This year for National Nurses Week, the Johnson & Johnson Campaign for Nursing’s Future is proud to launch the “Nurse Effect,” a new initiative that showcases the positive ripple effect nurses have had on individuals lives – and ultimately – society as a whole. Over the past few weeks, we’ve collected nurse stories from real patients across the U.S. and beyond who have been positively impacted by a nurse. These stories showcase the profound impact that nurses have on their patients and community every day.
Read on to see a few of the stories – and check back as we continue to add more! Visit the Campaign’s Facebook and Twitterchannels to see the stories throughout the week. And be sure to tune into our dedicated YouTube Channel for the recently unveiled video series of real-life stories which demonstrate the inspirational and powerful relationship between a patient and nurse. You’ll hear stories like the one from Tom, who talks about his remarkable experience with Alice, a nurse at an HIV clinic. You’ll meet a mother like Sarah, who discusses how nurses helped her navigate the NICU and take her son home healthy. And you’ll hear from a patient like Jalen, a teen who shares how a nurse named Alice encouraged him through a bone marrow transplant. See the “Nurse Effect” truly come to life!
My 102-year-old grandmother’s last words were, ‘I would like a peanut butter and butter sandwich, please - but I will only eat half of it, give the other half to someone who really needs it.’ My Babci was an independent, strong, beautiful wife, mother and nurse. She taught me that going that extra mile, giving a hug or even just showing a smile is sometimes all it takes to make someone’s day. She taught me how to be selfless and loving, and how to genuinely care about every person I meet.
The nurses in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) became our extended family. They were there to educate us, calm our fears, encourage us, let us cry, help us bond and build confidence with our fragile newborn, and most importantly to me, be a ‘surrogate mother’ when I could not be there. After six weeks we parted ways, but these incredible nurses also came to my aid months later when I was stricken with a debilitating illness. When they heard of my situation, many of these nurses came on their time off to help my daughter and I so that my husband could work. These incredible people truly embody the essence of skill and compassion at the heart of nursing.
My daughter, Paige, works in the acute care oncology unit and loves it! One day she shared that she 'rehearsed' with her patient all day. 'Rehearsed' I asked? 'My patient had just gotten word that his cancer had returned. He asked me to help him with how to tell his two young daughters that he was going to die soon so throughout the day we rehearsed as to how to tell his daughters.' I am so proud of her and the work she does every day. Here she is with the stethoscope she asked for Christmas!
A home care nurse allows working parents of medically-fragile children to work, live, and keep their sanity. Without nurses helping me to care for my daughter, I wouldn’t be able to work, and keep my daughter healthy and alive.
My fiancé and I are just 20-years-old and already set to become RNs. For my fiancé, experiencing the deaths of many family and friends growing up, witnessing his dad go through open heart surgery with a grueling recovery, dealing with the mental illness his mother suffers from, and seeing his little brother born prematurely and spending weeks in a NICU have all shaped his desire to become a nurse. He always says he wants to be the best in the world at what he does, not for himself, but for his patients. He is graduating from nursing school this month, and I’ll be graduating in December! Both my parents are in the medical field, my mom was a nurse and my dad is a respiratory therapist. The good they did helping people inspired me to become a nurse, and I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn’t for them. For my fiancé and me, nursing is our escape. It is where we can go to provide care to people in their time of need.
I am a nurse, just like my mother. Five years ago, my mom suffered a massive stroke. The nurses in the palliative care unit took care of Mom but also, our family. What touched me the most was the night my sister and I were staying overnight in the room with my mom. The nurse said to me – Be the daughter tonight; I’ll be the nurse. What a wonderful gift in those few words. It still brings tears to my eyes as I write this today.
Videos
I was diagnosed HIV positive in 1992. At that time, being diagnosed HIV positive was pretty much a death sentence, and people treated you like the walking plague. I didn't have health insurance and lived pay check to pay check, so i ended up getting on a drug trial and going every week to the clinic. Alice was the nurse at the clinic. She never made us feel like the walking plague, she just made us feel normal. She just really stepped up to take care of us. I have no idea how she did it, but I'm extremely glad she did. Because I'm still here. Twenty-odd some years later, I'm doing extremely well... Alice has given me an inner strength that this bug will not kill me.
Nurses are, for people like Jalen, the most important thing. You know how they say you spend more time at work with your coworkers than you do with your family? I think Jalen, as a sickle cell patient, spends more time with the nurses than he does at home and they are an integral part of his life.
