See You Now Podcast

In a digitally-driven world where information and misinformation are both readily available, it can be hard to know what sources to trust--particularly when it comes to health decisions about communicable and vaccine-preventable diseases. In this episode, Melody Butler, BSN, RN, CIC, founder of Nurses Who Vaccinate, discusses how and why she's built a global advocacy network, coalition, and movement of nurses to meet people where they are, and ensure they are well-informed with science-based facts to inform their health decisions.

Every day nurses face difficult decisions and ethical dilemmas. They know how to deal with suffering, are accustomed to participating in life and death decisions, and advocating for human rights. COVID-19 presented circumstances that no one was prepared for including weighing personal risk against an obligation to render care. In this episode, Liz Stokes, JD, MA, RN, Director of the American Nurses Association Center for Ethics and Human Rights provides insight into the ethical and moral dimensions of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Around the globe, nurses are actively innovating to improve the health, safety, and wellbeing of citizens, environments, and entire communities in settings that some might not have considered—our state legislatures. The link between nursing, politics, and innovation might not seem obvious, but for the nurses who have ushered in meaningful legislation—the relationship is a natural one. In this wide-ranging conversation with Delaware Lt.Gov, Bethany Hall-Long, we discover how nurses involved with legislation at the local, state, and federal level is innovation.

Flattening the curve. Testing and contact tracing. Social distancing. Not only have these practices become part of our daily routines, but they are also the primary tools of the public health emergency response to COVID-19. In this episode, we meet Kathleen Blaney, MPH, RN, Director of Disease Control Emergency Preparedness at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Kathleen recounts the story of building the NYC Test & Trace Corps, a public health initiative to fight the threat of COVID-19 and one of the largest contact tracing endeavors in modern history, which in a matter of weeks trained and onboarded over 3,000 new contact tracers—remotely. She shares how the highly personal nature of contact tracing can strengthen science literacy and vaccine confidence, reduce health disparities, and even help build trust in both public institutions and each other amid the pandemic and beyond.

In this episode, we dive deep into the science of vaccines with Christine Grady, MSN, PhD; Ernest Grant, PhD, RN, FAAN; Jaquelin P Dudley, PhD; and Lori Boyle, MSN, AGPCNP. Together we discuss the ethics and details of clinical trials and vaccine distribution, and the role that nurses specifically play in developing vaccine confidence and innovating to rapidly and safely achieve mass COVID-19 vaccination.

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.

Issac Asimov believed robots could have a true humanizing influence, and one day do the work to make life easier, freeing us to do the work that makes life worthwhile. For many nurses, caring for patients is that worthwhile work. However, studies have shown that roughly 30 percent of a nursing shift is devoted to patient care, with the rest given over to other tasks like finding medications, tracking down equipment, tracking down supplies, and documentation.

As we wrap up Season 5 and roll into our summer break, we’re catching our breath from a busy few months exploring, celebrating, and innovating that included elevating National Nurses Month, issuing a call to action for nurses around the world to join the NurseHack4Health, getting an update on the global Nursing Now Campaign as it transitions to the Nursing Now Challenge, introducing a special series Meeting of Minds, and having three SEE YOU NOW episodes selected as finalists in the ShareCare Awards that recognize best-in-class productions promoting well-being and capturing the spirit of "sharing care."

In this episode, as part of the growing Civic Health movement and its nationwide effort to expand and normalize healthcare settings as community touchpoints for voter access and engagement, we’re taking a closer listen to the experiences and insights of three civic health innovators who provide compelling evidence and data for why healthcare settings and healthcare professionals are particularly effective messengers and catalysts for voter engagement. Together, they have collectively created and built NursesWhoVote, Democracy at Discharge, Vot-ER, and the Healthy Democracy Kit.

Necessity is often cited as the Mother of Invention. And, nurses who have been part of the inventing process share that exasperation, empathy, and determination are members of the same family. While caring for a patient in an interventional radiology lab and witnessing the exasperation on a patient’s face while struggling to secure a fluid-filled leg bag, nurse and inventor Brian Mohika, RN, BSN, was inspired to create smart, active-living underwear designed to secure catheters and fluid collection bags. He knew people needed solutions that were practical, comfortable, washable, discreet, and liberating. Brian stated, “it is about more than just selling a medical product. It’s about improving lives and returning people to actively living theirs.”