INNOVATE: Preparing Nurses to Be Health Care Innovation Leaders

A new certificate program has been designed that augments the traditional undergraduate nursing education with a curriculum of innovation and entrepreneurship. The goal of the Integrated Innovation & Entrepreneurship Certificate in Nursing Program (INNOVATE) is to empower nurses to collaboratively solve health care challenges and become thought leaders in health care products, technologies, and processes, as well as service and delivery methods, with a particular focus on the needs of vulnerable populations. Toward this goal, INNOVATE is built on an integrative, immersive curriculum, experiential learning, intentional cohort building, peer and faculty support, real-world connections, and the prioritization of diversity, inclusivity, and equity to build of a cohort of nursing students ready for careers in clinical and health care innovation. In this article, we provide the outline for the proposed curriculum, program strategies, anticipated outcomes, and evaluation criteria that we believe can serve as a national model for innovation and entrepreneurship in undergraduate nursing education.