Innovative ideas

As a member of our IT department's fledgling innovation team, I watch for interesting ideas that can be modeled into the health care arena. Analogous thinking produces innovative uses from one industry to another.

Today on MSNBC, there is an article (right click on links and choose Open in New Tab or Open in New Window) about how many parents research a child's illness prior to going to an ED. I feel new employees or student nurses can apply this increasingly common research technique, as they need to learn on the fly, and who will be doing their clinical rotations at our organization. I want to create and provide those very important resources for their review before AND after orientation. People that possess a certain level of curiosity want to investigate unknown variables prior to exposure to stressful situations. Knowing information ahead of time reduces the stress of new experiences. Making analogies for understanding new concepts is what I want to inspire in our new student nurses. 

Also, I plan to use Dropbox to share my practicum progress with my mentor. As I update the folder on my computer, it automatically updates in Dropbox and notifies my mentor with sharing rights that she has a new file to review. This great and free application is simple to use when sharing files. It removes multiple steps when sending files or folders for people to review. 

This past week, I spent a significant amount of time exploring Tom Kuhlman's blog on elearning. What a great guy and I love his very helpful tips. More importantly - I love his name! I wonder if it is his stage name? Hmm . . . 


So, I "waste" time each day exploring certain subjects that provide me with creative ideas that hopefully, will lead to innovative ideas, too. I explored an artist's website today  - Peter Fiore - and found a week-long seminar he is teaching next summer in the Hudson River Valley.His color use is phenomenal. I am really excited about this, as he teaches oil painting based on “plein air photography” with studio painting. Oils are his medium and he uses anything for a paintbrush including palette knives. This artistic quest forces me to open myself to new ways of analyzing any detail . . . and see objects in a different light or to consider the complementary side, too.