Blog Contribution by NIHD President Kristina Krail, RN, NEA-BC, FACHE, PMP, EDAC
Last month, I had the privilege to participate in the Center for Healthcare Design all-day virtual workshop on “Drivers in Healthcare: Perspectives and Conversations Influencing a New Healthcare Landscape.” It was an offering that promised to share the latest thinking in what is driving the future of healthcare and to provide perspectives from a variety of professionals considered experts in the field. I was proud to be considered one of those experts and was eager to share my point of view as a healthcare leader now in the design world, but also eager to learn from others presenting.
In prepping for the session I was involved in, a panel discussion about “Caring for the Caregiver,” there were a few key points we wanted to make sure we covered: the challenge of burnout, how design can help, and the popularity of respite rooms. One of my co-panelists Seth Starner, Director of Design Research at Crowe, suggested we conclude our time by each sharing one good “heated steering wheel” idea. What is that?? Seth explained that it is an innovation that is fairly simple, isn’t too expensive, relatively easy to implement, but can revolutionize or fundamentally improve something within the industry. I loved this analogy and knew there were many past examples of “heated steering wheels” in nursing. Top of mind examples were bath-in-a-bag, nurse servers, and the well-referenced example during Covid of add tubing to IVs so that the pump could be located outside the patient room so the nurse didn’t have to gown-up every time the alarm went off. I knew there were more current ideas – I would ask my colleagues!
The virtual conference opened up with a keynote presentation by Carla Johnson speaking on “Rethinking Innovation and the Future of Healthcare.” She bills herself as an Innovation Architect and not only had example after example of heated steering wheels, but also shared a process on how to come up with great ideas and bring them forward. You can read more about her 5-step innovation framework of: Observe / Distill / Relate / Generate / Pitch in her book, RE:Think Innovation. Our panel discussion came next, and after Carla’s impactful presentation, we were perfectly positioned to speak about innovation at the intersection of healthcare and design, particularly as it pertains to creating environments for caregivers to do just that.
I’m glad our panel discussion provided me a platform to drive home so much of what NIHD stands for and believes in. I was able to emphasize the benefit of listening and involving clinicians in design and building projects as a proven strategy to improve caregiver working conditions through the built environment. I emphasized “one size does not fit all” when it come to design solutions and it is worth the time and effort to involve users in the design process. All the panelists agreed that design can be physically supportive to caregivers - respite areas being a good example, as well as culturally supportive, design safety features being a good example for that.
The panel eventually did have a chance to mention some related new heated steering wheel concepts. In advance, I put forth a request for ideas to NIHD members through our Member Community Forum and got some great ideas to share! Read about all of them here: Design Impact on Clinical Care - NIHD Community Forum and although the workshop is over – please feel free to keep the discussion going!
Since I am on the topic of design innovation, there is no better place to immerse yourself in the subject matter than at this year’s Healthcare Design Conference + Expo (HCD), October 5-8 in Indianapolis. Please try to attend. NIHD, as an Association Partner, is deep into planning our highly regarded and popular pre-conference workshop, scheduling special events, lining up event sponsors, and a myriad of other conference related activities. HCD is a great opportunity for NIHD members to individually and collectively demonstrate the value of our community, as well as a chance meet up in person while interacting with others in the field of healthcare design. I hope to see you there!
NIHD collaborates with clinicians, design professionals and industry partners in the healthcare design process to shape the future of healthcare design.
