Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg
Im Neuenheimer Feld 672 I 69120 Heidelberg
An innovation space is an interprofessional working environment that aims to develop and implement new approaches and methods to improve patient care. The overarching aim here is to organise nursing, medical and therapeutic care practices in such an innovative way that patient and staff satisfaction can be maximised.
In this innovation space, it is desired that all ward employees constantly reflect on their day-to-day work according to the principle of lean management(Gottschalk, 2022 / Gottschalk, 2018), identify problems and challenges and work on these in a solution-oriented manner in an interprofessional team.
Committed nursing staff founded the "New Care" working group in September 2019. The aim was to jointly develop solutions to existing challenges, such as increasing the attractiveness of the nursing profession.
Initiated by a group of young nurses (David Eichstädter, Robin Krüger and Jan-Hendrik Träger), and under the leadership of the Nursing Directorate, Head of Nursing Christine Faschingbauer and the Medical Director of the Department of Neurology and Head Clinic Centre Spokesperson Prof. Dr. med. Dr Wolfgang Wick, the nursing innovation room was established in the Head Clinic at Heidelberg University Hospital in November 2020.
Since then, this has provided a protected environment for developing and testing new nursing concepts in order to improve the quality of patient care.
Up to 16 patients with neurodegenerative diseases can be diagnosed and treated in Neurology 6, the first innovation room.
There are currently 19 carers working on this ward. Neurology 6 was previously an IMC ward that had moved, so the space was available for reorganisation and restructuring.
Neurodegeneration was also a new speciality at the head clinic, and the nursing and medical team first had to come together.
In April 2023, another innovation room was opened in the head clinic on three radio-oncology wards. A total of 42 nurses work in this room and care for up to 62 oncological patients receiving radiotherapy or radio-chemotherapy.
In contrast to the innovation room in Neurology 6, the innovation room in Radiation Oncology was integrated into ongoing operations with an established team.
In July 2023, another innovation room was established on a stroke recovery ward in the head clinic.
The special feature here is that it is an IMC ward with up to 20 patients in the acute phase of a stroke.
Up to 46 carers work on this ward. As in radiooncology, the concept was integrated into an existing ward and an existing team on this ward.
On the NCT ward in the Centre for Internal Medicine, it was decided in 2023 to pilot a care-led innovation room based on the positive experiences and results from the head clinic. The good results from the head clinic had aroused the NCT ward's curiosity and led to the decision to open such a room as well. This was opened in 2024. The content and sub-concepts of the innovation room were tested and subsequently adapted by other wards at the centre. The project was supported by "Donations against cancer" with third-party funds.
In spring 2024, the "Intensive Care / IMC / AWR Innovation Room" was opened in the Centre for Orthopaedics, Trauma Surgery and Paraplegiology. The special feature of this innovation room is that a team of around 50 nursing staff form a unit that cares for monitoring, intensive care and post-operative patients in a neighbouring setting. Some of the patients only stay for a few hours up to a few months, as the initial treatment of acute paraplegic patients takes place in this innovation room.
Furthermore, the age spectrum of patients ranges from infants to very elderly geriatric patients. Another special feature was the implementation process of the innovation room. The fact that the structures of the innovation room concept had already been firmly established on the ward in the past meant that it could be introduced quickly.
In September 2024, three further neurology wards in the head clinic established an innovation room. Up to 54 general neurological and oncological/neurological patients are cared for there.
40 nurses work on this ward.
Silvia Gröger
Health Services Research, M.Sc | Kopfklinik
Christina Stang
Health Services Research, M.Sc | Kopfklinik
Heidelberg University Hospital
PDL Head Clinic Staff Unit
Project Management
Im Neuenheimer Feld 400
69120 Heidelberg
+49 6221 56 37977
silvia.groeger@med.uni-heidelberg.de
christina.stang@med.uni-heidelberg.de