An estimated 28 million nurses and midwives—the equivalent of more than 50% of the healthcare workforce—are the backbone of health systems worldwide, with invaluable hands-on patient experience, resourcefulness and an innate innovative mindset, bringing forward powerful ideas on how to help improve patient outcomes and healthcare.
The recent Future of Nursing 2020-2030 Charting a Path to Health Equityreport, Accelerating Nursing, Transforming Healthcare research and Tri-Council report highlight the need for a robust, diverse, and engaged nursing workforce, empowered to innovate and lead transformational change, driving increased efficiency and improved patient outcomes.
“Health technology is critical to this transformation,” said Lynda Benton, Senior Director, Global Community Impact at Johnson & Johnson. “The implementation of technology to augment the workforce and enhance the workplace has become increasingly omnipresent in the nursing profession. As care continues to extend beyond the hospital walls to wherever patients reside, the need for nurses to be ready and able to leverage technology will escalate.”
Robotics, artificial intelligence, remote monitoring or communication, 3-D printing, Internet of Things, portable diagnostics, and virtual reality are some examples of how technology can ―and will―augment and support the nursing workforce—and ultimately strengthen healthcare delivery and patient outcomes.
As part of our broader pledge to help support frontline healthcare workers, the Johnson & Johnson Family of companies is proud to further our 120-year commitment to nurses, including advocating for, elevating, and empowering all nurses as innovative leaders who strengthen health systems and change human health for the better. We are excited to partner with the ANIA and the AONL for our eighth Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge: Healthcare Transformation Through Nurse-led Tech.
The Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge series aims to empower nurse-led innovation in healthcare. This challenge looks to nurses to create potential technology-based solutions aiming to drive healthcare transformation, improve the health for all, reduce per capita costs, and enhance the patient and caregiver experience amid the current pandemic environment and beyond.
We invite nurses and nursing students worldwide to bring their experiences, ideas, and insights to help create nurse-led technologies, tech-enabled protocols, devices, or treatment approaches that can help drive healthcare transformation. Including, but not limited to, technology that:
- Improves patient care and outcomes in any disease state or care setting.
- Creates efficiencies for nurses, leading to more high-touch, high-value interactions with patients and extending their reach.
- Up-skills nurses and student nurse education to improve patient care delivery and outcomes in varied care settings, including remote care (e.g., Virtual Reality (VR), Sim Labs, etc.).
- Supports data-driven decisions and/or integrates social determinants of health (SDOH) data to help address health inequities and reach underserved patient communities.
- Improves patient and nursing support by expanding nursing workforce opportunities. An example includes expanding connectivity between nurse retirees and mentors through virtual support.
The nurse innovators with the most innovative idea(s) will receive up to $100,000 in grant funding as well as mentoring and coaching from the experts across the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies and have access to the Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS ecosystem to help bring their ideas to life.
“Nurses are at the heart of the care continuum, with broadly-based skill sets and unique patient insights. They have the needed perspective on how technology-based solutions can help drive healthcare transformation,” said Elizabeth Weeks, BSN, RN-BC, CMSRN, President of ANIA. “This challenge aims to help nurses develop solutions, from ideation to reality that leverage technology strengthening healthcare delivery and outcomes. ANIA is thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with Johnson & Johnson in supporting these nurse-led endeavors.”
“As nurses work diligently to improve patient care and outcomes, we are proud to help bring their ideas to life,” said Robyn Begley, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Nursing Office of AONL. “Nurses have been critical to the practice and delivery of healthcare in public health events throughout history, and the COVID-19 pandemic is no different—nurses have creatively, compassionately, and selflessly led the way to help meet the evolving needs of our healthcare system.”
Applications will be evaluated on several factors by an independent panel, including the potential impact on human health, the uniqueness and feasibility of the idea, the thoroughness of the approach, and the identification of key resources. Applications must be submitted by nurses or by nursing students. The deadline to apply to the Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge on Healthcare Transformation Through Nurse-Led Tech is February 4.
To learn more about the Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge series and previous awardees and to apply to the current Challenge on Transforming Healthcare through Nurse-Led Tech, visit nursing.jnj.com.
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.
