NIA Reception Graphics 202021In this third year of the Nurse Innovator Award, we are celebrating the distribution of $95,000 to support work being done by innovative and entrepreneurial nurses. Included this celebration is the $25,000 Connie Clerici Nurse Entrepreneur Award.

The winners were announced at the Virtual Reception held on November 17, 2021, hosted by Mary Ito, of CBC. Click here to view the recorded event.

This year we are particularly pleased with the diversity among the winners.  Our geographic coverage is expanding: we have representation from Ottawa, Brockville, Brampton and Downtown Toronto. We have winners from a large hospital, a smaller specialist hospital, and two community based programs.  Again this year, we believe that each of this year's winning projects will have positive impact on nursing and patients for years to come. The ongoing support of the NIA Founding Donors, the Friends and Supporters, and other donors, is deeply appreciated.  And yet, with more support, we could increase our impact.  Click here for a list of projects that we were unable to fund.

We encourage you to take a few minutes to read the complete information about the winning projects. We are confident that you will be impressed and inspired. 

mhapy is a chatbot that uses natural language processing to have friendly, open-ended conversations with patients and perform mental health assessments. The chatbot establishes a baseline for the user and monitors for significant deviations from the baseline,  sending notifications to the user’s chosen person when there are signs of decompensation.

This project explores a novel treatment that has potential to be impactful on mental health related issues.  The chatbot has may provide accessible treatment services fo rthose who would otherwise be subjected to lengthy wait times or absence of service due to lack of resources in their community.

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Read more: mhapy

Katherine Kung Cheung RN, MN is a Clinical Procurement Quality Improvement Specialist at Sick Kids Hospital knows that timely access to clinical supplies is crucial to delivery of high-quality care.

The Quickpick Clinical Items Finder proposes using a mobile application and QR technology to improve clinical supplies management. Nurses will be able to scan the QR labels and search for a clinical item with real-time inventory status across the hospital and product information related to practice which will reduce the length of time nurses spend looking for supplies.

Read more: Quickpick Clinical Items Finder

Soch Mental Health is a community mental health promotion initiative aimed at providing the South Asian (SA) community with culturally and linguistically appropriate mental health information. Co-founders of SOCH Mental Health Jasmeet Chagger (RN, MSc) and Maneet Chahal (RN, MSc) are passionate mental health change-markers, trailblazing to put South Asian mental health in the spotlight. The not-for-profit organization aims to empower community members to recognize and accept mental health as an essential part of their wellness through education, prevention, and building resilience.

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Read more: Soch Mental Health

Nurse On Board (NOBI) employs highly skilled Registered Nurse Care Managers who represent the interests of their patients and family members, are the primary contact in the circle of care, and are perfectly positioned to assess their patients’ changing needs through interprofessional collaboration. The company was founded by Susan Hagar in 2015, with a small group of highly experienced RNs, and a big vision. Today Nurse On Board has expanded to offer services across Ontario.

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Read more: Nurse On Board (NOBI)