U of A Nursing Graduate Invents Device to Lessen Needle Sticks

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Spencer Jones

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A hospital stay of more than a day or two is already a less than stellar experience for most people, especially when you are constantly being poked and prodded with needles. Spencer Jones, a registered nurse at CHI St. Vincent in Little Rock, is working to lessen this discomfort. Jones invented a device that will eliminate the use of more than one needle when a patient must be hooked up to an IV. 

“The whole crux of the device is to minimize the amount of times we would have to stick and prick our patients,” Jones said.

His product is a single catheter with two channels, inserted in the forearm, hand, or elbow like a normal IV catheter. The two channels are different sizes; the larger one is for fluid administration, and the shorter one is purely for blood draws. 

Jones graduated from the University of Arkansas in December of 2013 and found a job on St. Vincent’s medical-surgical general patient floor. He first got the idea for his invention during his clinical rotations while a student in the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing at the U of A. Jones was asked to take a blood sample from a patient and was dumbfounded when he was told he could not take the sample from the already open IV site.

“We have put people on the moon, but we still can’t find a way to better utilize IV sites that are already open,” Jones said.

Eliminating the use of numerous needles makes the hospital experience better for everyone, especially the patients, because they do not have to endure the pain and annoyance of multiple needles, Jones said.

Preliminary feedback for Jones’ device has been mostly positive, but a large nod of approval came last year when he won the 2014 ARK Challenge. 

“It was a business accelerator that all these companies apply for and they pick seven,” Jones said. “What they do is they buy 6 percent of these companies for 20 grand.”

The competition goes on for 3½ months and each company competes for a $150,000 investment opportunity. Jones won after presenting his device to a group of judges and closed on the funding for it in early February. He received a $150,000 investment in exchange for 10 percent equity in his company.

Jones is working with a manufacturer to submit the device for federal Food and Drug Administration approval in March. They hope to receive approval by the end of year, after which production can begin. They expect the device, if approved, to be available for use in early 2016.

This invention has not only garnered Jones a lot of recognition, it has also spurred his entrepreneurial spirit. He was first inspired to create the device by noticing an inefficiency in health care. This intuition has led him to see a better way for things to be done in many aspects of the profession, specifically with direct patient care. 

“There’s no innovative thinking and no research and development there,” Jones said. “And that’s why you still see things like falls at such a high rate. There’s just a lot of inefficiencies that people don’t want to put the necessary time and the money in that are required to optimize important processes.”

Jones credits the faculty and staff at the U of A for helping him through his research and preparing him for the real world. He values the fact that he received his bachelor’s degree in nursing and feels it sets him ahead of the curve in his profession.

“The Arkansas program sets itself apart in the state as far as good programs go,” Jones said.