Nurse Innovation Hackathons

REGISTRATION OPEN: NURSE HACK4HEALTH FALL 2023

New Hackathon Coming Fall 2023!

Registration is now open! Healthcare innovators around the globe, join us for a free virtual hackathon to reimagine a healthy environment where nurses and patients thrive.

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Two NurseHack4Health Tracks

Let your passion, curiosity and innovative spirit lead the way. Hackers can choose a track that best accommodates their interests and organizations. There will be two tracks for nurse-led teams, with award opportunities by track, including grant funding, scholarships and more.

Track 1

Eligibility: Nurse-led interdisciplinary teams formed within one 501c3 (or global equivalent) health system in advance of the Hackathon.

Focus: Solutions that catalyze a healthy environment for nurses and patients.

Award Structure: Select health system teams will be invited to participate in a Fall NH4H Innovation Accelerator and November Pitch-A-Thon, supported by ALL IN: WellBeing First for Healthcare and the Johnson & Johnson Foundation with the opportunity to receive up to $150,000 in grant funding to bring their ideas to life.

Track 2

Eligibility: Individual nurse hackers on nurse-led interdisciplinary teams representing different organizations, formed in advance of or at the Hackathon.

Focus: Solutions that catalyze a healthy environment for nurses and patients.

Award Structure: Teams will be eligible to receive a Drexel-SONSIEL Nursing Innovation and Entrepreneurship Certificate Program Scholarship.

What Is a Hackathon?

A hackathon is a weekend event that brings nurses and people from other professions together in-person or virtually to take on human health problems by creating solutions in a supportive setting with colleagues and mentors.

While hackathons started within the technology space, they have been used more broadly as a dynamic way to source solutions by bringing together a diverse group of problem solvers.

Nurses are innate problem solvers, and as part of our larger commitment to frontline health workers, Johnson & Johnson is committed to unleashing the power of nurses as innovative leaders to improve healthcare. We believe that hackathons provide a unique experience for nurses to flex their innovation muscles and receive the support and motivation needed to bring their ideas to life and improve human health.

Why Should You Attend?

Attending a hackathon is a great way to bond, brainstorm, develop and pitch healthcare solutions that will forever change the way you think about a problem, your perceived value and impact and your vision for your future in nursing and healthcare!

How to Prepare for a Hackathon

What to Expect

Hackathons champion nurse-led innovation by bringing nurses together with people from different professions, in-person or virtually, to “hack” real solutions to health problems in a supportive team setting with peers and mentors. Participants don’t need to come with an idea – just be ready to join a team, examine the problem and dive in to develop a solution. By the end of the hackathon, the goal is for teams to have minimum viable products (MVPs) that can be fast-tracked for further development and implementation in a healthcare setting.

Attending a hackathon is a great way to bond, brainstorm, develop and pitch healthcare solutions that will forever change the way you think about a problem, your perceived value and impact, and your vision for your future in nursing and healthcare!

Watch Our NurseHack4Health May 2020 Video
Innovation Skills

What does it take to make the most of a hackathon experience? Understanding fundamental innovation skills—such as problem solving, risk-taking, collaboration and strategic planning—can help you make the most of your time participating in a hackathon.

Even when you develop a valuable idea, sometimes figuring out what to do next can feel overwhelming.

Get started today and explore how to unlock your potential to spark innovative health solutions and improve patient care. Be sure to check out the section on Design Thinking for Health – a must-read before any hackathon! Learn more:

Skills Nurse Innovators Should Develop and Grow
What Makes a Good Pitch

Pitching your idea to a panel of judges is a critical part of the hackathon process. The judges are often well-respected industry experts who will examine how well your idea meets hackathon criteria, such as its viability or impact on human health.

Each team typically has three to five minutes to present to the judges and answer questions. Assembling a rock star team and developing a valuable idea are critical; however, sometimes teams fall short in making a compelling pitch. Learn more:

How to Tell Stories that Influence People and Inspire Action

NurseHack4Health Pitch Template

Pitch Deck Dos and Don’ts

How to Win a Pitch
Open Source Innovation

Hackathons can have different goals, such as launching a start-up business or generating ideas for the open market to adopt. As a participant, it’s important to understand your responsibilities as well as the desired hackathon output.

“Open source” means that no one legally owns or has intellectual property associated with the ideas. People come together to hack for social good and ideas are publicly available to any individual or organization to quickly use or adapt to help solve problems. For NurseHack4Health, participants are asked to post their ideas on GitHub, a collaborative hosting platform where hackers can iterate collectively. Learn more:

What is Open Source

Open Source Resources

GitHub Learning Lab
Minimum Viable Product

The goal of many healthcare hackathons is for teams to develop a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). A minimum viable product has just enough core features for the solution to be demonstrated or used. Developers then typically deploy the product to potential customers or early adopters who are more likely to give feedback and be able to grasp a product vision from an early prototype. The advantage of developing an MVP is to quickly get a working solution for a pressing problem into the healthcare setting. Learn more:

Forbes: What Is A Minimum Viable Product, And Why Do Companies Need Them?

LEANSTACK: What is a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

CleverTap: What Is A Minimum Viable Product + Methodologies For Marketers

Save the Date: NurseHack4Health Pitch-A-Thon

NurseHack4Health Pitch-A-Thon empowers nurse-led health system finalist teams selected from Track 1 of the September Hackathon to pitch solutions that reimagine a healthy environment where nurses and patients can thrive. Teams have an opportunity to receive up to $150k in grant funding to bring their ideas to life. Save the Date to cheer on the finalists!

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Learn About the First NurseHack4Health Pitch-A-Thon

A NurseHack4Health Pitch-A-Thon is a virtual event that enables health systems to take direct action in the nursing workforce crisis. Nurse-led teams are empowered to ideate, create solutions and pitch ideas that directly address workplace and well-being challenges with the goal of receiving grant funding to bring ideas to life.

In the first NurseHack4Health Pitch-A-Thon, October 2022, ten nurse-led multidisciplinary health system teams took center stage to pitch their solutions for redesigning a healthcare workplace where nurses and other health care professionals can thrive.

Watch the NurseHack4Health Pitch-A-Thon Event and the finalist pitches here.

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Meet the Awardees

Congratulations! Three awardees received grant funds from #FirstRespondersFirst to bring their solutions to life:

Read more about our Awardees and the other Finalists in Notes on Nursing.
For additional information on the NurseHack4Health Pitch-A-Thon, visit NurseHack4Health.org.

group of nurse innovators on stage during Nurse Hackathon event

2019 Nurses Hackathon #NursesChangeLives

How to Advance Your Solution

From idea generation to launch: how do you bring an idea to life? Bringing your innovation forward involves extensive planning; deep understanding of the target market; validating your idea; making key financial decisions, including funding; legally protecting your business and developing a marketing plan. We’ve curated resources to help.*

If you’re looking for more ways to feel inspired about hackathons, look here.

NURSES LEADING INNOVATION

NurseHack4Health: Propelling Nurse Innovation in the Year of the Nurse and Beyond
NURSES LEADING INNOVATION

An Innovator’s Guide to Crafting the Perfect Hackathon Pitch
NURSES LEADING INNOVATION

200 Nurses, One Goal: Powering Up Innovation to Transform Healthcare