The Elaine Marieb Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation (Center) and the Baystate Medical Center (BMC) have established a collaborative and robust academic-clinical partnership that advances the Nurse-Engineer research approach. This approach and the Center-BMC collaboration combine nursing and engineering perspectives and expertise to create innovative solutions to healthcare challenges. Center-BMC research programs include, among others, an examination of the flow rate accuracy of IV Smart Pumps, working with students to design a more stable chest tube holder, the use of robotics to assist nurses, and the development of novel polymers for use in warm air therapy devices.
This groundbreaking relationship between academia and clinical practice was highlighted in Baystate’s 2023 Nursing Report, ‘Planting the Seeds of Nursing Excellence & Innovation’. The 2023 Baystate Nursing Report (pp. 28, 29, 35, and 46 - 49) highlighted Center achievements including co-directors Frank Sup and Karen Giuliano’s talk on nurse-led healthcare innovation. Of particular note was Karen Giuliano’s Fulbright Fellowship at the Edinburgh Napier University (ENU) School of Health and Social Care in Scotland. There, Dr. Giuliano worked on several initiatives that now provide the foundation for ongoing international collaboration between the ENU and the University of Massachusetts.
Our participation in the Baystate Art of Questioning and Innovation Celebration, part of the Baystate Health Art of Questioning campaign, was noted. The Baystate Report described, “Nurse and other essential patient care staff have the most knowledge and experience to make improvements at point-of-care . . . The Art of Questioning and Innovation Campaign . . . is designed to inspire employees to ask clinical questions.” At the celebration event, Baystate nurses and others presented posters addressing questions related to patient care. The Center presented posters on the design of a unique training program to help ER nurses effectively manage interruptions, and the development of a novel chest tube holder. Other poster topics included holistic interventions, technology, electronic health records and pediatric-specific interventions.
9/18/24