Purpose (What):

To develop an Innovation Readiness Assessment Tool for Nursing Organizations that answers the questions "How Innovation Ready are the Organization?" and "What can the organization do to become more Innovation Ready?"

Relevance/Significance (Why):
There is a need for healthcare systems to harness the innovation delivered by nurses,but nurses are often absent from innovation discussions. One of the main reasons is that Nursing Organizations are often not Innovation Ready. Nurse Organizations must focus on improving their Innovation Readiness from inside their organizations. No consolidated resource exists to help nursing organizations understand how Innovation Ready they are and what to do to become Innovation Ready This need is addressed.

Strategy/Implementation/Methods (How):
A literature review was performed to deliver an Innovation Readiness Model as basis for the Innovation Readiness inventory. Innovation Experts were engaged through semi-structured interviews and the results analysed through Directed Qualitative Content Analysis to assess the holistic nature of the Tool. Nurse Directors and Managers were engaged through semi-structured interviews and surveys to assess the practical use of the Tool. Frontline Nurses were engaged through Design Workshops to include their needs into the Tool. Triangulation of all outcomes was used to deliver the Innovation Readiness inventory and identify opportunities and challenges related to the use thereof.

Evaluation/Outcomes/Results (So what):
Twelve Innovation Experts confirmed that the Tool is holistic but makes suggestions for aspects to be added and re-phrased. Stated challenges from the Experts include that the Tool should not position innovation as task but should focus the discussion on Culture and Leadership. The Nurse Directors agreed that the Tool are applicable to assess the Innovation Readiness of their Department, is easy to use and focus the discussion on actions nurses can take. The Frontline Nurses indicated that the Tool should include collaboration, clear communication, simple idea management and a nurse-led team as Aspects. The final Tool incorporates all findings and recommendations are made.

Conclusions/Implications (And now):
The research adds to the discussion by delivering the Innovation Readiness Inventory as validated Assessment Tool to assess the Innovation Readiness of Nursing Organizations. The methodology can be viewed as a blueprint for the development of assessment tools for Innovation Readiness.