnson Jackson, DNP, RN, vice president of health equity and social impact at ECU Health (formerly Vidant Health), in North Carolina, received the Individual Nurse Award for Community Pop-Ups: A Rural Approach. Michael Pickett, MSN, APRN, PNP-BC, and four colleagues from Texas Children’s Hospital, in Houston, received the Team Innovation Award for developing RediStik® Wearable Simulation Task Trainers. This article highlights the recipients’ efforts over the past year as they worked to further their innovations.

2022 Individual Innovation Award

Jackson, a North Carolina Nurses Association member, envisioned community-based pop-up clinics as a means of addressing social and economic barriers to healthcare. Jackson advanced these efforts in several key ways, including:

• Provided 350 students from four local schools with health screenings and backpacks filled with food.
• Created a free outdoor grocery store that helped feed 500 people.
• Distributed over-the-counter medications to 1,100 residents in a community without resources.
• Raised awareness to help community members register for health insurance via Affordable Care Act marketplaces.
• Provided community vaccinations.
• Helped 80 students explore nursing, dental, and medical careers.
• Expanded a mobile care program by purchasing equipment to measure patients’ hemoglobin A1C levels and other biometrics.

“The best part of these pop-ups are the community interactions and engagement that they enable,” Jackson said. “We’ve strengthened our relationships and created many partnerships by simply being purposeful in our community involvement. Data and relationships dictate where our community pop-ups should occur. Last year, during uncertainty, we were able to partner in over 22 events.”

2022 Nurse-Led Team Innovation Award

Pickett, a Texas Nurses Association member, and colleagues Marilyn Hockenberry, PhD, RN, FAAN; Jaime Choate, MSN, RN, NPD-BC; Jeannie Eggers, MSN, RN, CPN, CCRN; and Tadala Mulemba, BScNM, RN, designed RediStik Wearable Simulation Task Trainers as a realistic, versatile, and engaging training tool for nurses to learn skills in peripheral I.V., port-a-cath, and central venous catheter care and maintenance. In 2022, the team accomplished the following:

• Continued spearheading intrapreneurial processes at Texas Children’s Hospital.
• Introduced the RediStik brand to nurses at conferences. Feedback worldwide further validates that nurses have the unique ability to create viable products for end users.
• Developed invaluable relationships with frontline clinicians and industry partners, sharing lessons learned in marketing, innovation, and business development.
• Increased RediStik sales significantly through collaboration, mentorship, and awareness.
• Kickstarted the RediStik philanthropy program to give back to nurses and provided trainers to those who helped develop and pilot the product.

“The RediStik team is looking forward to 2023 as we continue to expand our impact globally and prove that nurse-led innovation can create outstanding outcomes for our families, patients, and colleagues,” Pickett said.

The 2023 ANA Innovation Award winners will be announced during the March 2023 Navigate Nursing webinar, “Are You a Nurse Influencer? Utilize Innovation to Drive Your Professional Influence.” The recording and education are free for ANA members. For more information, visit nursingworld.org/innovation.

American Nurse Journal. 2023; 18(3). Doi: 10.51256/ANJ032326