Hospitals are beginning to rethink how new technology reaches the bedside. Instead of introducing tools and workflows from the top down, many health systems are starting earlier in the process — asking nurses to help design the systems they’ll eventually use. The shift reflects a growing recognition that the people who spend the most time with patients often have the clearest sense of what works, what doesn’t and what technology should actually do.
Across the country, nurses are no longer just testing new systems once they’re built. They’re helping to create them — serving as co-designers who shape how digital tools support care from the start.
At Akron, Ohio-based Summa Health, that change has been deliberate. Nurse informaticists there are not just liaisons between IT and clinical staff; they are design partners. “Front-line nurses are at the center of how technology succeeds or fails,” said Marc Benoy, BSN, RN, chief nursing information officer. His philosophy is simple: The people who use the tools should help build them.
Mr. Benoy’s team begins each project by asking nurses what problems they actually need solved, often through conversations in unit huddles, shared-governance councils and staff meetings. “We start by listening to how they experience those challenges in daily practice,” he said. Those early insights — how nurses navigate policies, communication patterns and competing priorities — are translated into design requirements before any code is written.
Summa’s informaticists come from the ranks of experienced bedside nurses who have worked in critical care, perioperative or ambulatory environments. That shared background, Mr. Benoy said, makes them more credible partners. “Because they’ve lived the realities of patient care, they can translate clinical needs into actionable technical requirements,” he said. “Their role isn’t only technical; it’s relational.”
To keep technology discussions close to the floor, feedback is gathered where nurses already gather. Subject-matter experts and super users from each unit help test solutions, flag friction points and shape training plans. They also help define what success looks like — whether it’s faster charting, fewer interruptions or a smoother patient handoff. “Our approach makes front-line nurses partners, not end users,” Mr. Benoy said.
At Philadelphia-based Penn Medicine, the collaboration begins even earlier. Nurses work alongside vendors and internal product teams before a system ever reaches the pilot stage. That early partnership, said Katrina Pfeiffer, DNP, RN, CNIO, has reshaped how new tools are conceived.
“What I am most proud of is how we’ve engaged front-line nurses by collaborating directly with vendors and our internal product development teams during the early stages of development,” Dr. Pfeiffer said. “This proactive involvement allows nurses’ voices, experiences and insights to shape the tools they will ultimately use.”
That approach, she said, doesn’t just lead to better products — it changes how nurses see their role in innovation. When their input is visible in the final design, “it fosters a sense of ownership and pride,” Dr. Pfeiffer said. “The solutions become more intuitive and more aligned with the realities of patient care because they were built with those realities in mind.”
At Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health, that philosophy extends into the testing environment. “Our best designers wear scrubs,” said CNIO Colleen Mallozzi, RN. Her team runs simulation labs and real-time pilots where bedside nurses shape workflows long before a system goes live.
“We don’t ‘roll out’ tech to nurses — we co-design it with them,” Ms. Mallozzi said. “Their insights drive usability, efficiency and outcomes.” That co-design model, she added, helps surface blind spots early — when fixing them costs less and buy-in is highest.
The shift toward collaboration has ripple effects beyond workflow design. It changes the culture of innovation itself. Hospitals have long relied on technology to drive transformation, but many are now recognizing that true progress depends on the people who understand care delivery best.
Involving nurses from the start has also helped smooth the rollout of new systems, where skepticism can be high and the risk of burnout looms large. When staff see that their feedback shapes real change, resistance turns into engagement. “It’s not about retrofitting technology into nursing,” Dr. Pfeiffer said. “It’s about designing technology around nursing.”
That cultural change is especially important as hospitals face ongoing staffing shortages and rising demand for digital efficiency. Nurses make up the largest segment of the healthcare workforce, and their relationship with technology often determines whether a new tool succeeds or stalls. By embedding their input early, health systems hope to build systems that not only function better but also restore a sense of agency to the people who use them most.
Across organizations, the message is consistent: Technology cannot succeed apart from the people it’s meant to serve. In the past, nurses were often the last to see a new system before go-live. Now, they’re among the first.
“It’s a mindset shift,” Mr. Benoy said. “When we treat nurses as co-designers, we get safer, smarter tools — and more trust in the process.”
