About the Tool Kit

To spotlight the impact nurses have on leading innovation and advancing new models of care,  the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) created this new teaching resource to inspire the next generation of nurses to serve with courage, ingenuity, and compassion. The core concepts, learning exercises, and discussion starters featured in this tool kit are designed to stimulate conversations on how nurses can improve the future of health care.

With funding provided by Johnson & Johnson, the Trailblazing Innovation tool kit was developed to:

• Provide nurse educators with foundational concepts on how to prepare nurses to exercise moral courage, moral agency, and innovation.
   
• Use situation-based behavioral learning strategies to introduce key topics.
   
• Demonstrate ability to navigate difficult conversations within the healthcare environment to support positive person-centered outcomes.
   
• Examine how to lead in the delivery of person-centered care with ingenuity, advocacy for care recipients, and compassionately value each individual with whom they interact.
   
• Formulate a personal self-care program to nurture the nurturer.

The teaching tools and learning activities highlighted in this tool kit are offered to assist in preparing students to more fully understand the many roles they will play as a professional nurse – leader, innovator, advocate, observer, and risk-taker, among others. By focusing on the lessons learned from the film 5B, professional nurses will gain a greater understanding of the inherent dignity of all individual recipients of care, which holds promise for elevating the patient care experience.

Advisory Committee

This faculty tool kit was developed by a team of thought leaders representing nursing education, science, policy, and practice. Committee members include (pictured from left to right):

Edilma Yearwood, PhD, PMHCNS-BC, FAAN
Chair of the Department of Professional Nursing Practice at the Georgetown University School of Nursing & Health Studies

Jeff Day, DNP, AGPCNP-BC, CNEcl
Clinical Assistant Professor, NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing; Nurse Practitioner, New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai

Cheryl Woods Giscombe, PhD, RN, PMHNP-BC, FAAN
Professor and Associate Dean, PhD Division & Program; Levine Family Distinguished Professor of Quality of Life, Health Promotion, and Wellness, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing

Cassandra M. Godzik, PhD, APRN, PMHNP-BC, CNE
Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center; T32 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Dartmouth Centers for Health & Aging

Geraldine Rebach, MS, BSN, BA, RN
Past President of the Greater Washington Area Association of Nurses in AIDS Care; Clinical Nurse (retired), Washington Home & Community Hospices

Julie Slade, DNP, RN
Associate Professor, Nursing, Chatham University School of Health Sciences

Rick García, PhD, RN, CCM, FAAOHN
Director of Nursing Education, American Association of Colleges of Nursing