Investors should see nurses as assets, not liabilities, AONL members argue

AONL members Beth Brooks, PhD, RN, and Dan Weberg, PhD, RN, argue venture capitalists and hospitals who dismiss nurse inventors do so to their detriment. They say hospitals with venture capital arms often pass on nurse-led companies, even when their products address readmissions, length of stay and nurse turnover. Consequently, nursing founders often omit their nursing credentials or list their physician colleagues’ instead. The authors contend nurse founders are the “inventor, user and buyer all at once.” Nurses regularly provide workarounds to improve patient care, and they understand how their products work in practice settings. Furthermore, nurse product buyers often refuse to purchase products if nurses have not tested them. The authors are general partners of Nurse Capital, a venture fund investing in nurse-founded companies. (MedCity News article, 9/21/26)