AACN Releases Innovative Teaching Tool Designed to Inspire Nurses to Practice with Moral Courage and Compassion

Nurse Faculty Tool Kit Based on the Documentary 5B Published Online

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 11, 2021 – The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson, is pleased to announce the release of the Trailblazing Innovation Faculty Tool Kit, developed to help prepare future nurses to serve as leaders, advocates, problem-solvers, and risk-takers throughout the healthcare system. This teaching resource centers on the themes highlighted in the award-winning documentary 5B, which provides a powerful look at the tremendous impact nurses can have on responding to public health threats, providing care to patients and communities at risk, and implementing new standards of care.

Commissioned by Johnson & Johnson, 5B chronicles the inspirational story of the nurses who took extraordinary action to care for patients in the first AIDS ward at San Francisco General Hospital in the early 1980s. This critical moment in healthcare history is conveyed through first-person accounts from nurses and other professionals who, in the absence of any existing protocols, forged a new approach to patient care that was both medically sound and humane. 5B depicts the challenges of providing health care in an atmosphere of chaos and uncertainty, while illustrating the essential roles nurses play as patient advocates, innovative problem solvers, and leaders in healthcare redesign. 

“Nurses today must commit to building more equitable systems of care that are person-centered, evidence-based, and compassionate,” said Dr. Deborah Trautman, AACN President and Chief Executive Officer. “By focusing on the lessons learned from 5B, nursing students will gain real-life insights on the impact they can have on transforming the delivery of care, which starts by recognizing the inherent dignity of all individual recipients of care.

The Trailblazing Innovation Faculty Tool Kit contains a wealth of new teaching and learning resources centered around 17 core themes, which are central to nursing practice.  These themes include:

• Allyship
• Communication
• Compassionate Care
• Environment
• Followership
• Health Equity
• Innovation 
• Leadership
• Moral Agency
• Moral Courage
• Person-Centered Care
• Resilience
• Respect
• Self-Awareness
• Self-Care
• Trauma-Informed Care
• Wellness

The tool kit was developed by a team of subject matter experts led by Edilma Yearwood, PhD, PMHCNS-BC, FAAN, Chair of the Department of Professional Nursing Practice at the Georgetown University School of Nursing & Health Studies. Other members of the advisory group include:

• Jeff Day, DNP, AGPCNP-BC, CNEcl, Clinical Associate Professor, NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing; Nurse Practitioner, New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai
   
• Cheryl Woods Giscombe, PhD, RN, PMHNP-BC, FAAN, Professor and Associate Dean, PhD Division & Program; Levine Family Distinguished Professor of Quality of Life, Health Promotion, and Wellness, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing
   
• Cassandra M. Godzik, PhD, APRN, PMHNP-BC, CNE, Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center; T32 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Dartmouth Centers for Health & Aging
   
• Geraldine Rebach, MS, BSN, BA, RN, Past President of the Greater Washington Area Association of Nurses in AIDS Care; Clinical Nurse (retired), Washington Home & Community Hospices
   
• Julie Slade, DNP, RN, Associate Professor, Nursing, Chatham University School of Health Sciences
   
• Rick García, PhD, RN, CCM, FAAOHN, Director of Nursing Education, American Association of Colleges of Nursing

Panel Presentation and Screening to Launch the 5B Tool Kit

To introduce nurse faculty to this new teaching resource, AACN is hosting a special panel presentation at the upcoming AACN Transform 2021 conference planned for December 2-4, 2021 in Dallas, TX. This program session, titled Lessons Learned from Nursing’s Early Response to the AIDS Crisis: What Does Great Look Like?, will be offered on December 2 from 4:00-5:00 pm (CT) and permits both in-person and online participation. Leaders with Johnson & Johnson and members of the tool kit advisory group will discuss the central themes from the documentary, the inspiration behind the need to tell this story, and how 5B can be used as a teaching tool to inspire the next generation of nursing students to provide compassionate care. To learn more and to register for the conference, click here.

In honor of World AIDS Day on December 1, 2021, in-person conference attendees are invited to attend a screening of 5B from 6:30-8:00 pm (CT) at the Hyatt Regency Dallas (300 Reunion Boulevard, Dallas, Texas), where Transform 2021 will be held.  No advanced registration is required to attend this event. 

For more information about the Trailblazing Innovation Faculty Tool Kit, related upcoming events and discussions, or how to access the documentary to use in your nursing program, please contact AACN at 5B@aacnnursing.org.