Health care innovations across practice and academia: A theoretical framework.

Background: An innovation scholarly interest group used the Jobs to Be Done Theory from the business literature to provide insight into the solution-focused progress that nurses are trying to make in challenging situations.

Purpose: This article presents a theoretical framework for understanding the progress nurses are trying to make through health care innovations across both practice and academic environments.

Method: This was a qualitative descriptive study using directed content analysis. We used the Jobs to Be Done Theory to guide the development of the semistructured questionnaire and the interpretation of findings.

Findings: A theoretical framework of nursing innovations was derived to summarize and visually display the pathways and linkages of challenges, innovations, and impact domains of nursing innovations. Situations and opportunities arise within the context of interconnectedness and can lead to health care innovations in care delivery, patient care interventions, role transitions, research and translational methods, communication and collaboration, technology and data, teaching methods, and processes to improve care.

Discussion: This theoretical framework offers insight into the dynamic interactions of academic-practice partnerships for innovation. Workplace situations are interconnected and can result in needed innovations designed to impact care delivery.