RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Health care challenges are increasingly complex. Nursing student involvement in hackathons can help create a sustainable culture of innovation and leadership within nursing. PURPOSE: To host and evaluate the inaugural Innovate 4 Change Hackathon. METHODS: Nursing student-led interdisciplinary teams worked together for 5 weeks to solve pressing health care problems, ultimately pitching ideas for prizes. FINDINGS: Seven teams with 33 students represented multiple disciplines. For nearly 70% of participants, hackathons were a new experience. Nursing students were on every team, representing 50% of the participants. DISCUSSION: Nurse-led hackathons help students gain experience in innovative problem-solving and elevate confidence. They provide a structured format to learn about nursing innovation, design thinking, and business models while also challenging students to address problems related to health equity, clinical care, health care delivery, and policy.
