Creativity and innovation: thought and action.

The purpose of this article is to discuss the significance of creativity and innovation in contemporary health care contexts, and to provide nurses and other health care professionals with models, resources, and ways of thinking about creativity that informs the development of an innovation-action and creative thinking mind-set. As the complexity of health care and nursing escalates, health care providers are challenged to think more creatively and develop innovations that advance the knowledge, learning, and service contributions of their discipline to the health care enterprise. Nursing requires creative thought and innovative action in service of the greater good.