A $250,000 gift from Nancy Schlichting and her wife Pam Theisen will fund nurse-led innovation at Duke University Health System (DUHS), the health system announced Wednesday, June 3.

The Nursing Innovation Fund gives nurses resources to develop, test, and scale new care models across DUHS, from acute care improvements to home-based and rural community care. Schlichting, a 1976 Duke graduate who chairs the DUHS Board of Directors, said the gift reflects decades of watching nurses solve problems without institutional backing for their ideas.

"Over the years, the complexity of nursing has increased, along with the administrative burden," Schlichting said. "Innovation is required to scale ideas so they can be applied across an entire health system. That's exciting to me, because I've spent my whole life trying to improve healthcare, and nurses are at the center of it."

Schlichting's first job after graduating from Duke was at Duke Hospital. She went on to become chief operating officer of Akron City Hospital at age 28, then led Henry Ford Health System as CEO from 2003 until her retirement in 2017. Nurses at Henry Ford awarded her the Clara Ford Nursing Award for her advocacy on their behalf. She was inducted into the Modern Healthcare Hall of Fame in 2022. The gift coincides with her 50th reunion year at Duke.

Theisen, a social worker who spent four decades in healthcare partnering with nurses, called it her "honor to help launch the Nursing Innovation Fund at Duke with Nancy."

The fund arrives as DUHS is already piloting new care models. Through the Duke Care Innovation Collaborative, medical-surgical units 2100, 3100, and 4100 at Duke North are deploying smart rooms, predictive fall-prevention tools, and virtual family access. Terry McDonnell, the DUHS chief nurse executive, said the gift will enable nurses to lead the redesign of care delivery in collaboration with colleagues across Duke, particularly as AI and technology reshape the field. Nurses Jordan Johnson, RN, BSN; Trevor Schaffer, MSN, RN; and Jason Suarez, MSN, RN, RN-BC are among those already working on new care models at Duke North.

DUHS has not yet announced a timeline for the fund's first grant cycle or application process.