Nurse Leaders

The pandemic unleashed an unprecedented era of innovation in new care delivery solutions– with nurses at the center. But do those solutions work to drive change and better support nurses and the patients they care for? That’s what the five nurse-led teams around the country are exploring through a pilot program from the Institute for Health Improvement and the Johnson & Johnson Center for Health Worker Innovation. Through rapid cycle testing, nurses are examining acute care delivery solutions that attract, support, and strengthen a thriving nurse workforce.

For many underrepresented students, nursing pipeline programs don’t start early enough or reach them at all. Meet the nurse who is working to change that, as a nonprofit founder raising awareness of nursing as a vital career choice and developing experiential education and long-term mentors for underrepresented students in Houston’s middle and high schools.

Nurse leaders are thinking outside the box to solve some of nursing’s current challenges and bring joy back to practice. Find out how chief nursing executive Kathy Howell is working to solve three of nursing’s common challenges at UCHealth, transforming patient care delivery, and creating a better working environment for nurses.

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.

For nurses, more flexibility and better work/life balance are essential. Solutions like Mercy Works on Demand are meeting nurses where they are by offering a gig-based approach to scheduling. Not only is Mercy’s innovative approach addressing shortages and improving patient care, it is also bringing joy back to nursing and demonstrating that a new, flexible future is possible for the profession.

Building well-being and leadership skills in nursing isn’t a new concept, but surprisingly, it hasn’t traditionally been a formal component of nursing education. As a result, many nurses enter the profession unprepared for what’s ahead. Beginning this winter, a new educational curriculum from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing will pilot a competency-based approach to developing the next generation of nurses at 10 nursing colleges nationwide, focused on empowering students with the skills needed to prioritize self-care, healthy behaviors and well-being in the healthcare work environment.

Johnson & Johnson is proud to have supported nurse innovators and entrepreneurs through the Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge Awards, which has provided grant funding for nurse-founded healthcare solutions and approaches. But the innovation journey doesn’t stop there. Here, three inspiring QuickFire Challenge awardees share what they’ve been up to since receiving their award, how their solutions have grown and expanded, and their advice for other nurses inspired to solve for healthcare’s biggest challenges.

In recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month, Adrianna Nava, president of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN), shares how this organization is working to address the needs of current and future Hispanic nurses and the communities they represent.

A former bedside nurse, USCF Health's Pat Patton’s data-backed, listen-first, feedback-driven approach to creating a supportive environment where nurses stay and thrive is working—and presents a blueprint for health systems everywhere.

Meet the Mississippi nursing student who hopes to provide compassionate care and patient advocacy to those who need it most.

In June 2022, Johnson & Johnson was a proud presenting sponsor at Aspen Ideas: Health, an annual health and medicine conference bringing together visionaries, activists, clinicians, entrepreneurs, researchers, policymakers, innovators and executives for thought-provoking discussion around some of the most important topics facing the healthcare industry today.

Claire Zangerle, Chief Nurse Executive at Alleghany Health Network, describes how Alleghany Health is improving patient care through the concept of team nursing.

Two Johnson & Johnson Nurse Innovation Fellows hope to address the problem of attrition by mentoring nursing students and bedside nurses alike with the power of innovation.

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.

As a kid, Julius Johnson, DNP, RN, FNP-BC, watched his father, an ICU nurse, run toward every crisis. Julius loved the adrenaline rush, but he realized that what he really loved was helping people, so he became a nurse.

Gina Brown, PhD, MSA, RN, FAAN, and Eileen Sullivan-Marx, PhD, RN, FAAN, are deans of two prestigious nursing schools in the U.S. Brown leads Howard University’s College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences and Sullivan-Marx leads New York University’s Rory Meyers College of Nursing. Together, they aim to tackle health disparities through an innovative collaboration in the classroom.

Lack of access to primary and mental healthcare is an issue faced by many across the country, and a situation that is even more challenging for rural communities.

Jasmine Bhatti and Ayan Said of Navi Concierge Nurses are building a platform that connects both patients and nurses seeking better outcomes in at-home care

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.

Johnson & Johnson, together with the American Nursing Informatics Association (ANIA) and the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL) proudly announce the eighth Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge: Healthcare Transformation Through Nurse-Led Tech.

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.

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.

Nurses of color have long-shaped the nursing profession and transformed healthcare, but their stories are underrepresented in the broader nursing narrative. A new nurse-led project, “Nurses You Should Know,” is using storytelling to help close the representation gap by amplifying their contributions.

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.

How has the first year of the SEE YOU NOW podcast series helped amplify nurse innovation? Oriana Beaudet, DNP, RN, PHN, Vice President of Nursing Innovation for the American Nurses Association, celebrates an inspiring and innovative year and shares her biggest takeaways from the series in a new featured article.

As the host of the SEE YOU NOW podcast series, nurse economist and health tech specialist Shawna Butler is shining a light on impactful nurse-led solutions amid COVID-19, to support and empower today’s nurse innovators and leaders and create a broader community of collaboration.

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.

From inventing a medical grade protective mask to forming an interdisciplinary prone team; developing a virtual rounding tool to creating color-coded signs to improve communication. Johnson & Johnson was excited to speak with ten U.S. nurses who have developed innovative solutions in response to COVID-19.

Last month, the inspiring nurses of the inaugural Johnson & Johnson Nurse Innovation Fellowship converged for their first in-person meeting. Together, they laid the foundation to enhance their innovation and leadership skills and began to frame the focus for their action learning projects.

Johnson & Johnson and the American Nurses Association have launched SEE YOU NOW, a new podcast series spotlighting nurse-led innovation that is addressing today's most challenging healthcare problems. SEE YOU NOW invites listeners to see nurses as they never have before – as innovators and leaders with the power to transform health.

In celebration and as a call to action related to the World Health Organization’s designation of 2020 as the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife, we asked 14 nurse leaders and innovators across the US what the Year of the Nurse means to them today, and to the future of nursing.

Ahead of the Year of the Nurse in 2020, we sat down with nurse innovation expert, best-selling author and public speaker Bonnie Clipper, DNP, MA, MBA, RN, CENP, FACHE, to hear what she’s most excited about for the future of nursing and learn about her new book, “The Nurse’s Guide to Innovation.”

Debbie Gregory, DNP, RN, was always fascinated by the intersection of health and interior design, but when she followed her passion to a design conference, she was shocked at the lack of nurses there. Learn more about how this experience led her to launch the Nursing Institute for Healthcare Design.

From a CEO in Texas to a Clinical Educator in Illinois; a Mental Health Nurse Practitioner in Arizona, to a Regional Nurse Consultant in Georgia. Meet the 12 diverse, inspired and innovative nurse leaders chosen to be a part of the first cohort of the Johnson & Johnson Nurse Innovation Fellowship.

At UnitedHealth Group’s Center for Clinician Advancement, nurse leader Mary Jo Jerde, MBA, BSN, RN, FAAN, and her team are energizing clinicians to innovate in new areas of healthcare and become leaders in their profession through programs that encourage nurses to challenge the status quo.

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.

Johnson & Johnson proudly supported nurse innovators and entrepreneurs this April who are profoundly changing human health and moving healthcare forward. Learn more about our presence at several of this month’s largest nursing conferences, including NSNA Convention, AORN Expo, and ONS Congress.

In observance of National Child Abuse Prevention Month, we’re sharing our interview with nurse innovator and educator Sheri Carson, DNP, CPNP-PC, who embraced the challenge of creating a comprehensive child abuse screening program and is hoping to inspire other nurses to bring their solutions forward.

Unique approaches to care and research are not always accepted at first, and nurse innovators everywhere often overcome many obstacles to obtain the resources and credibility needed to implement life-changing ideas and programs. This is true for Antonia M. Villarruel, PhD, RN, FAAN, professor and the Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing at The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing), who developed the successful ¡Cuídate! or “Take Care of Yourself” program.

In 2015, Janie Harvey Garner, RN, encountered public criticism of a Miss America contestant and fellow nurse who delivered her monologue wearing scrubs and a “doctor’s stethoscope.” Feeling frustrated and misrepresented after hearing the comments minimizing nurses’ roles in healthcare delivery, Janie created the Show Me Your Stethoscope Facebook group to reinforce the essential role of nursing – effectively creating one of the largest nursing organizations in the United States.

When Hiyam Nadel, RN, MBA, CGC, gives lectures to nurses, she often begins by showing a roll of tape and asking a simple question: “How many things have you done with a piece of tape - making modifications to equipment that wasn’t working quite right?”

Imagine if Florence Nightingale hadn’t worked to improve the standard of the sanitary practices used in hospitals, or if Sister Jean Ward never discovered that sunlight helped treat jaundice in newborns. Throughout history, nurses have been on the front lines of care, profoundly transforming health through the creation of new innovations that ultimately changed the standard of care to this day. By caring for the sick when others won’t, identifying smarter and better ways to heal, and developing life-saving methods, nurses are important facilitators of health across the globe. Still, many people don’t recognize the role nurses play in changing the trajectory of human health.

As the traditional role of a nurse continues to expand to help foster innovation, leadership, and entrepreneurship, nurses with excellent clinical and administrative skills are in higher demand than ever before. One program that is helping future nurses build this valuable dual skillset is the Nursing and Health Care Management (NHCM) program at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), which aims to prepare student nurses to become transformative practitioners and leaders.

There are many factors that influence the path nurses take not only as professionals, but also as individuals, in pursuit of a way to make a difference in the things they believe in. As a nurse researcher, educator, and leader of the recent National League for Nursing (NLN) "Diversity & Inclusion: Facilitating Race-Related Discourse that Matters" workshop, Kenya V. Beard, EdD, AGACNP-BC, NP-C, CNE, ANEF, FAAN, demonstrates the many reasons why nurses should work to influence and inspire change in policy and practice.

As the first nurse to be selected by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and The Lemelson Foundation as an AAAS-Lemelson Invention Ambassador, Rachel Walker, PhD, RN, is intimately familiar with nurse-driven innovation and the significant impact it has on healthcare. Dr. Walker is a nurse inventor, former rural emergency medical and disaster relief worker, assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst College of Nursing, and advocate for nurses as leaders in healthcare innovation and improvement.

Addressing cultural issues within vulnerable communities can come in many forms, and a career in nursing can take unexpected turns as opportunities arise to help communities in need. Phyllis W. Sharps, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, a recent recipient of Modern Healthcare’s Diversity in Nursing Award, shows us how a career in nursing can evolve away from the bedside.

Healthcare delivery — particularly in operating rooms across the country — changes rapidly each year, requiring nurses to innovate solutions for patients that are both effective and practical for the operating room (OR) team to implement. To help provide OR nurses with the skills needed to achieve this, the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses’ (AORN) created the Nurse Executive Leadership Seminar (NELS) series.

For years, the best practice for protecting a certain type of birth defect called an omphalocele before surgery was to dry it out, which shrinks the surface area of the exposed organs, but requires a lengthy hospital stay. Enter Roxana Reyna, MSN, RNC-NIC, WCC, CWOCN, FNP-C, a nurse with 20 years experience as a nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Nancy P. Hanrahan, PhD, RN, FAAN, executive director and associate dean of healthcare innovation and entrepreneurship at the Bouve College of Health Sciences and professor and former dean of the School of Nursing at Northeastern University, is firmly committed to evolving the reputation of nursing.

For nurses at all points of their careers, a mentor is an invaluable resource. Whether they are aspiring to take on a new role, grow in their current role, or become a stronger leader, nurses can turn to their mentors for experience-based guidance and honest advice.

When a patient is in critical care, nurses are there through every step of their care, from performing assessments and administering therapies, to educating patient families and opening new pathways to improving patient care.

What does it take to excel as a new nurse leader? How can you impact healthcare on a broader scale? These are questions that Kaitlyn A. Gregory, DNP, CRNP, FNP-BC, grappled with as she participated in the AACN Clinical Scene Investigator (CSI) Academy.

When you hear the word “hackathon,” you may not necessarily envision a room full of nurses brainstorming ideas. However, at the “Nurse Hackathon: Nurses Hacking HealthCare” event, nurses are leading the problem solving and developing solutions to issues in healthcare.

“If you hear that little voice inside you or have that little nudge to take action on an idea, go for it. Nurses are in the best position to fully see the patient experience and understand firsthand the care delivery process. Every day, as we go through the critical tasks of patient care, we see opportunities for improvement.” — Christine O'Brien MSHI, RN