Real Nurses Real Stories

At Johnson & Johnson, we will never stop advocating for, elevating and empowering nurses as innovative, critical leaders on the frontline. This National Nurses Month, and in the International Year of the Nurse, learn how we are working to support nurses on the frontlines of COVID-19.

Susan Bakewell-Sachs, Dean of Nursing School at Oregon Health & Sciences University, shares how a deeper integration of nursing education and practice can create a seamless transition into the nursing profession.

Simmy King, Chief Nursing Informatics Officer at Children's National Hospital, discusses the importance of diversity, inclusivity and representation in the nursing workforce, and how Children’s National is helping to support diverse students enter the nursing profession.

Maureen Swick, Enterprise Nurse Executive at Atrium Health, shares how technology enabled an extra layer of care and brought humanity to the bedside for patients at Atrium Health.

Meet the nursing student led by faith and family, ready to face her fears head on and advocate for patients—and herself.

Johnson & Johnson sees the threat of infectious disease as one of the most pressing, yet addressable, public health challenges. Over two million are infected with HIV each year — mothers, fathers, children, men and women, gay and straight, on every continent — and over one million die each year.

Meet the nursing student who wants to become a last-line advocate for patients and a helping hand for new nurses on their paths to the profession.

Meet the nursing student who brings her most authentic self to the table—and hopes to make an impact from Jamaica to the U.S. and beyond.

Meet the Mississippi nursing student who hopes to provide compassionate care and patient advocacy to those who need it most.

We are excited to share our latest innovation resource, the Johnson & Johnson Nurse Innovation 101 Hub, an online destination exploring nurse innovation, providing key resources and celebrating the legacy of nurse innovators who have improved patient care and strengthened health systems.

Johnson & Johnson, together with the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, are thrilled to announce the Awardees of the Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge on Mental Health: nurse Entrepreneur Chris Recinos and Nurse Disrupted co-founders Bre Loughlin and Tracy Zvenyach.

In the year since WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic, nurses have problem-solved and led transformational health system change from within to respond to the crisis. Five nurses from Advocate Aurora Health share how they used technology, collaboration and expertise to lead change with lasting impact.

Together with the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) and Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JLABS, we’re thrilled to announce the two awardees of the Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge in Oncology: Micah Skeens from Nationwide Children's Hospital and Janet Van Cleave from New York University’s Rory Meyers College of Nursing.

In the early stages of COVID-19 when PPE was scarce, University Health CNE Tommye Austin sprang into action to protect her front line colleagues—creating a mask with surgical draping and filters. Almost a year later, Tommye’s innovation success is helping to inspire nurse innovation at her health system and beyond.

Jasmine Bhatti and Ayan Said of Navi Concierge Nurses are building a platform that connects both patients and nurses seeking better outcomes in at-home care

Mentor. Women’s health advocate. Innovator. Meet Rachel Preiss, nurse practitioner, educator and graduate of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing's Maternal-Child Health Nurse Leadership Academy, who developed a pioneering tool to help women and healthcare professionals embrace shared decision-making.

Inspired by the strength of nurses around the world and driven by the desire to offer support, the inaugural cohort of the Johnson & Johnson Nurse Innovation Fellowship came together to pen a letter to their colleagues on the frontlines of COVID-19.

ICYMI: Get inspired! Check out what happened during the latest NurseHack4Health hackathon. From improving onboarding for new nurses to addressing burnout, the winning innovations from the weekend had one common denominator: creating a more sustainable workforce for nurses.

Johnson & Johnson, together with the American Nursing Informatics Association (ANIA) and the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL) proudly announce the eighth Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge: Healthcare Transformation Through Nurse-Led Tech.

According to the National Kidney Foundation (NKF), for many people a successful kidney transplant can provide a better quality of life. Kidney transplant may mean greater freedom, reduced cost, more energy and a less strict diet than patients on dialysis. Nurses play an integral role in helping patients go through the transplant process and helping match live donors with patients in need of a kidney.

When a patient is in critical care, nurses are there through every step of their care, from performing assessments and administering therapies, to educating patient families and opening new pathways to improving patient care.

When you hear the word “hackathon,” you may not necessarily envision a room full of nurses brainstorming ideas. However, at the “Nurse Hackathon: Nurses Hacking HealthCare” event, nurses are leading the problem solving and developing solutions to issues in healthcare.

We’re thrilled to announce the two awardees of the J&J Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge in Perioperative Care: Debbie Kantor, APRN, Co-Founder at HERO Medical, and Chao Hsing Yeh, PhD, RN, Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. Read more about their ideas to change human health.

Becoming a new mom can be an overwhelming time for many women, especially if they are experiencing poverty. Using insights from their nurses, Nurse-Family Partnership has launched Goal Mama, a platform that provides mothers with resources they need to achieve goals for themselves and their newborns.

Hip fractures can have serious health implications for patients and cost of care implications for hospitals. Meet the nurse duo who helped develop the pioneering Hip Fracture Care Program that is transforming fracture care for patients and health systems – Stacie Cox and Shandy Welch.

As part of our broader pledge to support frontline health workers and help provide equitable health solutions for communities of color, Johnson & Johnson partnered with the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) and the Association of Public Health Nurses (APHN) to launch the Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge, focused on Improving Access to Care. Meet the Challenge awardees, Erin Athey and Christina Calamaro.

Shaken by the experience of witnessing a child nearly die from heat exhaustion after accidentally being left in a hot car, emergency room nurse Maria Striemer, RN, BA, channeled her insight to invent the Backseet Buddy, an app that provides parents with peace of mind that it won’t happen to them.

For nearly 30 years, nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy and dentistry students and more have taken healthcare to their surrounding community, perhaps where it’s needed most. The Farmworker Family Health Program, launched by a nurse leader at Georgia State in 1993, and carried on by Emory University in 2001, provides various students an opportunity to offer basic care for the underserved migrant farmworkers of Colquitt, Cook, Brooks, and Tift counties in southwest, GA. Learn about its inception and how it grew to a nurse-led, community-focused effort.

VA nurse researcher Shannon Munro, PhD, APRN, BC, FNP, discovered an easy and inexpensive solution to reduce cases of hospital-acquired pneumonia in her hospital: encouraging patients to brush their teeth. Munro explains the science behind the nurse-led innovative program, HAPPEN.

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.

Johnson & Johnson and the American Psychiatric Nurses Association are proud to announce the Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge on Mental Health, inviting nurses and nursing students to submit their ideas with the aim to improve mental health for patients and healthcare workers amid the pandemic and beyond.

Claire Zangerle, Chief Nurse Executive at Alleghany Health Network, describes how Alleghany Health is improving patient care through the concept of team nursing.

Tatu Msangi learned she was HIV-positive while pregnant, but with the help of the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) and the work of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatrics AIDS Foundation (EGPAF), Tatu had access to the care she needed. Now, Tatu works as a nurse at the same hospital where she received care, counseling HIV-positive pregnant women and mothers.

Meet the nontraditional nursing student inspired to join her daughter and son-in-law in the nursing profession.

Meet the first-generation nursing student balancing motherhood, work and school to achieve her lifelong dream of becoming a nurse.

Nurses of color have long-shaped the nursing profession and transformed healthcare, but their stories are underrepresented in the broader nursing narrative. A new nurse-led project, “Nurses You Should Know,” is using storytelling to help close the representation gap by amplifying their contributions.

From improving mental health care to making it easier for nurses to develop their innovative ideas, the 12 Johnson & Johnson Nurse Innovation Fellows have been busy building their networks, and applying their insights, experiences and learnings from the Fellowship to individual projects that spotlight the power and potential of nurse-led innovation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has added incredible strain on health systems and organizations who aid our most vulnerable populations. In honor of National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, meet five nurses who are continuing to go above and beyond to help improve access to care in local communities.

For more than 25 years, Johnson & Johnson has partnered with the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) to eliminate mother-to-child-transmission of HIV in India and seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Nurses are more likely to come in contact with human trafficking victims during the time of their exploitation than any other profession[1], but very few are identified by staff and helped to find safety. Nurse innovator Danielle Jordan Bastien, APRN, DNP, FNP-BC, was determined to help those potential victims who might be in danger by developing a screening protocol that helps healthcare workers identify signs of abuse.

As the healthcare industry becomes more focused on innovation as a pathway to improving patient outcomes, nurses are stepping up as leaders and innovators, turning their frontline experience into creative solutions to improve patient care. Across her various positions at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), Marion Leary, RN, MSN, MPH, FAHA, is focused on researching ways that nurse-led initiatives can improve healthcare now and in the future.

For years, the best practice for protecting a certain type of birth defect called an omphalocele before surgery was to dry it out, which shrinks the surface area of the exposed organs, but requires a lengthy hospital stay. Enter Roxana Reyna, MSN, RNC-NIC, WCC, CWOCN, FNP-C, a nurse with 20 years experience as a nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

While working for Mercy Health Saint Mary’s in Grand Rapids, Mich., Lauran Hardin, MSN, RN-BC, CNL, met one patient whose complex social issues and challenging life circumstances led to his frequent visits to the emergency room — not because he was injured or sick, but because he needed somewhere to go to feel safe. She realized that there is much more complexity to every patient than just their medical conditions, and healthcare providers can make a difference for these vulnerable people.

Taura Barr, RN, PhD, FAHA, Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer at Valtari Bio Inc. is developing a new bedside diagnostic tool to help triage suspected stroke patients in the emergency room setting.

Though some forms of CHD do not result in health problems later in life, about 25 percent of infants with CCHD have a critical CHD, which can lead to negative outcomes if not diagnosed soon after birth.

Significant healthcare innovations are often developed in response to issues encountered by providers, including nurses. When it became evident there was a way to provide more efficient care to some of the smallest, most fragile patients – babies in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) – Erin Hoch, RN, BSN, was determined to bring her innovative idea to life. Working at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital in Loma Linda, Calif., Erin’s idea has helped to improve the feeding process for these newborn patients.

In collaboration with the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN), we’re excited to announce the Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge in Perioperative Care. We’re inviting nurses to submit their innovative ideas to improve perioperative care and change human health.

Gina Brown, PhD, MSA, RN, FAAN, and Eileen Sullivan-Marx, PhD, RN, FAAN, are deans of two prestigious nursing schools in the U.S. Brown leads Howard University’s College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences and Sullivan-Marx leads New York University’s Rory Meyers College of Nursing. Together, they aim to tackle health disparities through an innovative collaboration in the classroom.

In observance of National Child Abuse Prevention Month, we’re sharing our interview with nurse innovator and educator Sheri Carson, DNP, CPNP-PC, who embraced the challenge of creating a comprehensive child abuse screening program and is hoping to inspire other nurses to bring their solutions forward.

Following her recent keynote at the 2019 ONS Congress, we sat down with nurse inventor and advocate Rachel Walker, PhD, RN, to get her perspective on how we can increase participation in the healthcare innovation space from nurses of all backgrounds and at any stage of their careers.

Johnson & Johnson, SONSIEL, Microsoft and dev up have teamed up again to host “NurseHack4Health: Improving Access to Care,” a free, virtual hackathon, May 14 - 16, inviting nurses and other innovators to solve for better quality, sustainable and equitable access to healthcare. Register today!

Nurses are facing unprecedented challenges in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. We spoke to Hiyam Nadel, RN, MBA, CCG, Director of the Center for Innovations in Care Delivery at Massachusetts General Hospital, to hear how her team is working to support and recognize nurses on the frontlines.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Mass., conducted a research study to determine if a robot could assist nurses in scheduling and other managerial tasks on the labor and delivery floor.

"Our first exchange involved a mother-son pair from Toledo and a married couple from Cincinnati, and it was a great success. Soon enough, people from outside Ohio started asking to work with us." - Susan Rees, RN, BSN, Alliance for Paired Kidney Donation

Like the pioneering nurses who were on the frontlines of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, nurses on the frontlines of COVID-19 are overcoming challenges and driving new standards of care. Learn how the Rutgers University School of Nursing is inspiring nurse leaders of tomorrow with lessons from the nurses of Ward 5B.

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.

On May 15-17, 2020, Johnson & Johnson proudly co-sponsored the NurseHack4Health: COVID-19 Virtual Hackathon. Together with SONSIEL, Microsoft and dev up, we convened over 500 nurses, other healthcare professionals and tech enthusiasts to help solve COVID-19 health challenges with technological solutions.

Together with the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) and Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JLABS, we’re thrilled to announce the two awardees of the Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge in Maternal and Newborn Health: Nicole Lincoln of Breegi Scientific, Inc. and Sigi Marmorstein of BabyLiveAdvice.com.

Recognizing the need for public awareness of how the healthcare industry is working to address COVID-19, Johnson & Johnson launched “The Road to a Vaccine,” a live educational program hosted weekly by journalist Lisa Ling. The series features key experts from health, research, science and beyond to explore the global effort to develop a vaccine against the disease.

Are you an entrepreneur or innovator? Your big idea or everyday innovation can help advance the healthiest generation in human history—GenH.