Northwell Health's Institute for Nursing is the system's structure for nursing research, evidence-based practice and nurse-led innovation across its hospitals. Northwell runs a bi-annual Innovation Challenge open to all team members, including nurses, in two categories: innovation in science (therapeutics, diagnostics, medical devices) and innovation in care delivery. Six finalist teams pitch to a judging panel each year and winning teams receive research and development funding. Separately, Northwell hosted a two-day NurseHack4Health innovation sprint with Johnson & Johnson and SONSIEL, embedded into its annual nursing leadership retreat, to push design-thinking methods into nursing culture at scale. The system's chief nurse executive championed the hackathon and the resulting ideas now feed Northwell's nursing strategic plan.
Documented successes: NurseHack4Health sprint engaged roughly 500 nurses in about 60 teams and produced 60 innovation ideas now informing Northwell's strategic plan; Innovation Challenge running since 2017 with 15 projects funded to date and $1.3 million awarded across three winning teams in its most recent cycle (InsightXR laparoscopy platform, AI-enabled detection of pediatric sleep apnea from sound recordings, and Amplify.AI for radiology); Northwell committed $1 million toward employee innovators; nurse-led Career Continuum project (Launette Woolforde, EdD, DNP, RN and Kathleen Casler, MSN, RN) strengthening the long-term care nursing workforce