Nurse Entrepeneurs

“There just HAS to be a better way!  If only someone would invent something to make my role as a nurse easier!”

Meet three nurses who have made life easier for their colleagues.  They are nurse entrepreneurs—with a little bit of genius, a lot of courage and determination, and nurses at heart.

Amy Hickman, BSN, recalls the constant frustration of untangling all the many tubes and lines on her little patients in the PICU at Children’s Hospital in Omaha.  At times, it could take up to 45 minutes to straighten the lines to ensure the proper medications were being administered.  In her mind, she designed the perfect gadget but didn’t have the slightest idea how to get started.

One day, while visiting her sister, she met her sister’s neighbor who just happened to own a plastics company.  She told him about her idea, and he agreed to build a prototype.  That was the beginning of the Hice Device!  (Named after her sister because she introduced her to the neighbor!  Also, her sister serves on her board of directors.) Today, the Hice Device is being used at Children’s and is available to other hospitals for use through Frontier Medical Industries (frontierind.com).

“The Hice Device helps nurses in many ways,” said Hickman.  “It helps them with time management, patient safety and makes lines so much easier to identify.”

Nancy Haberstich, RN, MS, was willing to sink her retirement into starting her business, Nanobugs.

She refers to herself as an “infection preventionist,” a term unveiled at the International Conference of the Association of Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.  She created the Nanobugs, which are cartoon microbes that entertain and educate people of all ages about practical microbiology for the purpose of infection prevention and promoting health and well-being.

“With emerging pathogens and the incidence of infection increasing rather than decreasing, it seemed to me that we needed a fresh approach to the issues surrounding infection prevention – compliance with hand hygiene and immunization,” Haberstich said.

“I had an old poster on my home office wall of cartoon microbes from a 25-year-old campaign from a drug company.  My grandchildren were always interested in the microbe characters and their names.  I decided that if they can learn the genus and species of dinosaurs, they could learn the scientific names of the microbes.  Grandson Ted was interested in Pokemon cards, and I decided that I could make a card collection of the microbes that would interest children and teach their mothers.  Heath professionals are never interested in the microbiology behind infection and control measures, and so I thought that a humorous approach might engage them.”

She humorously refers to her entrepreneurship as the “afternoon of her career”—focusing on health promotion and infection prevention.  She promotes the Nanobugs on her Web site (nanobugs.com).

Inventing new products is not without its challenges, with financing probably topping the list.  Having a “rich uncle” would be nice; however, a good business plan and solid financing is critical.  Professional organizations are also helpful as you explore, design and market.

Many universities offer classes or consulting for entrepreneurs.  At Creighton University College of Business Administration, Dr. Anne York directs the Bioscience Entrepreneurship Program (BEP) that focuses on ways to commercialize and license health care-related technology and products.

“This summer, one of our BEP students (a first-year medical student) worked with Dr. Barbara Braden, creator of the Braden Scale, on various projects involving marketing Braden Scale-related products that coincide with opportunities created by changes in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement regulations involving pressure sore treatment.”

Attorneys are required for patents or copyrights.  According to Dr. York, this is a critical part of the process.

“Patenting, trademarking or copyrighting ideas can be very important, especially for inventions that are costly to develop.  If you want to sell or license your invention to someone else, then you need to have protected it.  Laws vary from country to country, but in the U.S., as soon as an idea is publicly disclosed, you only have one year to protect it by filing a patent.  You need to protect your invention so that someone else can’t come along and patent it and use it in ways that you might not want them to.  If you patent an item, you have control over how it is used.”

Dina Robinson and her sister Crystal are another “sister act” that invented something.  They saw the need for an emergency body piercing removal tool kit.

“Folks chuckle when they hear this … but there is nothing humorous about it—removing piercings can be a real challenge and impede a person receiving health care in a timely manner,” said Robinson, who works as an RN Informaticist at Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney.

“Body piercings need to be removed for many reasons – nipple and belly rings can interfere with being defibrillated; a tongue piercing can keep someone from getting an oral airway; if a person needs an MRI, and a surgical patient with a piercing can cause the grounded cauterizer to burn through the piercing.  These are just a few examples, but there are many medical implications.”

Robinson’s sister, Crystal, was a correctional nurse having trouble removing body piercings from inmates.  They started to research how medical professionals handled body piercings in an emergency situation and how correctional facilities handled the removal of body piercings.

 Just like Amy Hickman named the Hice Device after her sister, Dina Robinson and her sister coined the name of their company, SerRobCo Inc., after their last names.  Crystal’s last name was Serrano, and Dina’s is Robinson—SerRob!

After one year of researching, they realized they needed to develop something to assist health care and correctional professionals with the quick removal of body piercings. They found a marketing firm that built prototypes of what was envisioned. The marketing firm also found the manufacturing companies that bid on manufacturing the products.

“We learned more than we ever wanted about customs, manufacturing and entrepreneurism,” Robinson added.

Advertising and promoting is a very important part of getting the products to prospective customers.  Our nurse entrepreneurs bought booths at interest-group conferences, traveled the country giving presentations, and used the services of marketing and advertising consultants.  All said they rely on the Internet, direct marketing and just plain “word of mouth” to promote their products.

Fast forwarding six years, SerRobCo is a national corporation selling emergency body piercing removal kits all over the world and in every state in the United States. 

They manufacture in Hong Kong and Pakistan; yet, their corporate headquarters is a small house in the village of Elm Creek, Neb.  Stories about SerRobCo have appeared on ABC, CBS, NBC and on the Associated Press.

What a wild ride for these sisters.  SerRobCo was the first company in the world to invent an emergency body piercing removal tool kit.

“On a sadder note, my sister Crystal died March 27, 2005.  Crystal and I had a dream, and I am glad that we had the time working together to fulfill our dream.

“Can you believe that two nurses from central Nebraska would be the first in the world with such an idea?”  Robinson exclaimed.

 Joyce Davis Bunger is assistant dean of Creighton University School of Nursing and a public member of the Nebraska Board of Nursing.