For more than 125 years, Johnson & Johnson has been proud to advocate for, elevate, and empower the nursing profession, as we know that nurses are the backbone of health care.
A career in nursing is one of the most exciting and rewarding occupations. Nurses provide vital hands-on patient care, but that’s not all they do. They are leaders, innovators, educators, change makers helping improve access to care.
When new ideas can save lives, nurse innovators need support to move from bedside to boardroom. Their firsthand experience helps them identify patient needs and shape the future of healthcare, as seen in stories from leaders inspiring the next generation.
Meet the 26 health system teams that form the new 2025-2026 program. These teams of 240 nurses represent geographically diverse areas across the U.S., large and small health systems, and standalone hospitals in urban and rural locations.
In many rural hospitals, new nurses may be the only graduate hired that year. The Iowa Online Nurse Residency Program connects them with peers across hospitals, creating the support network they need to build confidence and thrive in practice.
When nurses at Tufts Medical Center saw that patient mobility was clinically essential but operationally difficult, they didn’t accept the gap — they redesigned the work. Through the Nursing Workforce Solutions program, a team of direct care nurses created a dedicated Mobility Tech role that improves patient outcomes while easing nursing workload burden. Here’s how structured nurse-led innovation is transforming care from the bedside up.
Nurses are the backbone of healthcare delivery. Yet philanthropic investment in nursing lags far behind the need to transform complex health systems. Below, learn why sustained investment in nurses is essential to sustained access to care.