ABSTRACT

Activating the innovation process in nursing services decreases patient care costs and increases quality of care. The importance of innovation is increasing in education as well as in nursing services. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the “Innovation Workshop in Nursing” studies and to determine the students’ awareness and roles in the innovation process. The study was conducted as a prospective cross-sectional observational study at a faculty of nursing in İstanbul between January 2020 and December 2023. The sample group consisted of 120 nursing students who actively participated in innovation workshops at the relevant faculty and agreed to participate in the study. As part of the study, students’ participation in the innovation process, activities such as developing and implementing innovative products, were collected through a 33-question data form administered before and after the workshop studies. Consent was obtained from participants for the study. Mean, percentage, and Chi-square tests were applied in the evaluation of the data. Through workshop studies, students were able to reinforce their advanced innovation process education. Students designed innovative products that enhance the quality of nursing care in various fields they identified as needs during clinical and field observations. Between 2020 and 2023, students developed a total of 82 innovative products, created prototypes of the products, completed the patent application processes, and applied to TÜSEB and TÜBİTAK projects with their products. In addition, the workshop students won numerous awards in external competitions with their innovative products and brought the ‘Most Innovative School Award’ to their faculty in 2022 and 2023 with their successful work in innovation. With the studies carried out in the “Innovation Workshop in Nursing”, students were enabled to take an active role in the innovation process steps and in the implementation phase.