Monitoring and recording a patient’s vital signs are among the core duties of a nurse and keeping track of time is essential during the delivery of care.

Yet due to infection control measures, nurses are required to remain bare below the elbows and discouraged from wearing watches.

Nurses generally use an analogue fob watch and it was while working on the floor a few years ago as an enrolled nurse that Jordan Kidd hatched an idea to harness the digital technology of the Apple Watch.

His plan involved developing a fob strap housing cover that the Apple Watch slots into before attaching to a nurse’s uniform using a brooch style pin.

He believed the Apple Watch could provide a useful tool for nurses and healthcare workers because it displays time and enables additional functions such as setting timers and reminders or using Siri for quick calculations.

“To remain bare below the elbows, nurses and other healthcare professionals cannot wear watches while working at the point of care,” Jordan explains.

“This means they do not have access to the Apple Watch and the potential that wearable smart technology provides.”

Currently in his final-year of a Bachelor of Nursing course at Murdoch University in Perth, Jordan’s Smart Fob watch product idea made headway when he took on the university’s 2018 Young Entrepreneurs Program (YEP), an eight-week course helping students interested in business, tech and start-ups turn their ideas to reality.

It led to becoming a finalist under the program and pitching his idea before a panel of judges, including industry bodies and potential investors, at the residence of Australian High Commissioner Bruce Gosper in Singapore.

Recognised for being practical while addressing a current technological gap in the market, Jordan’s pitch was crowned the overall winner, earning him $1,000 and the chance to work with experts to develop aspects of his business model and plan further.

He suggests his pitch was successful because he covered all bases including product validation, problem-solution fit, risks, and the development of a business plan.

Judges were also able to see a physical prototype up close, he adds.

The 24-year-old says he always possessed an entrepreneurial streak but lacked the business acumen to grow his idea.

He credits the YEP program with giving him the confidence to explore his concepts.

“I came into the first masterclass [of the YEP program] with a product idea and prototype that I really didn’t even think would be relevant to the program scope,” Jordan recalls.

“The experience has been both humbling and rewarding. I’m proud of what I’ve achieved, going beyond my comfort zone, and have developed transferrable skills that will no doubt come in handy in my future career and entrepreneurial ventures.”

The next step in the evolution of Jordan’s Smart Fob watch will see him focus on further developing his business model and marketing direction.

It is likely to involve a crowd-funding campaign in order to get his idea off the ground and into the marketplace.

He will also continue to explore building on his Smart Fob watch and has already earmarked developing a referencing app armed with useful information such as normal vital sign ranges, electrolyte levels and drug calculation formulas.

Another idea he is looking into surrounds creating a smart watch tailored to nurses.

“What I want to do is continue to develop more products, whether they are adjuncts for existing smart technology to be used in the nursing profession, like the fob strap, or new ones that I design from the bottom up,” Jordan says.

“I think being a nurse on the floor with the patients and current technology gives me a prime position for that creative process.”

Jordan will complete his studies at the end of this year and start a graduate program at a hospital in August 2019.

He says his journey shows anyone has the ability to make positive change to the nursing profession and that he hopes the workforce embraces new technologies in the healthcare industry.

“I want to encourage other students and nurses to think a little bit more critically and innovatively and be open to new technology. There’s a lot of concern around smart and wearable technology, personal devices and the risk of confidentiality, dignity and data breaches. But technology is the future and it’s not stopping.

“The potential it provides to the healthcare industry should be welcomed, as long as we keep up with the core standards, codes of conduct, and think and act ethically as we do every day with patient information or documents.”

To join the waitlist to receive the latest updates on when the Smart Fob Strap is released visit – https://mailchi.mp/ef615360826f/apoltech