MakerNurse, an initiative that has been hatched from the Little Devices Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), encourages the managers of hospitals across the United States to set up an innovation space on the premises. The basic aim is to harness the creativity of nurses and other medical staff who deal with patients on a day-to-day basis, so as to improve the provision of healthcare to patients.The purpose of these medical ‘fab labs’ is to encourage nurses on the wards to make prototypes of items and equipment that can improve the quality of patient care.These spaces are equipped with materials, handy tools and standard medical instruments, plus such advanced items as 3D printers and laser cutters. Beyond brainstorming and identifying problems, the spaces are designed to enable nurses and other hospital staff to put together or customise items they can actually use in practice in order to optimise patient care within the hospital environment.

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