“Nurse entrepreneurs put problem-solving skills to work” – Did you read it?

No one knows nurses like, well, nurses. So how great is it when new products to benefit YOU come directly from your fellow nurses themselves? We recently read a story about nurse entrepreneurs who took at-work issues and used them to help create solutions both they and you can benefit from, and thought you’d find it interesting and inspiring. Read more below…

Here are some excerpts from the article:

“’The nurses I work with are the smartest, funniest people I know. Our work causes us to problem-solve and to think critically about everything, and that leads us to coming up with solutions in every aspect of our lives.  It just fits that we would be inventors,’” remarked Stacey Tatroe, RN, BSN, inventor of RN I.D. Scrubs.

Fellow nurse entrepreneur Sarah Mott, RN, agrees. ‘My colleagues and I were always making little inventions to provide patient care–like things to elevate a leg or to make an IV work. But we weren’t thinking about these as inventions. That is why I wanted to encourage other nurses to pursue their inventions and to bring their products to market.’”

How one nurse’s company got started…

“Mott has recently started her own company, Nurse Born. Her vision is to market products created by nurses that are inspired by practical experience. ‘I want to encourage nurses to think about the needs of their colleagues and patients and then to pursue their ideas,’ said Mott. ‘As the company grows, I would like to hire nurses who, because of an injury, can no longer tolerate long hours on the floor.'”

“’It has been a very long road. It started when I was working as a staff nurse on a post-op ortho floor. My neck was bothering me and I was uncomfortable with the stethoscope hanging on my neck. It also bothered me to keep an item that carried so many germs so close to my face. I was looking for an alternative way to carry it and I couldn’t find anything, and I thought someone should invent something,’ she explained.”

An invention is born…

“A few months later, her injury had progressed to the point that she had to take some time off work. At home and bored, she started experimenting with household items to create a stethoscope clip. Once she assembled a workable clip, she began pursuing a patent and was accepted into a free program where a local university student helped her apply for it. An engineer acquaintance of hers was willing to create a prototype. In due time, her Stethoscope Holster became a reality, and is now the first product to be marketed through Nurse Born.”

Tatroe’s story…

“Stacey Tatroe works as an ER nurse at Wellstar Health Systems in Atlanta, Ga., and fell into the role of nurse entrepreneur through a different route. After working as an LPN for six years, she had completed her RN licensure and wanted to celebrate. ‘For work that day, I hand-made scrubs that said RN and wore a sash and a crown!’ she said. ‘What was so interesting was that colleagues I had worked with for years were surprised to find out that I wasn’t already an RN. Even though our licensure is written on our IDs, clearly no one was reading that. But they saw it when it was written on my scrubs.’

‘It is frustrating for patients when they don’t know who is walking into your room.  Some hospitals use a color-coding system, and that can be helpful for the staff, but the code often remains unclear to patients, family members and providers who don’t work at the facility. I.D. Scrubs communicate to the patient, ‘I am your nurse. I am the one who is here to take care of you and answer your questions.’’

Tatroe pursued a patent and contacted her favorite scrub manufacturer, Cherokee Uniforms, to pitch her idea. They are now marketing her line as RN I.D. Scrubs.”

Read the entire story here, then tell us, would you use these products? If you could invent anything for your own nursing life, what would you want to make and why?

Sponsored by Cherokee Uniforms