**7. Critique the risk of not embracing innovation in nursing and healthcare for the future**

As shared earlier in this chapter, innovation is not new to the nursing profession. Nurses have helped transform and advance the profession. Through their own innovative behaviors and innovation developments, nurses throughout history have identified unmet needs affecting others and the associated optimal health status. Their discoveries and advancements have helped propel nursing and healthcare forward. What was new at that time is now a staple of care delivery for the 21st century.

A difference between the past and the current moment for nursing is the active interest in innovation at a strategic professional level. While the word "innovation" may not always be present, the act of seeking to promote the creation of positive change for optimal health outcomes is indicative of the desire to innovate. Organizations such as the World Health Organization, the American Nurses Association, and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (to name just a few) have all set forth efforts to foster the advancement of nursing [53–55]. As the health needs of people change and evolve, so will the products, processes, and services that are needed to provide optimal care quality.

Yet, nursing and healthcare has traditionally been slow to adopt change. A commonly used phrase is, "*we have always done it this way*". When that phrase is heard, the readers should consider that the process in question may not have been evaluated in some time. This may be an indication for a necessary exploration of potential change, improvement, and/or innovation. The reader can identify that phrase as an opportunity to explore the job to be done and how it may be able to be innovated for higher quality care.

One cannot expect transformational and impactful change to occur, without embracing innovation in nursing and healthcare for the future. To do so requires acknowledgement of the science of innovation and how nurses and healthcare professionals must have the innovation knowledge, skills, and abilities to be able to provide ideas, innovations, and a supportive culture to meet the unmet needs of the present and the future.

### **8. Conclusion**

Ideally, nursing innovation will emerge as a formalized specialty practice within the nursing profession in the coming years. With a formalized specialty practice, the foundations can be established to create scalable pathways for nurses across the globe to make impactful contributions to nursing, healthcare, and society at large. Innovations occur through people. The more people who have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to innovate, the greater the likelihood for positive change within the nursing profession and healthcare industry. Until that does occur, the reader can feel confident in having the following knowledge from this chapter:

