Written by Shun-De Ma Photographed by Zheng-Zhong Chen
Translated by Yuanar Wu

The Nursing Small Group Discussion was held in the afternoon on Oct 3rd, 2017. In the discussion, the Vice Nursing Director of Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital, Shu-Zhen Wang and the Director of Research and Development (R&D) of Tzu Chi University of Technology Zhu-Jun Lin shared their experiences with collaborations and innovations. Nursing innovations made by colostomy wound care team, ENT team, and psychiatric team, and urology team were presented.

Nursing innovations have been awarded with gold medals and patented rights

Vice Director Shu-Zhen Wang adapted four characters, P (Put down), E (Empathy), A (Awareness) and S (Simplicity) from the Jack’s Magic Bean story to tell her own experience with innovation. Despite some differences in English words, Novelty, Creation, Invention and Innovation, their Chinese translations are very similar. In order to accept a new idea, nurses must put down the old idea. Since most of the innovations are made to improve patient care, nurses must have empathy. In order to be inspired by the clinical environments, nurses should keep a constant awareness. A comprehensive innovation may be useful but hard to adapt. Thus, an innovation with simplicity is much welcomed.

Vice Director Shu-Zhen Wang adapted four PEAS from Jack’s Magic Bean Story to describe her application for Put down, Empathy, Awareness and Simplicity.

Dr. Lin grew up in a town where is known for soy sauce production. Her hometown has not associated with people with creativity. Once she saw an award winning innovation that was a mask with two small pockets. She thought if adding in two small pockets was an innovation, she might be awarded a platinum medal if adding in four pockets. Since then, she was inspired and began her life involving innovations. She often conducted her brainstorming session during school breaks. Because they learned to give up leisure so they have been awarded so many prizes.

Director Lin commented, many impossibilities can be changed to I’m Possible if you change your mindset. For example, she and her student were developing an ampoule opener. Their product was different because of its simplicity. The simplicity was inspired by their observation of sharp injury caused by opening the glass ampoules. To prevent unnecessary injuries, her team developed a clip-like opener that could be use for ampoules with different sizes without any difficulty.

They have an innovation that could prevent intravenous (IV) backflow that was sent to Department of Health for safety evaluation. The device was inspired by an observation on patient on IV therapy. IV backflow is a common problem when the IV receiving arm positioned higher than one’s heart. To prevent it, patients are reminded not to raise their arm. Her team found a solution by installing a small device in the IV tubing.

Having developed so many shining products, Director Lin began to establish partnerships with major hospitals including Tzu Chi Hualien Hospital. Director Lin commented that there was no other shortcut than persistence for innovation and creation. In her experience, she was one of the twenty people who stuck to the last moment in a lecture given to two thousand people in the Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital. As a result of her persistence, tireless guidance and diligence, she and her team won a golden prize in the recently closed Invention Exhibition.

「You try, you fail, you try, you fail, the real failure is when you stop trying !」There is no perfect innovation. Director Lin always encourages students not to give up. A real failure is when you give up trying. Transform a failure into a motivation. The foundation of a success is persistence. In the following session, Hualien Hospital Colostomy Wound Care team, the ENT team, the Psychiatry team, and the Urology team shared their innovations.

Colostomy Wound Care Nurses Mei-Yu Xu and Xiao-Hui Xu were two among 2000 people in the audience who stayed to the last moment of the lecture. Mei-Yu Xu commented that her patients with PEG tube often complained of not wanting to live any more. The chief complaint was caused by intolerable pains related to the complications of PEG tube and hardships of caring for a PEG tube. A PEG tube is very important to keep patient alive because of its functions in feeding and fluid drainage. However, the pains caused by tube displacement, inserting site infections and tube obstructions are often unbearable. Xu has been trying to solve tube displacement issues for sometimes.

Over a decade, Ms. Xu’s idea was only a thought and has never been materialized until meeting Director Lin. Her innovation of holding the PEG tube with an abdominal belt was granted a patent right. Although it was not a prize winning innovation, it was a motivation for continuous development.

Director Lin commented, many impossible ideas could become I’m Possible by changing one’s mindset.

A small device with big function that secure patient’s safety

Another Colostomy Wound Care nurse, Xiao-Hui Xu introduced the golden prize winning colostomy bag cleaning device. Being humble, Ms. Xu was moved by her Facebook follower’s comments that it was a small innovation with big functions. Xu commented that many patients were deeply bothered by the consistent foul smells and fluid leaks after receiving a colostomy. Some of them were afraid of getting out of house or traveling around. Feeling patient’s pains, Xiao-Hui Xu has long contemplated solutions to remove patient’s psychological barriers and effective measures to clean colostomy bag and manage foul gas. Because of their compassion of caring pains and removing sufferings the nursing team finally developed an award winning innovation to improve nursing care for patient with colostomy.

Based on patient’s needs, the ENT team presented an innovation for mouth washing and the Urology team presented an innovation for evaluating catheter related bladder discomforts.

In the Q&A Session, Lorna Ruanto, an OBGYN nurse and a clinical instructor from Philippine commented that nurses have to stop patient care for caring for their finger’s injuries from opening glass ampoules. She felt sorry for nurses because no one thoughts about improving their safety. She was impressed upon the innovation of an ampule opener. She was surprised to receive an ampule opener that was given to her as a gift. She praised Director Lin for the innovation and her efforts on protecting nurses.

During Q & A, many participants have actively asked their questions. Lorna Ruanto came from Philippine who was impressed by the ampoule opener. After Director Lin’s invitation, she tried to use the opener and found it simple and safe.

Jia-Li Dong is a renal nurse from Fuding City Hospital, Fujian Province, China. She showed an interest in colostomy wound care and asked many questions. She commented that many dialysis patients received temporary dialysis catheters. From time to times, dialysis catheters would be displaced. She wanted to learn more technologies to improve nursing care for dialysis patients. Vietnamese nurses Bi-Sun Ren and Yang-Chun Chen and Shiou-Pin Cu from Yunnan Province were interested in the survey for assessing CRBD and wanted to bring it back home to help their patients. 

Zheng-Zhong Chen, Group picture for Nursing Group Discussion Session.