Nurses have always been critical partners on the frontlines of care, but the COVID-19 pandemic has cast a new light on their vital roles in care delivery. The world’s eyes have been opened to the many challenges nurses and other health workers are experiencing on the frontlines, and the innovative solutions they have developed to both navigate these challenges and improve health outcomes have inspired us all.

In connection with our overall commitment to supporting frontline healthcare workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson & Johnson is proud to announce the Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge: COVID-19 Patient Care, together with the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL) and the Society of Nurse Scientists, Innovators, Entrepreneurs & Leaders (SONSIEL). Nurses and nursing students from around the world are invited to submit their ideas aiming to improve COVID-19 patient care.

"Nurses are highly skilled at adapting devices and environments to meet the immediate needs of patients and to deliver care safely, efficiently and effectively," said Robyn Begley, Chief Executive Officer for AONL and Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer of the American Hospital Association (AHA). "The Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge: COVID-19 Patient Care is an opportunity for nurses to develop their creative ideas to potentially improve patient outcomes and shape the future of healthcare.”

This new Challenge was inspired by the recent NurseHack4Health: COVID-19 Virtual Hackathon, a groundbreaking, weekend-long event from Johnson & Johnson, SONSIEL, Microsoft and dev up that convened over 500 nurses, healthcare professionals and tech enthusiasts to help solve COVID-19 health challenges with technological solutions. The “hackers” divided into 32 teams and pitched ideas that not only addressed COVID-19 clinical challenges, but also had the potential to transform healthcare. The five focus areas for the event were Patient Hand-off and Huddle, Resiliency and Self-care, Data and Reporting, Remote Patient Monitoring in Acute Care and Remote Patient Monitoring in Home Care.

“In light of COVID-19, empowering nurse-led innovation is more critical than ever,” said Rebecca Love, RN, MSN, FIEL, President of SONSIEL. “The NurseHack4Health: COVID-19 Virtual Hackathon revealed that bringing nurses and others on the frontlines to the table and leveraging their extensive expertise is absolutely vital if we want to overcome the challenges magnified by this health crisis. This Challenge is an excellent way to support and celebrate the innovative ideas from the many frontlines of COVID-19.”

The Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge series aims to expand the definition of what innovation means for frontline health workers by inviting nurses worldwide to develop and share ideas for their novel treatment protocols, health technologies, medical devices, treatment approaches, consumer products, community health approaches and screening tools that may have the power to profoundly change human health.

Examples of potential focus areas for the Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge in COVID-19 Patient Care may include facilitating remote patient monitoring and communications, data and reporting, resiliency and self-care, supporting a safe return to work or school, supporting sharing of best practices and addressing racial disparities and inequities in healthcare.

Applications will be evaluated by a panel of subject matter experts on the uniqueness and feasibility of the idea, the thoroughness of the approach, the identification of key resources and plan to further the idea and the idea’s potential impact on transforming human health. The nurse innovators with the best idea(s) will receive up to $100,000 in grant funding, mentoring from experts across the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies, and access to the Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS ecosystem to help bring their ideas to life. Nurses must lead the team and submissions but are encouraged to bring in other healthcare professionals or relevant partners as needed to their teams to support the submission.

Applications must be submitted by nurses or nursing students. The deadline to apply for the Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge in COVID-19 Patient Care is September 29, 2020 at midnight PST.

To learn more about the Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge series, view previous awardees and apply, visit nursing.jnj.com. To learn more about how Johnson & Johnson is supporting frontline healthcare workers and communities amid the COVID-19 pandemic, visit jnj.com/coronavirus/frontline-workers.

The Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge series is part of the QuickFire Challenge platform which was developed by Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JLABS to attract and develop game-changing, early-stage innovation across the global therapeutics, consumer, health technologies and medical devices sectors.

Interested in learning more about the NurseHack4Health: COVID-19 Virtual Hackathon? Meet some of the inspiring teams and learn more about their solutions aiming to solve COVID-19 health challenges here and follow @JNJNursing to stay tuned for the announcement of the next NurseHack4Health event this fall.