See You Now Podcast

History and experience show that nurses raising their voices shape health policy. From advancing the profession to advocating for patients, nurses are well-positioned to articulate and champion the changes and legislation needed for better health, care, and access.

In this episode, we meet nurse Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, PhD, MPH, LCSW, RN, executive director of The Institute for Policy Solutions at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, a new institute working to redesign the US healthcare system with the goal of shifting policy and practice to more preventive, value-based and whole-person care.

Homelessness across the U.S. is on the rise. The National Alliance to End Homelessness reports the number of unsheltered and chronically homeless individuals and families has climbed ~6% annually since 2017, and an estimated 582,462 people experienced homelessness across America in 2022. Advocacy groups and researchers say a big driving force is the decline of affordable housing, a problem decades in the making but one that has grown significantly worse in the past few years. And when people lose their homes, housing and shelter, their lives, health, and safety become far more complex and at risk.

In this episode, Lauran Hardin, MSN, CNL, FNAP, FAAN, Senior Advisor at National Healthcare & Housing Advisors and Illumination Foundation shares the stories, proven solutions, and care models that are meaningfully improving the health and lives of our most complex community members.

Around the country, makerspaces are popping up in collaborative hot spots like universities and community centers, making innovation and invention more accessible. It’s part of a growing, broader maker culture, which brings a DIY, democratized attitude to disciplines like engineering, coding, robotics, hardware development and more. And it’s a perfect environment to foster nurse-led innovation and direct it toward actionable solutions for the health workforce crisis.

The well-being of our healthcare workforce -- specifically nurses -- took center stage at Aspen as a global priority. In an expert panel discussion led by SEE YOU NOW host and nurse Shawna Butler, we talk candidly about "Healthcare in Critical Condition: Who Cares When Nurses Leave?"

In this episode, we hear the musings of nurses Leslie Oleck, president of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA), Linda Groah, the CEO/Executive Director of the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN), and April Kapu, president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) about the unique value their specialties bring to the healthcare system as a whole.

Within minutes, the now-iconic images and video footage of critical care nurse Sandra Lindsay receiving a COVID-19 jab administered by fellow nurse Michelle Chester, DNP began circulating in media outlets around the globe and along with it a high-profile opportunity to reach others, inspire them, and build their vaccine confidence.

Vaccines and vaccination—they’ve become one of the hottest topics of public discourse. Indeed, the Oxford Languages 2021 Word of the Year is Vax. As their pun-filled news release notes, "more than any other word, 'vax' has injected itself into the bloodstream of the English language in 2021.” With regulatory approval of a COVID vaccine for kids ages 5-11, COVID boosters for adults 65 and older and those at a higher risk for COVID, and the World Health Organization recommending widespread use of a long-awaited malaria vaccine for children, there is much vaccine progress and science to celebrate and understand.

Hackathons provide a fast-paced, high energy, community-building opportunity for a wide spectrum of participants to flex their innovation muscles and solve for some of today’s greatest challenges. While these events have traditionally been geared towards computer scientists and software developers, in recent years nurses, clinicians, and health innovators have started to convene health-challenge inspired events. Today the health hackathon landscape is exciting, rapidly evolving, and nurses are playing a lead role in driving them. In this episode, we learn from health influencers, hackers, and innovators Jane Sarashon-Kahn, MA, MHSA; Chris Recinos, PhD, RN, FNP-BC, NEA-BC; Anthony Scarpone-Lambert, BSN ‘21; and Jennifferre Mancillas, BSN, RN, RNC-NIC about how hackathons have impacted their thinking, skills, lives, career trajectory, as well as the landscape of innovative health solutions and products. And -- why you should register your interest at NurseHack4Health.org.