A Nurse’s Path to Redesigning Patient Solutions

As a nurse practicing in both behavioral and cardiac specialties, Design & Technology Innovation master’s student Kim Coston sees firsthand the frustrations that make delivering patient care more challenging than it needs to be.

One example is the inaccessibility of hospital policies to providers during an emergency. “These urgent situations bring hospital administrators and clinical support teams to the bedside, but many decisions rely on policies buried in a cumbersome, unintuitive system,” said Kim. “Finding the necessary information often takes five to ten minutes, which no one wants to spend during an emergency. As a result, teams frequently avoid the system, leaving them without a clear plan of care.”

Instead of accepting obstacles like these as inevitable, she set out to find solutions.

After beginning her career in a behavioral health hospital, Coston earned a bachelor’s degree at the Duke School of Nursing and started on the cardiothoracic unit at Duke University Hospital.

“Around the same time, I also discovered Duke’s Innovation Co-Lab,” shared Coston. “Initially, it was just a fun space to work on personal projects, but I quickly realized I could use its tools to create real solutions for challenges I observed in the workplace.”

Coston later attended an event on nursing innovation as part of Duke’s celebration of National Nurses Week, which further cemented her interest in continuing her studies to create solutions for the inefficiencies she and her colleagues faced.

“When researching graduate programs, I was specifically looking for one that combined technology, design and business. Many programs offered two of these components, but few offered all three,” said Coston. “When I saw an announcement about Duke’s Master of Engineering in Design & Technology Innovation, I knew this was the perfect program for me to apply to.”

The three-semester master’s program, one of Duke Engineering’s newest graduate offerings, employs a project-based, industry-centric approach in its curriculum. Students learn design and innovation processes to merge technology and prototyping approaches that prepare them to make business and social impact.

Coston was struck by the thoughtful and personalized outreach she experienced from program leadership through her application process. That welcoming and encouraging environment has not faded since classes began.

“The faculty’s commitment to our success has been a constant and one of the things I value most about the program,” said Coston.

When Coston made her return to join Design & Technology Innovation’s inaugural cohort in the fall of 2024, she was surprised to find herself among a vast array of academic and professional backgrounds.

“Initially, I was apprehensive about the diversity of my classmates’ backgrounds—ranging from computer science to fashion design—but I’ve discovered it to be one of the program’s greatest strengths,” Coston said. “Every group project has been an opportunity to learn from their unique skill sets, which has been invaluable in preparing me for interdisciplinary teamwork in my career.”

It didn’t take long for Coston and members of her cohort to get the opportunity to put their interdisciplinary innovation skills to the test. In November 2024, Coston participated in the second-annual Duke AI Hackathon alongside nearly 150 students organized into 30 different teams to bring AI-inspired ideas to life. Her team developed Shelf Sense, a voice-activated supply locator that allows nurses to quickly locate medical supplies by asking for items using a variety of intuitive inputs.

“Each of us viewed the challenge through a different lens,” Coston said, “which I believe ultimately enriched our final product.”

While Coston and her team did not run off with the grand prize at Duke’s hackathon, she had better luck just a week earlier while attending the annual HLTH conference in Las Vegas, the leading professional meeting to support health innovation on a global scale. Her nursing hackathon team won first place for their HIPAA-compliant language interpretation device that ensures effective communication between providers and non-English-speaking patients in time-sensitive situations at a fraction of the cost of traditional services. Coston thanks the supportive environment at Duke Engineering for making space for her success in merging patient care with design innovation.

“What stands out most is our faculty’s ability to treat every student’s aspiration as unique. Rather than confining students to constrained subject areas, Duke’s Master of Engineering in Design & Technology Innovation fosters a learning environment where we can tackle the challenges that matter most to our individual ambitions,” said Kim.

As for those ambitions? Coston has plenty.

“I am equally drawn to three paths: become a product designer in medical technology, pursue entrepreneurship to create nurse-centered products, or create a position that allows me to address bedside nursing challenges at a large research hospital like Duke.”

As Coston rounded out her first semester in the program, she set down one of those paths by beginning to make hospital policies and procedures more accessible for providers—the problem that brought her to Duke Engineering in the first place.

“Starting in December 2024, I began developing a platform that allows hospital staff to ask policy questions and receive instant answers,” said Kim. “After talking with the behavioral emergency response team, they’ve requested support in also incorporating centrally housed algorithms which are currently difficult to access. I’m excited to finally able to turn this long-standing challenge into a streamlined, practical solution that will hopefully improve staff workflows and patient outcomes.”

Coston continues to split her time between a behavioral emergency response team and a cardiac ICU while working toward her master of engineering degree.

“These bedside roles allow me to experience challenges that reinforce my drive to highlight the importance of involving nurses in the design of products, systems and processes that directly impact health care delivery,” shared Coston.

With the foundation Duke Engineering has provided, Coston is equipped with the tools and confidence to succeed.

“Whether I join a health care corporation, work for a hospital system or pursue my own venture, I feel confident that Design & Technology Innovation is positioning me to make a meaningful impact in nursing by bridging the gap between clinical challenges and effective, user-centered solutions.”