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American Nurses Association The official site of the American Nurses Association - http://joinana.org Championing nurses, pioneering healthcare innovation, and igniting change.

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In recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month, we celebrate the contributions of Hispanic nurses whose leadership strengthen...
10/11/2026

In recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month, we celebrate the contributions of Hispanic nurses whose leadership strengthens the profession and improves the health of communities nationwide. Grace Grau, DNP, CRNP, ACNP-BC, AACC, FAAN, embodies that legacy. Recently sworn in as President of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN), she brings more than 40 years of nursing experience, advocacy, and belief in The Power of Nurses® to change lives. She knows what it means to rise, rebuild, and lead with purpose.

Married at 16, a mother at 19, a survivor of domestic abuse, and once dismissed from nursing school, Grace refused to let setbacks define her. With her parents’ support, she reapplied, graduated, and built an extraordinary career as a nurse, nurse practitioner, educator, researcher, advocate, and mentor.

Graduating from nursing school remains one of her proudest achievements.

"If I had not graduated, I would not have been able to impact so many lives,” she says.

For more than two decades, Grace focused on women’s cardiovascular health, advocating for patients whose conditions were too often misunderstood or overlooked. Her holistic care helped patients feel seen, heard, and empowered.

“The best thing of my life has been being a clinician,” she says. “Whether it’s doing a skill, holding a hand, or whispering, ‘It’s going to be okay.’”

Her impact extends beyond patient care. In 2016, Grace founded NAHN’s Alabama chapter after three years of recruiting Hispanic nurses. The “small but mighty” chapter has helped develop future nurse leaders and recruit nearly 8,000 Hispanic participants into the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program.

As NAHN president, Grace is advancing that mission by growing the Hispanic nursing pipeline, strengthening nurse leadership, supporting bedside nurses, advancing health access, and honoring Hispanic nurses’ contributions to healthcare.

Grace’s story reminds us of nursing’s ability to change lives, communities, and futures.

“The power of nursing is unstoppable.”

How has a nurse changed your life? Share your story at ThePowerOfNurses.org.

10/10/2026

Audrey Kandil Medical Mom will never forget the nurse who performed chest compressions on her small baby, the nurse who sprinted into the room in the early hours of the morning to save his life, or the nurse who helped her hold her precious baby boy for the first time.

Audrey went into preterm labor at 27 weeks and spent nine months in the hospital with her son. After months of surgeries and spending four months in the NICU, one month in the PICU, and two months in the step-down unit, she was finally able to take her baby home with the support of the nurses who cared for them.

After months of uncertainty, Audrey and her husband weren’t sure what the future would hold. However, the nurses who cared for their son became a source of strength, hope, and resilience, helping their family navigate one of the most difficult times in their lives.

Today, they are able to experience a sense of normalcy that Audrey once didn’t think was possible.

How has a nurse impacted your life? Share your story at ThePowerOfNurses.org.

Video content provided by Audrey Kandil.

10/10/2026

This World Mental Health Day, we are reminding more than five million nurses who spend their days caring for others that their own well-being deserves care, too.

ANA’s Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation® is a free initiative designed to support nurses across key areas of well-being, including quality of life, safety, physical activity, sleep, and nutrition.

Explore the resources and join the community at hnhn.org.

“A kid with cancer is one of the worst things that can happen to a family,” Lexi DiGilio, BSN, RN, said. “To compound th...
10/09/2026

“A kid with cancer is one of the worst things that can happen to a family,” Lexi DiGilio, BSN, RN, said. “To compound that with struggling to put food on the table is added stress that takes away from helping your child through treatment.”

Pediatric oncology nurses Lexi and Erica Colchao-Arnillas, BSN, RN, noticed families struggling to meet basic needs while managing the demands of cancer treatment. Food insecurity among their patients became impossible to ignore.

Sick children often miss school and the meals they receive there. Parents have difficulty balancing work and attending treatment sessions. Other families prioritize feeding their child, leaving parents and other caregivers hungry.

As a result, Lexi and Erica created a food pantry at their clinic for families receiving pediatric cancer care.

The pantry provides enough shelf-stable food to last a family about a week. Bags are tailored to family size and include items such as fruits, vegetables, grains, protein, milk, cereal, and snacks.

The pantry has also helped identify families who may not otherwise have been screened for food insecurity. Screening often happens at schools or primary care appointments – places pediatric cancer patients don’t often visit.

Patients are now screened every seven days to determine whether they need a food bag. That is important because food insecurity can change over time. A family may be able to meet its needs one month and need assistance the next, particularly when employment or other circumstances change.

Lexi and Erica believe nurses are positioned to help identify when families need extra support.

“We’re the ones at their bedside,” Erica said, “we’re right there with them, we’re doing their infusions, we’re chit-chatting. That’s where you get little tidbits of what’s going on at home and how we can help them.”

In the past year, the pantry has provided bags to more than 160 patients, feeding more than 760 household members.

This , we celebrate pediatric nurses like Lexi and Erica, who care for children and their families.

How has a nurse impacted your life? Share your story at ThePowerOfNurses.org.

Earlier this year, Kaitlyn Louchheim, APRN, FNP-C, was flying home to Phoenix from a work trip. Just after takeoff, she ...
10/08/2026

Earlier this year, Kaitlyn Louchheim, APRN, FNP-C, was flying home to Phoenix from a work trip. Just after takeoff, she noticed a passenger, Patrick McGee, walking around and rubbing his shoulder.

“I had a passing thought – ‘That guy looks like he's having some kind of cardiac event. He looks like he can't get comfortable,’” Kaitlyn recalled.

Her instincts were spot on. It was, she says, a kind of pattern recognition developed through her experience as a nurse.

As the plane was coming in for a landing, the crew called for medical professionals. Another nurse had already begun CPR when Kaitlyn reached Patrick. She took over compressions while other medical professionals and flight attendants assisted by providing rescue breaths, counting compressions, and preparing the AED.

After several rounds of CPR, Kaitlyn noticed that Patrick was breathing and had a pulse. He flickered his eyes open and was able to state his name when Kaitlyn asked.

EMS took over when the plane reached the gate. Kaitlyn went home that night relieved that Patrick was alert, but unsure if she would ever hear from him again.

Days later, she learned that Patrick was trying to find the people who saved his life. Kaitlyn contacted the hospital where he was receiving care and was connected with Patrick, his wife, and his care team. She learned that Patrick was preparing to undergo triple bypass surgery that day.

Kaitlyn stayed in touch with Patrick’s family and followed his recovery as he moved from the ICU to a step-down unit. She eventually had the chance to reunite with Patrick, along with the other nurse who started CPR, and the flight attendant who assisted them on the plane. Patrick’s surgeon told the group there was evidence that the chest compressions had been performed effectively and emphasized how important immediate CPR was to Patrick's survival.

“I'm so thankful that it worked and that Patrick has a second chance. I really feel like it wasn't his time, and I'm just so grateful that I could be a small part of that,” Kaitlyn said.

How has a nurse impacted your life? Share your story at ThePowerOfNurses.org.

✨Today is DAF Day! Your Donor-Advised Fund grant to the American Nurses Foundation can help advance our mission of ser...
10/08/2026

✨Today is DAF Day!

Your Donor-Advised Fund grant to the American Nurses Foundation can help advance our mission of serving all nurses and advancing healthcare through engagement, advocacy, leadership, and excellence. If you've already set aside charitable dollars in your DAF, today is a great day to put them into action. Make your recommendation here: https://american-nurses-association.visitlink.me/QCkzVj

“That’s your third Red Bull today and you usually only have one—what’s going on?”At Southwestern Vermont Medical Center,...
10/07/2026

“That’s your third Red Bull today and you usually only have one—what’s going on?”

At Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, nurses are empowered to take care of one another.

The facility has always had a strong peer support program for major critical incidents, but director of education and Magnet Program director Alison Camarda, PhD, RN, NPD-BC, CEN, CPEN, SANE, saw a need for more support around issues nurses experience daily, like workplace violence, difficult patient and visitor interactions, incivility, and the ongoing pressure nurses carry with them.

In 2025, Southwestern, a six-time Magnet®-designated organization, was selected as one of five recipients of a $10,000 microgrant from the American Nurses Foundation, funded by the United Health Foundation, to help expand the free Nurse Well-Being: Building Peer and Leadership Support program into rural and long-term care settings. The program is designed to help nurse-led teams use online modules and resources to reduce burnout, create a shared language around mental health, strengthen peer and leader relationships, and build healthier workplaces. The grant came at an opportune time.

“A lot of people within the organization wanted to be a little bit more involved in helping coworkers day-to-day,” Alison, an ANA-Vermont member, said. “The program aligns with that perfectly.”

It also aligned with Alison’s PhD dissertation on secondary traumatic stress in emergency nurses.

“My research explored how the work environment, the culture of autonomy and leadership, and shared decision-making may or may not impact nurses' experiences with being exposed to other people's traumas day in and day out.”

During the six-month microgrant period, Alison and her colleagues offered four Nurse Well-Being: Building Peer and Leadership Support classes and trained about 60 employees, including an entire nurse residency cohort of about 20 new nurses.

Alison, who helps run Southwestern’s award-winning ANCC Practice Transition Accreditation Program, believes it’s important to build these tools in new nurses.

“As nurses are transitioning into practice, we want them to think long-term about how they’re going to be able to succeed in this work, in this culture, while also taking care of themselves,” she said. “When you’re done with work, you have to be able to go home and be whole.”

Since its pilot, the program has continued through multi-department trainings, virtual sessions, and on-demand modules in the hospital’s learning management system. Word-of-mouth recommendations from early attendees created buzz. “A few renal dialysis nurses took the class and encouraged others to join,” said Alison. “Two cancer center staff members participated, and soon the whole department asked for training of their own.”

The program also made space for small, human reminders of care: self-care prize raffles, group coloring pages in break rooms and simple ways coworkers can check in on each other. Alison gave one example that says so much: knowing a coworker well enough to notice, “That’s your third Red Bull today and you usually only have one—what’s going on?”

That’s the heart of Alison’s work: helping nurses look out for one another, speak up when work environments are unhealthy, and remember the power they have together. As she put it, nurses need support and community—and sometimes the changes that help people feel seen, heard, and cared for start with simply paying attention.

How has a nurse impacted your life? Share your story at ThePowerofNurses.org

Southwestern Vermont Medical Center

In nursing school, Anthony Scarpone-Lambert, BSN, RN, thought a lot about the intersection of nursing and technology. He...
10/07/2026

In nursing school, Anthony Scarpone-Lambert, BSN, RN, thought a lot about the intersection of nursing and technology. He was interested in how nurses could contribute to the design of products and tools used in healthcare.

Jennifferre Mancillas, BSN, RN, RNC-NIC, had spent years at the bedside, including 7.5 years in the NICU. She was constantly looking for ways to solve problems in clinical settings and make nurses’ work safer and more efficient.

At a nurse hackathon in New Jersey, the two nurses ended up on the same team. Their project focused on the night shift.

Together, they identified a problem: Nurses often need to enter a sleeping patients’ room, but turning on an overhead light could wake the patient. Their idea was a wearable light that could help nurses see without disrupting the person in their care. That idea became uNight Light.

As they grew their customer base, Anthony and Jennifferre began talking with healthcare workers about their experiences, asking where they found professional connections and other resources, and what challenges they faced in their careers. They found that many of the tools healthcare workers needed were spread across disconnected systems.

The pair expanded their vision and created Adni, a platform connecting healthcare workers with opportunities, resources, products, and community. Today, more than 200,000 healthcare workers are part of the Adni community.

Building a company and learning how to manage a team, state taxes, or offshore manufacturing isn’t an easy thing to do. Nor was stepping away from bedside nursing.

“I like to think that the healthcare workers are now my patients, and I think that is a population that needs care now more than ever,” Anthony said.

Jennifferre believes the connection between nursing and entrepreneurship is straightforward. “The nursing process, as far as the ADPIE – we use that so often in trying to be able to find and solve solutions.”

Assess. Diagnose. Plan. Implement. Evaluate.

The same process nurses use to care for patients can also help them identify problems and create change.

Adni, Anthony, and Jennifferre’s story is one example of how nurses use their skill and expertise beyond the bedside.

How has a nurse impacted your life? Share your story at ThePowerOfNurses.org.

10/07/2026

There’s a lot of noise coming at us every day. When was the last time you actually tuned it out?

, founder of The Big Quiet, is joining us at the 2026 ANCC Magnet & Pathway Conference® to talk about finding more quiet, reconnecting with yourself, and bringing more of your potential into your work and life.

See you in Chicago, October 29–31!

Learn more and register at the link: https://magnetpathwaycon.nursingworld.org/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=dhfacebook&utm_content=app.dashsocial.com%2Famerican-nurses-association%2Flibrary%2Fmedia%2F729611279

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