University of Minnesota Provides Entrepreneurial Training to Nursing Students with “Planting Seeds of Innovation” Event

Last week nursing students at the University of Minnesota (UM) convened for the second consecutive year of entrepreneurial training at an event called “Planting Seeds of Innovation.” Nurses spend more time with patients than other caregivers, providing them with a wealth of knowledge about how medical products work that has gone untapped for many years. The UM School of Nursing aims to go beyond day-to-day patient care and provide their nursing students with the skills they need to think like entrepreneurs.

Thomas Clancy, a clinical professor in the school of nursing and organizer of the entrepreneurial event, tells BizJournals.com, “There’s a national push encouraging nurses to play a more active role in inventing and tweaking products, partly because they’re already heavy users of medical equipment.” The School of Nursing hosted a similar workshop last year which brought in 30 participants; this year more than 130 participants showed up to learn about medical entrepreneurship.

Many nurses have ideas about how to make medical equipment function better. In the last year, Clancy has seen products like tools to assess the severity of skin breakdown, a breathing tube to prevent accidental teeth damage, and a vein finding flashlight. He also noted there has been an increase in ideas for medical and nursing apps. Some nurses’ ideas are still in the formative stages while others are closer to becoming businesses. The goal of the program is to assist nurses with their ideas by connecting them with the Office of Technology Commercialization and the university’s medical devices center.