Creating for the Kids
Compelled by necessity, ingenious nurses turn inventor to improve thier tiniest patients' care and comfort.
Angie Potter, R.N., and Sharon Rogone, R.N.C. remember the days when they had to trim disposable medicine cups and rejigger other medical supplies to create baby-sized products, because the proper equipment
to care for children either wasn't adequate or didn't exist. Then they became nurses-turned-inventors and created solutions to many of those problems.
"For years, nurses have taken adult-sized products and cut
them down-a piece of something from here, a piece of something from there- and put them together cutting taping and tying things together to fit children's tiny bodies," says Rogone, a neonatal nurse specialist and entrepreneur.
Nurses- especially those in neonatology and pediatrics- are known for their ingenuity on the ward; equipment modifications of some kind are almost always necessary, experts say. "Equipment is not set up for
children, so you have to make modifications," Potter says. "You make do with what you have until something better comes along or you create it."
In 1990, while working at San Bernardino County and St..
Bernadine's hospitals in San Bernardino, Calif., Rogone decided not to wait for something better to come along. Instead, she created the Bili Bonnet, a tiny brushed-nylon, phototherapy eye mask that protects infants from the
ultraviolet light necessary to treat jaundice. "There were a couple of things nurses used, but they weren't made very well," explains Togone. "Either they slid off or they stuck to the babies' heads."
Since
patenting the Bili Bonnet, which is now used at hospitals world-wide, Rogone has launched Small Beginnings Inc. a company that develops and sells a variety of neonatal products designed by nurses. All profits from the
inventions have been reinvested into product development, advertising and equipment for the young company, Rogone explains.
Similarly, Potter, a pediatric nurse at SSM Cardinal Gelnnon Children's Hospital in St.
Louis became weary of watching children and their parents wrestle with unwieldy IV poles. "It was a constant frustration," Potter says. "Oftentimes we'd catch that pole just before it tipped over or catch the IV just before it
ripped out of the child's arm."
Again the combination of experience and compassion dovetailed and Potter hit upon a solution. She designed the MedWagon-a small, red plastic wagon with removable rails and a
built-in IV pole-which enables hospital staff and parents to transport children easily and more safely.
Deborah Rascon