Connect with nurse innovators from across the country who are designing, leading, and building new possibilities for health creation and health care. These #gutsynurses are sharing their insights, challenges, and helpful hints on dealing with barriers. Learn what brings them joy and how they stay the course! Use these stories to guide, inspire, motivate, or to affirm your own creative work or innovative thinking!
“Popsy is going to revolutionize the pill dispensing process and keep nurses and patients safe. Nothing is more important to me than reducing burnout, keeping nurses healthy and happy, and being an advocate for one of the most vital professions out there.”
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As far back as I can remember, even before I knew what it meant to be an inventor, I’ve been searching for a better way to do things. As a child, my imagination would run wild. I used to tinker with things, take them apart, see how they worked, and then put them back together.
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Caring for people in their most fragile moments is what draws many of us to nursing. We are the throughline. We are the soft landing in the stressful chapters. Nurses know firsthand that the backdrop to the diseases and treatments patients experience is a layered healthcare system where things don’t always go as planned, and even with sophisticated advances simple logistical problems can have dire results. Our patients need us to create smart solutions from the inside.
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In the noble field of nursing, each of us is called to fulfill a significant purpose. Yet, for some of us, this calling goes beyond providing excellent healthcare—it ignites a passion to effect transformative change. Nurse innovators are those individuals driven not only to fulfill a purpose but also to leave an indelible mark with their contributions.
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My journey began as a young faculty member, joining a team on an exploratory study examining childhood obesity from infancy. We explored the relationship between infant positioning, time spent on the tummy, infant BMI, weight gain, and motor development. Our findings were illuminating.
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The word entrepreneur often evokes thoughts of young men in their twenties wearing custom t shirts and playing ping pong in their trendy office spaces. High-tech products and million-dollar mergers are certainly not often discussed from the nurse's station.
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Nurses are regarded as the most trusted profession in the United States and are in a unique position to identify, treat, and provide life-saving resources to victims of human trafficking. Nurses have the opportunity to significantly impact the lives of human trafficking victims in immeasurable ways.
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This AI solution wasn't just another scheduling tool; it was a personalized system that caters to each nurse's preferences, optimizing both employee satisfaction and organizational efficiency. It's a legitimate and 100% personalized schedule for 100% of nurses, 100% of the time... and it's FAST!
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Through the ANA Innovation Accelerator Program, I was able to synergize my passion for professional development with my interests in technological advancements in clinical nursing education, specifically podcasts. As a leader of a nurse-led podcast at my institution, I maintained curiosity in the empirical value of podcasts in the perspective of the busy clinical nurse.
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The word innovation has such a lofty connotation. I’m not sure it feels authentic to the way my “innovation” came about. I think, like a lot of nurses, my innovation was born out of frustration. I am a nurse educator in a public, regional institution that serves predominately rural regions of the state with almost half the student body self-reporting that they are the first in their families to attend college.
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We need to think outside the box of the hierarchy of education. We have to think about what we have great passion about,” says Jan Tedder, inventor of the HUG Your Baby program. “Even though I was not an organization or professor of nursing, I could not not move forward with the information I had – and that sometimes put me in a vulnerable situation.
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Decreasing nonemergent nurse interrupting during peak medication administration time utilizing "The Golden Hour" is a nurse driven process that has a mutual benefit of improving performance outcomes along with the nurse's experience.
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In the bustling world of healthcare, where every second counts, nurses are the unsung heroes, quietly weaving threads of care and compassion into the fabric of patient treatment. Our role extends far beyond the clinical tasks of assessments and documentation; It's about understanding, connection, and bringing light to the darkest moments. It's in these instances that the true essence of nursing shines brightest—not just in healing the body but in nurturing the soul.
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While working as an RN, I had countless experiences that made me rethink the way that we provide care to women, specifically regarding blood pressure (BP) elevation in the postpartum period. I knew that there had to be a more impactful care delivery model to educate, monitor, manage and support these women after they left the hospital that improved their short and long-term health outcomes.
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Nurses and healthcare professionals often face complex challenges that require innovative problem-solving strategies. With the aim of enhancing evidence-based patient care and operational efficiency, the need for a streamlined approach to healthcare project planning and implementation is more critical than ever. Enter the INQUIRE model, a comprehensive navigation tool designed to simplify the project planning process and empower healthcare teams to achieve tangible outcomes.
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Whether you're just beginning your innovation journey or are well on your way, with an open mind, a creative spirit, and a relentless pursuit of excellence, there are no limits to what we can achieve!
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"One of the challenges of wearing so many hats is that I love each and every one of them!" ~ Andrea Davis Pickney
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“Nurse managers have a crucial role to play in promoting innovation and improvement. It’s time we champion our frontline staff’s ideas and advocate for dedicated time for innovation and improvement projects."
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“If you run into pushback, try your idea a little differently. Don’t give up,” she said. “Fail forward and fail fast. Hold onto your own innovation spirit and tenacity. You can do it.”
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The Nursing Beat (TNB) aims to inform, connect, and empower every nurse by balancing entertaining short-form content with relevant nursing news. Today, TNB is the only digital daily newsletter on the market for nurses. This distinction has garnered recognition from publications such as Healthcare Brew, Fast Company, Medscape, Minority Nurse, and more.
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JUST DO IT! The problems are everywhere, and nurses are in the best position to identify those needs.
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Start small until you create revenue, but don’t be afraid – if you go big and you need to pull back, that’s what you do. No good idea is ready before it’s time, and who knows if the time is right if you don’t start trying.
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Wilson encourages nurses who are embarking on their own innovation journey to trust that they belong in the spaces in which they never saw themselves. “You’re there because you’re supposed to be there. You have the power to create and make things happen. Keep going!”
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“The first time I saw our (MyStrengths+MyHealth (MSMH) mobile app) dashboards outside of the OR, I was struck by it,” said Robin Austin, PhD, DNP, DC, RN-BC, FAMIA, FNAP. “I was inspired by how much it helped decrease the anxiety of patients’ families as they saw where things were going in their procedure.”
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“Surround yourself with supportive people who encourage you. Support can come from many people – in addition to my family, one of my most eager supporters was the patent attorney I worked with,” Puri said.
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“We want to inspire other nurses, we want them to know that if you’re willing to sacrifice, that it’s possible for them to do as well” Coyne said. “No one is speaking that way to nurses. No one is speaking that way to clinical individuals, so all the innovation that is happening is not happening with the people who know the work best.”
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One of the biggest pieces of advice Ferry and Gafar-Schaner would give to nurse innovators is to practice financial wellness and know when to lean on your support systems.
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With the COVID-19 pandemic exposing health care inequities and putting stress on the fractures in our health system, I realized it was necessary to create a program for the collective care of minoritized folks.
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I was seven years old when I decided to pursue a career in pediatrics. That was when my brother passed away from a congenital heart defect.
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“Coming in hot!” was all I heard before seeing a crowd of residents and nurses racing down the hall with a hospital bed. Unfortunately, our John Doe was unconscious and arrived without identification, so surgeons had to proceed without consent.
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Have you ever seen something shiny and new, and immediately thought, “I NEED TO BREAK THAT!”
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We've all heard the saying, "It's all fun and games until someone loses a limb!" But what if fun and games could save someone's limb? Or their life?
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After graduating, I landed my dream nursing job in an intensive care unit, but uneasiness and self-doubt about my clinical competency drove me to resign from the ICU within a year.
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It all began with the idea of providing patients or consumers a voice within healthcare that is also represented in health care data. This work grew from my passion and strong interest in the patient engagement movement.
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My path to innovation came shortly after I witnessed my colleague, a fellow travel nurse working the night shift, struggle to find suitable housing.
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Cultivating an open mind empowers us to embrace unconventional ideas, cutting-edge technologies, and audacious approaches that can revolutionize health care. By challenging the status quo, we can discover inventive solutions that boost efficiency, accuracy, and patient outcomes.
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Nurses are in a position to identify and address everyday health care issues, challenge assumptions and the status quo, address unrecognized needs, and ensure that clinical outcomes research serves as the foundation for validating the effectiveness of innovation.
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As a person committed to lifelong learning, I’ve always carried a passion for education, science, and making the world a better place. I guess it all started with my parents.
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There are moments in your professional career that change you. The Art of Questioning event did just that.
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I’ve always considered myself a creative person when it comes to problem solving, but it wasn’t until I started working as a Unit Educator (UE) in the OR at The University of Kansas Health System (TUKHS) that this skill became invaluable.
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Read the personal story of a nurse who turned burnout into nursing innovation by creating virtual technology that can encourage nurses to stay in the profession.
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Have you ever wondered, what the pandemic would have looked like if we’d had more health professionals – more nurses – in elected office? Learn why you may want to attend Campaign School!
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Most nurses do not see themselves as innovators. The AACN's Clinical Scene Investigator (CSI) Academy wants to change that.
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In 2015, I put a countdown timer on my phone for January 1, 2026. This is when the first Baby Boomer turns 80. I thought this was when all the duct tape, string, and glue nurses use to keep healthcare functional would begin to fall apart.
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I had some big out there "Star Trek" ideas. I wasn’t yet familiar with the concept of nursing innovation; I was more concerned about making medication errors.
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Nursing intuition begets health design intuition. I believed with design training, I could be at the front end of patient care, co-creating the structure that frames our processes and outcomes.
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After a long day I was approached by an elderly gentleman who said, “estas haciendo el trabjo de los ángeles” which roughly translated means, “you are doing the work of angels.” He then shook my hand and thanked me.
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You don’t often connect improv with the improvisations that happen across healthcare daily. Learn the potential of improv training to advance healthcare outcomes. Read how using improv to design fun and engaging ways can improve communication, collaboration, and organizational culture.
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My primary career was as a full scope midwife. Like many others, my professional and personal life has taken different roads, a few far off the more common path. But that is what’s great about nursing, isn’t it?
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In creating DNPs of Color, I never anticipated that it would grow into the movement that it has become today. Staying true to the mission of seeking ways to inspire and empower others has always led me down pathways towards dismantling the status quo.
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Interview with Michael Pickett, MSN, APRN, CPNP; Winner of the 2022 ANA Team Innovation Award; RediStik® Wearable Simulation Task Trainers
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Interview with KaSheta Johnson Jackson, DNP, RN; Winner of the 2022 ANA Individual Innovation Award; Community Pop-Ups: A Rural Approach
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How often do you see things that others do not? Improving performance, decreasing error, and fostering standards and controls are necessary in health care today, however each of us should be curious and sensitive to the contradictions, connections, and coincidences that we experience.
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An unexpected benefit of innovation work is that you have the opportunity to form new relationships outside of healthcare. What started as a basic idea expanded beyond what I could’ve imagined on my own. But that’s the point of working with people unlike you, isn’t it?
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BE CREATIVE “THROW NOODLES AT THE WALLS” This is my philosophy for innovation!! Our innovation was and continued to be empowered by the need to change health care delivery and partner with the community.
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As a Nurse Entrepreneur, creating and implementing new ideas in healthcare was something I’ve always done. In the roles of mentor, speaker, and author I’ve often been called upon to think outside the box. Once the pandemic hit, I was forced to do some “soul searching” when I saw the devastating effects of the pandemic, specifically towards Black Americans.
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You might be asking: why do we need “virtual” nurses when we don’t even have enough physical nurses at the bedside? That’s exactly why we do need them. Virtual RNs can support the team at the bedside to alleviate the workload and provide greater satisfaction for both the patients and the nursing staff.
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Twenty years into my healthcare career as a pediatric nurse practitioner, I knew a change was needed to further my own personal and professional growth. What I didn’t know was that change would be becoming a leader of frontline innovation in healthcare. I was given valuable advice by a mentor who taught me “Innovation cannot be done alone.”
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In 2019, Kristy Causey, MSN, RN and Gracia Boseman, RN, MPH leveraged the concept of the escape room to teach nurses about infection prevention in a fun and impactful way. One year later, the escape room evolved into a Pandemic Preparedness Escape Bus. Learn how these simulated scenarios have made all the difference!
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When I’m asked “What do you like about nursing” I respond with “it’s having the opportunity to make a positive difference in someone’s life.”
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Nobody could have possibly been prepared for the impact of COVID-19. The pandemic deeply affected the personal and professional lives of all healthcare providers, but specifically nurses, who spend the most time at the bedside.
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One person can have an idea, but more often than not, innovation requires teamwork. In 2022, there are no evidence-based interventions proven to wake a patient from coma. By creating a worldwide collaborative, the Curing Coma Campaign aims to change that.
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I run the first nurse-led hospital makerspace in the Midwest! What does this mean? Generate is a physical space on the main level of the hospital where team members can come to develop, create, or brainstorm about ideas they have.
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Long before the pandemic, Oklahoma was struggling with a shortage of registered nurses (RNs). In the early 2000s, the Oklahoma Nurses Association (ONA) and Oklahoma Hospital Association were building task forces with the sole purpose of addressing the gap between RN supply and demand, an issue they never fully resolved. Then cometh COVID-19.
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Learn how the ARN’s Competency Model (CM) is an innovative contribution to the nursing profession and a model for other specialty organizations. Learn how this innovative competency revision is advancing nurse-led interventions, that focus on the understanding of the worldview of individuals who are culturally different, reflecting a multicultural approach, and global reach.
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The Kuna Indians in Panama, my nation of birth, weave intricate layers of fabric and thread together to create beautiful displays of art called a Mola. Some, are geometric and abstract in design while others intricate scenes of nature, all displaying symbols and features unique to Panamanian culture, health, and everyday life.
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I am a critical care bedside nurse with an idea of how to improve patient care and education for patients and their families. Being a recipient of the 2021 ANA Individual Innovation Award, I can finally see my vision for training new trach patients, and their caregivers, so they are discharged to home in comfort and with confidence, becoming real.
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After 45 days of intense planning and hustle, Lavender was launched by Brighid and I (Pritma) on May 4, 2020. It was an exciting yet anticlimactic (think ‘crickets’) moment, not atypical for startups. The work was only just beginning as we closed the month off with 3 completed appointments - a somber start to our startup journey.
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What skills do you need to be a nurse innovator? A great many things, though this question is a bit misleading as I firmly believe nurses already possess many of the skills necessary. In fact, I would argue that most nurses are already innovating, having an innovative prowess that is innate to the profession.
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Emory School of Nursing is determined to change that. Emory School of Nursing is breaking the cycle by giving students and nurses in practice access to the tools they need to learn and apply critical new skillsets. Everything we develop is designed for accessibility and made to be shared.
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Nurses deliver high-quality, accessible, and equitable care for all Americans. Many health care experts and advocates lament that the current health care system under-develops, under-utilizes, and under-appreciates nurses.
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The Future of Nursing report from the Institute of Medicine, called on health care organizations to support and help nurses take the lead in developing and adopting innovative, patient-centered care models and to engage nurses and other front-line staff in the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of medical and health devices, health information technology products, and entrepreneurial opportunities.
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There is much innovation literature that describes the reasons that industries and markets transform over time. One of the catalysts of dramatic change in industries when they experience unthinkable events.
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Within the first two years of my nursing career, I grew quite frustrated with the daily inefficiencies in care delivery that I encountered while trying to provide patient care.
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Many nursing theorists defined the ‘environment’, but the earliest connection between nursing and architecture can be attributed to Florence Nightingale and her description of hospital design (Nightingale, 1860).
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Your ideas are too important not to be heard. Learning to “pitch” your ideas is a wonderful way to organize and present your thoughts so that others will hear and understand what you are saying.
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As the complexity of health care and nursing intensifies, nurses are challenged to think creatively and develop innovations that advance the knowledge, learning, and service contributions of our discipline to the health care enterprise.
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So how does a leading School of Nursing go from a few bullet points on a white board to having a vibrant innovation program boasting over a dozen nurse innovators, eight newly registered inventions and three new product launches in just under two years? The short answer is, like parachutists in a freefall, we just jumped.
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“Never lose an opportunity of urging a practical beginning, however small, for it is wonderful how often in such matters the mustard-seed germinates and roots itself.” - Florence Nightingale
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What happens when nurses identify a big problem and have an idea to help solve that problem? We innovate. First, we would like to speak about the problems we identified- skin cancer and the lack of standardized dermatology education. Next, we will share our invention, Instructional Dermatology Surface Models (IDSMsTM).
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Yesterday I was on a mountaintop in Alaska. I hiked to a waterfall with my fiancé Brian and we looked upward past the waterfall. We saw a path that led up through the trees. We looked at each other and smiled. "Let’s see where this road leads us," he says.
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Nurses are inherently innovators by our very nature. But innovator is not always a word that comes to mind when someone hears the word “nurse.” And, ironically, it is not often a word we use to describe ourselves as a profession.
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I am a registered nurse with many years of experience in nursing and teaching nursing as a faculty member. The lack of adequate patient hand hygiene always bothered me and I never quite figured out how to effectively provide hand hygiene that patients could do independently.
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With all of the negative memes circulating the web, you would think nothing good has come from the year 2020. We have been inundated with news of the wildfires in Australia, accelerated global warming, increased racial tensions, sky-high unemployment - and of course Covid-19 - one of the worst pandemics in recorded history.
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He stood before an attentive audience with his hands high, as if holding a newborn. Using a high-pitched voice (“Look here, little Joey. Can you see me?”), he enticed the “baby” to look at him and follow his moving face.
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