See You Now Podcast

How did misinformation, hysteria and fear surrounding the first HIV/AIDS outbreak turn into community, compassion and love? The HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s also brought forth homophobia and panic. Already stigmatized by society as having “gay cancer,” HIV and AIDS patients were discriminated against by their own healthcare providers in the spaces that were intended to provide them support and treatment. Outraged with the lack of care being provided to HIV and AIDS patients, San Francisco General Hospital’s Ward 5B nurses Alison Moed, Cliff Morrison and Guy Vandenberg set aside their own fears to rally around and provide humane and dignified care to these patients when their health and well-being depended on it. Their extraordinary actions have transformed and established a new standard of care that is used around the world for those living with HIV and AIDS.

In this episode, we meet indigenous nurse researcher John Lowe, RN, PhD, FAAN, and discover how he is addressing the long-standing structural impediments that have kept American Indian, Alaska Native and indigenous youth from connecting to their cultural heritage, native identity, and to a history that he describes as a source of great strength. John established the first Center for Indigenous Nurse Research For Health Equity where he is innovating on ancestral wisdom and tradition—through practices like the Virtual Talking Circle—to enable indigenous youth to move away from harmful behaviors and move toward lives and coping mechanisms that are both positive and strength-based.

In this episode, we learn how nurse scientist and researcher Wrenetha Julion, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN, CNL, is innovating to build and bolster the involvement of African American fathers who live apart from their children through the Building Bridges to Fatherhood Program and through an exciting new Father Inclusive Prenatal Care program.

The CDC reports that Black mothers die at three to four times the rate of White mothers and that the mortality rate of Black infants is higher than that of any other ethnic group in the U.S. Regardless of income and education level, childbirth for Black women is more dangerous than it is for White women. In this episode, we hear from three healthcare innovators who personally and professionally—as Black women and advisors to the Black Mamas Matter Alliance—work tirelessly to advance policy grounded in human rights and reproductive justice to improve Black maternal health and lives.

During a public health crisis, such as COVID-19, we are acutely aware of the connections between social justice, public health and innovation—especially in communities with vast disparities, such as those in Alaska where Tim Struna, MPH, RN, practices. To explore how public health nurses are innovating to respond to the unique challenges of the ongoing pandemic, we talk to Tim, Chief of Public Health Nursing in the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. He is focused on increasing access to health services for residents in rural areas, particularly during COVID-19, by innovating and coordinating health practices at a community level.

Have questions for the SEE YOU NOW team? Feedback? Future episode ideas? Contact us at hello@seeyounowpodcast.com.

When we first aired the episode “Pause For a Moment” back in February of 2020, the world was in a different place, but we were already speaking to the experiences of nurses who, when faced with death, needed to take time to reflect and process each loss and hold time to grieve. Emergency nurse and palliative care liaison, Jonathan Bartels, RN, understands the toll that witnessing a death can have on healthcare worker resiliency. Bartels designed The Pause, a meaningful and effective practice that health systems are rapidly adopting to address the alarming rate of clinician burnout and mental stress. COVID-19 changed the death and dying experience in hospitals and forced nurses to not only innovate the end-of-life experience, but also to shoulder so much more of it.

As we wrap Season 2 of SEE YOU NOW we’re listening back through the stories and hearing important themes emerge that include a heightened appreciation for innovation, the role it’s playing in responding to our current public health crises, and how that role is changing and evolving. In the era of COVID-19, the practice, permissions, and norms of innovation have shifted dramatically –it’s also identified and cultivated new leaders.

As September, National Suicide Prevention Month, comes to a close –we wanted to revisit our episode on the Mental Health Pandemic that originally aired in May of 2020 as part of National Nurses Month. Each year during the month of September, the Suicide Prevention Lifeline and other mental health organizations around the world raise awareness of suicide prevention. And on October 10, we will observe World Mental Health Day – a day focused on raising awareness of mental health issues and mobilizing efforts in support of mental health.

In this episode, we meet nurse innovator Joshua Littlejohn MPH, MSN, RN, and entrepreneur Gabriela Sabaté, MBA, MHCI, who are experimenting and innovating with technologies that connect data to transform how we not only provide care remotely, but also how we approach and use hackathons as a way to crowdsource ideas and introduce new innovations.

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.