A nurse at Vidant Health is among the award winners for the American Nurses Association and the American Nurses Foundation 2022 ANA Innovation Awards.
The awards highlight, recognize and celebrate exemplary nurse-led innovations that improve patient safety and health outcomes. They are sponsored by Stryker, a medical technology company.
KaSheta Johnson Jackson, vice president of health equity and social impact at Vidant Health, is the winner of the Individual Nurse Award.
Jackson developed Community Pop-Ups: A Rural Approach, an innovative health care delivery model implemented as community-based pop-up clinics across eastern North Carolina to address social and economic health care barriers.
This program makes health care both more accessible and approachable by directly providing preventative services, improving health care equity and offering resources within communities with the greatest need.
This is done through a system-level collaboration at Vidant Health with community-focused intervention. Through partnerships with community leaders and other Vidant Health team members, these clinics have evolved from solely offering health care screenings to providing COVID-19 testing, vaccinations, mental health resources, access to fresh produce and employment opportunities.
Community Pop-Ups have been held in a variety of informal community settings, including baseball fields, farms and parks to build trust and improve community engagement.
Designed and led by nurses, the project follows the tenets of a holistic nursing care plan, addressing the community’s physical, mental, and environmental needs.
In 2021, pop-ups provided care to more than 400 community participants, identified acute diseases, provided numerous jobs, gave away 500 produce boxes and delivered 500 health passports in rural locations across eastern North Carolina.
In 2022, the project plans to make a more substantial impact in the communities it reaches and establish a model for addressing the social determinants of health through qualitative data.
“The 2022 ANA Innovation award winners have proven that nurses are able to make incredible strides and improve health while navigating turbulent times. Nurses created solutions that scaled beyond their organizations, into their communities, and globally,” said ANA Vice President of Nursing Innovation Oriana Beaudet. “Nurses are the conduits of positive change across health care through their work and advocacy, which was solidified by the Gallup ranking as the most honest and ethical professions for the 20th consecutive year.”
“As a loyal advocate and supporter of the nursing community, we are honored to partner with ANA and the Foundation as a proud sponsor of the ANA Innovation Awards,” said Stryker Vice President and General Manager Jessica Mathieson. “This year’s winners truly embody the meaning of nurse-led innovation and we can’t wait to see their ideas expand and grow.”
Jackson will receive a monetary prize of $25,000. These funds support translational research, development, prototyping, production, testing and the implementation of her innovation.
Award winners have one year to further develop their innovation and will share their outcomes and findings in 2023.
Celebrate these nurse innovators at the 2022 Navigate Nursing Webinar. All are encouraged to attend — nurses, communities, industry members, health care leaders, health systems, innovators, schools of nursing and public health and nursing advocates. The webinar expands upon how nurses can lead in new ways moving into the future.
Learn more about how ANA is supporting nurse-led innovation by visiting the ANA Innovation website, which has a list of resources, upcoming events and nurse-led innovation stories.
