Nursing, athletic training students use design thinking to tackle real-world health challenges

It was well after midnight when Charlotte Rotter’s roommate was feeling sick. No one on their floor had a thermometer, and CVS had been closed for at least two hours.  

“We felt helpless; there was nothing we could do,” said Rotter, a first-year nursing student. 

In a first-year, honors-level nursing course, taught by Assistant Professor Michelle DePhillips and Associate Professor Xiaopeng Ji, Rotter had to identify a campus challenge — and immediately recalled that moment. As she collaborated with classmates, they realized:

“There’s nowhere after hours for students to access healthcare products,” said Jared Ramos. 

Students were then tasked with devising a creative solution to their challenge — applying the concept of design thinking, a human-centered problem-solving approach that starts with empathy. Ji, a College of Health Sciences (CHS) Design Thinking and Innovation Ambassador, encouraged students to think outside the box.

“Nursing begins with listening to a patient’s concerns,” said Ji. “As healthcare providers, we must understand the end user’s lens and design interventions with and for them.”

After polling students on campus, a group of five honors students pitched a vending machine stocked with healthcare items, such as toothpaste, feminine hygiene products, ice packs and thermometers, on the first floor of every residence hall at the Big Ideas Challenge during the 2025 Blue Hen Innovation Fest. Students could scan a QR code for product and healthcare information and pay with credit, cash or flex points.

“This is a convenient and accessible way for students to get healthcare products 24/7,” said Ramos. 

The students won second place and $250. 

“It was intimidating going up against engineering and business majors,” said Kalisa Chambers, a Delaware native and first-generation college student. “But it was such a fun, rewarding experience.” 

Their idea also caught the attention of Ted Foltyn, adjunct faculty in Horn Entrepreneurship at Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics. 

“Entrepreneurship is based on identifying and solving meaningful customer problems and telling a compelling story,” Foltyn said. “This group of freshman nursing majors focused on helping UD students gain access to much-needed items 24 hours a day — a need they identified and validated — and showed great enthusiasm in selling their idea. I immediately connected them with some of my entrepreneurship majors, who wanted to follow up and work on the idea.”

Students plan to repurpose existing vending machines on campus to save money and collaborate with Student Health and Wellbeing to make their idea a reality. 

“This experience showed me how much you can do with a nursing degree; we can help entire populations,” Rotter said.

These students never considered themselves entrepreneurs. They were doing what nurses do every day on the front lines: helping others.

“Nurses are natural design thinkers,” said Ji. “While they need to implement evidence-based practices, nurses see what patients need and must have more say in tailoring interventions.” 

Erin McCarthy and Alannah Crozier said design thinking will make them stronger nurses. 

“Design thinking encouraged me to holistically look at patients and consider their family and background to see the whole problem,” McCarthy said.

“The experience built up my critical thinking skills,” said Crozier. “I plan to work at the bedside and will use design thinking to consider next steps and underlying issues.”