Emergency Nurse

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.

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.

After working as an emergency room nurse for 10 years, Wendy Weirbach, BSN, RN, CEN, was looking for a change of pace. She went on to pursue a nursing position at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Calif. She immediately fell in love with the job and decided she wanted to spend the remainder of her career at the theme park.

Across healthcare, innovation is transforming where and how care is delivered to patients. As retail healthcare continues to expand, CVS Health nurse executive Angela Patterson is putting the profession at the center of transformative shifts in care delivery.

As a student growing up in Jamaica, Ena Williams always knew she wanted to be a nurse. Her drive and dedication led her to become the first Black Chief Nursing Officer at Yale New Haven Hospital, one of the top facilities in the region. In honor of Black History Month, this inspirational nursing leader shares the advice and insights for new and future nurses that she’s learned in her decades-long leadership journey.

When the nursing workforce is more representative of the communities they care for, access to quality care and patient outcomes improve for all. But building a diverse workforce requires intentional inclusivity across the professional pipeline – including the nursing school environment. Two unique programs funded by Johnson & Johnson’s Our Race to Health Equity initiative (ORTHE) are proactively working to improve the experience of nurses and nursing students of color.