Johnson & Johnson Notes on Nursing

At this year’s Aspen Ideas: Health Festival, Johnson & Johnson sponsored two sessions that invited healthcare innovators and changemakers from around the world to share their stories of why and how they’re shaping a world where everyone can thrive.

At the dawn of the AIDS epidemic —when no one knew how the disease spread and diagnosis was considered terminal — the nurses in San Francisco General Hospital’s HIV/AIDS Ward 5B defied convention, found an innovative way to improve care and treated AIDS patients with compassion.

Together with the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN), Johnson & Johnson is proud to announce the Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge in Maternal and Newborn Health, inviting nurses to submit their ideas to improve maternal and newborn care.

Unique approaches to care and research are not always accepted at first, and nurse innovators everywhere often overcome many obstacles to obtain the resources and credibility needed to implement life-changing ideas and programs. This is true for Antonia M. Villarruel, PhD, RN, FAAN, professor and the Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing at The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing), who developed the successful ¡Cuídate! or “Take Care of Yourself” program.

According to research by the Health Professionals for Diversity (HPD) Coalition, minority patients are impacted disproportionately by treatable, curable, or preventable diseases. Even when controlling for access-related factors, such as insurance status and income, some racial and ethnic minority groups are still more likely to receive lower-quality healthcare. As the links between these disparities and racial and ethnic minority populations continue to drive research in culturally competent care, educational initiatives that create a constant awareness of such disparities among healthcare providers are key to helping close the gap in the level of care provided in diverse communities around the country.

Many parents across the U.S. struggle with challenging behaviors in their young children, and they may not be aware of the array of strategies that can help them deal with their children’s behavior. What if some of these behavioral issues could be addressed by affording parents access to parenting information that is not readily available in their communities? This question led three nurse researchers – Deborah Gross, DNSc, RN, FAAN, Christine Garvey, PhD, RN, and Wrenetha Julion, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN – to develop the Chicago Parent Program at the Rush University College of Nursing in Chicago, Ill.

Sheri Sawchuk, DNP, APRN, NP-C, CNE, fell into nursing by providence – she attended an informational session for a local nursing program after driving a friend there and ultimately enrolled in classes herself for the following semester. In 2013, Sheri first learned of the Global Health Education Program (GHEP) at Chamberlain University from the program’s founder, Susan Fletcher, EdD, MSN, BSN. Today, after finding her passion at the intersection of nursing, education, and global health, and with 15 years of international relief work under her belt, Sheri leads nursing students on international GHEP trips to help up-and-coming nurses identify their nursing passions.

Lori Lioce, DNP, FNP-BC, CHSOS, CHSE, FAANP, began her career as a dental hygienist. As she learned more and more about each of her patients and their overall health, she decided to make a change – she went back to school to become a nurse with the goal of improving health outcomes for as many patients as possible. Image

In 2015, Janie Harvey Garner, RN, encountered public criticism of a Miss America contestant and fellow nurse who delivered her monologue wearing scrubs and a “doctor’s stethoscope.” Feeling frustrated and misrepresented after hearing the comments minimizing nurses’ roles in healthcare delivery, Janie created the Show Me Your Stethoscope Facebook group to reinforce the essential role of nursing – effectively creating one of the largest nursing organizations in the United States.

Across the country, registered nurses (RNs) play a critical role in the medical preparedness and response to natural disasters of all kinds, working to safeguard the health and wellbeing of the at-risk public. Nurses are uniquely qualified to manage emergency situations — which can come at a cost to themselves and their families.

With over 36 million people living with HIV globally and over one million new infections each year, the disease remains one of the greatest global health threats of our time. In an effort to combat this ongoing public health crisis, Johnson & Johnson is committed to continued innovation in the fields of prevention, treatment, and cure; in fact, Johnson & Johnson has a 25-year legacy in its work around HIV.

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)1, more than 500,000 people who work in the operating room – including many who are perioperative nurses – are exposed to surgical smoke each year. Surgical smoke is the by-product of surgical procedures in which an electric device is used to ablate, cut, coagulate, desiccate, fulgurate, or vaporize tissue, and can decrease site visibility and impact air quality in the operating room. In fact, the American Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) estimates being in an operating room for just one day has the potential to expose operating staff to surgical smoke that is equivalent to smoking 27 to 30 unfiltered cigarettes2.