COVID-19

Lynda Benton, Senior Director for Strategic Initiatives at Johnson & Johnson, reflects on the way forward for the nursing profession as we celebrate this year’s National Nurses Month.

Two years ago, when COVID-19 patients began arriving in her hospital, Lisa Kilgard, BSN, RN-BC, raised her hand to move full-time to that unit, where she thought she could learn something new and take care of vulnerable members of her community.

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.

The COVID Vaccine Facts for Nurses campaign, led by the American Nurses Association in partnership with 22 other leading nursing organizations and sponsored by Johnson & Johnson, has reached and supported nurses with culturally relevant, critical information and expert perspectives about the safety, efficacy and importance of vaccines.

A crucial takeaway from the Accelerating Nursing, Transforming Healthcare report was the mental health strain nurses experience and methods of reducing it. From trauma-informed group sessions to songwriting, check out the innovative strategies supporting nurses’ mental health and reducing stigmas.

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.

Both before and during the pandemic, information has been vital—to identify best practices for taking care of patients, pinpoint resource needs, predict and plan, and stay nimble during constant change. The nursing workforce has been key to this work, applying the innovative use of data and informatics to streamline systems and practices.

These stories are just a small snapshot of the many ways in which nurses are innovating and leading to improve care delivery in communities. Johnson & Johnson is committed to advocating for, elevating and empowering nurses as they transform healthcare and change human health for the better.

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.

The role of the nurse has evolved greatly over the past century, but nurses’ innovative and compassionate spirit has remained a constant. Meet Nurse Kevin Moore, BSN, RN, who serves in a unique role dedicated to patient advocacy, equity and improving the patient experience for the LGBTQIA+ community at NYU Langone Health in New York City.

Johnson & Johnson, together with the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and the Association of Public Health Nurses proudly announce the Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge: Improving Access to Care. This challenge looks to nurses to create potential solutions that aim to improve quality and access to equitable care and ultimately help prevent, intercept or treat disease.

Amid a global pandemic, when the world needed their leadership in healthcare more than ever, nurses answered the call. Johnson & Johnson is celebrating National Nurses Month 2021 by sharing the stories of 15 nurse healthcare disruptors, just some of the many nurses who led the way through COVID-19.

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.

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 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.

Together with AONL and SONSIEL, we’re thrilled to announce the Awardees of the Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge in COVID-19 Patient Care: Jennifer Stinson, nurse scientist from The Hospital for Sick Children, and Kathleen Malouf, pediatric nurse at Monmouth Medical Center.

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 the Year of the Nurse and amid COVID-19, nurses’ understanding of patient care issues and their innovative, problem-solving mindset has been instrumental in improving care and outcomes. Learn how the NurseHack4Health virtual hackathon provided nurses with a platform to bring new ideas forward.

Many school nurses were already overwhelmed, but as districts across the country return to school amid COVID-19, they are facing the profound challenge of ensuring both student and staff safety. Six school nurses share their thoughts on the pandemic and how they’re innovating to adapt.

COVID-19 has changed the way we do almost everything—not just in healthcare settings, but in settings of all kinds. With reactivation and recovery being keywords in everyone's inboxes, now more than ever, we need designers steeped in public health to help us reimagine a safe and healthy return to social life in a pandemic environment. In this episode, nurse and service designer Brittany Merkle, MFA, RN, shares how she, alongside a multidisciplinary team, were able to create a game plan and playbook for returning to school, work, and play safely.

Together with the American Organization for Nursing Leadership and the Society of Nurse Scientists, Innovators, Entrepreneurs & Leaders, Johnson & Johnson is inviting nurses worldwide to share their innovative ideas in the Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge: COVID-19 Patient Care.

COVID-19 is taking a significant toll on the mental health of both adults and children. A student-led webinar series from The Ohio State University College of Nursing is providing children and teens with evidence-based tips to help improve their health and wellbeing amid this pandemic and beyond.

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.

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.