創新擴散理論主要乃探討新事物如何被散佈或推廣，分析接受創新者的過去經驗和屬性特質如何影響其決策過程，目的在於瞭解如何使具有優勢的創新得以迅速推廣，創新擴散會受到時間、認知屬性、決策類型、溝通傳播管道、社會體系特性和推廣人員的努力程度等因素的影響；其最終成效是評估接受者對於創新的接受度、滿意度以及其他非預期的後果等。成功的創新需經過審慎的評估與規劃，再透過適當的傳遞管道，依據不同的特質呈現各異的擴散速率，最後評估其成效。本理論的探討範圍由個人層面到社區層面，從微觀到巨觀來考量政策推行的成效，因此被廣泛應用在公共衛生、健康促進及健康教育、臨床疾病教育、網路遠距醫療。近期也被應用於護理教育與行政決策、護理人員對基因體研究的瞭解與接受、科技於護理的應用性研究。所以善加利用創新擴散理論為架構，讓新時代的護理人員能擁有創新思維與技能，將是未來護理學界發展的重要趨勢。

The goal of Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory is to explore how the new ideas are being disseminated or adopted by social population. Through analyzing the process of decision making of the adopters' past experiences and attribute; one can realize how to quickly disseminate an innovation with advantage. Diffusion of innovation varied by some factors, include time, cognitive attribute, decision making pattern, communication channel, social characteristics, and the effort of promotion. A successful innovation has been evaluated by the final outcomes destination of acceptance rate, satisfaction and/or other unexpected outcomes present of adopters. Depending on the different characteristic of innovation, it must conduct detailed assessment and planning in advance, through appropriate channels to disseminate information in a short period of time. From the micro view of personal domain to macro view of community domain, DOI theory was widely applied in public health, health promotion, health education, and telehealth. It has also started in nursing field recently, such as the acceptance of genomic research and the application of information technology for nurses. It could stimulate the novelty and skills as the future trend for the development of nursing profession.