By Julie Cullen, Managing Editor, American Nurse Today

The ingenuity of nurses should never be underestimated. While doing some research for our Nurses Week for a Month celebration, I came across an article about eight medical inventions by nurses. I have no doubt there are more…and many more to come…but I thought I’d share a few of them with you now. They might spark an idea. At the very least, they’ll make you proud to be a nurse.

• In 1963, Anita Dorr created the crash cart. She developed the prototype in her basement, and now everyone uses them.
• Teri Barton-Salinas and Gail Barton-Hay (they’re sisters) patented their color-coded I.V. lines in 2003. They help prevent medication errors.
• In 1954, Elise Sorensen’s little sister, Thora, had surgery for colon cancer. She faced life with an ostomy appliance that often smelled bad and leaked. Elise created a solution: a plastic pouch that she could adhere to her body. The invention is still in use today.

You can read about all eight inventions here.

Julie Cullen, managing editor of American Nurse Today and a curator of online content for the American Nurse Today website, is most definitely not a nurse, but she admires what all of you do everyday. In her Off the Charts blog she shares some of her experiences as a patient and family member of patients, thoughts and ideas that occur to her during her work editing nursing content, and information she thinks you might find interesting. Julie welcomes your feedback. You can submit a comment on the website or email her at jcullen@healthcommedia.com.