As the largest and most trusted body of healthcare professionals, nurses are uniquely positioned to lead the charge against systemic racism. But in 2023, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) research showed that 6 in 10 nurses were experiencing or witnessing racism and discrimination by their peers. This was evidence that institutions had not yet figured out how to shift the culture, despite promises following the 2020 summer of anti-racist activism and promises by nursing schools, associations, and healthcare organizations across the county.
What we found was that nurses need a community — and a rallying cry — in the fight for equity.With SHIFT Nursing, RWJF aimed to build a platform where nurses can be empowered with accessible resources for action. Through storytelling, SHIFT Nursing creates content across mediums — social media, written content, video, podcast, and documentaries — that engage nurses around equitable and anti-racist practices.
To amplify this movement for change, we needed to reach and inspire not only everyday nurses but also those in positions of power to affect the systems where they learn and work. So, we expanded our storytelling medium to a full-length documentary, surrounded by resourceful content on our website to foster conversations, raise awareness of solutions and ultimately spark action.
"Everybody’s Work: Healing What Hurts Us All" challenges the notion that if racism isn't personally experienced, it doesn't exist, and urges us to confront the reality that it impacts us all. Through the lens of fearless nurses, this documentary not only exposes the biases that result in worse health outcomes for people of color, but it captures the painful impact they have — both on patients and nurses.
In the film, nurses are challenging the status quo by fostering a community-driven approach, embracing equity-minded practices, and advocating for inclusive education, which in turn chart a healthier future for all. Their stories serve as a rallying cry for a movement, reminding us that healing from racism in healthcare transcends individual professions and identities. It's everybody's work.
Given that the documentary is heavily focused on nursing education as the foundation of professional nurse culture, our campaign efforts primarily focused on reaching nursing schools, educators, students, as well as Media, then healthcare/nursing leaders within health systems and advocates.
We anchored the launch of “Everybody’s Work” around Nurses Week in May 2024, a time when many journalists are not only elevating nurse stories, but institutions — and nurses — are looking for opportunities to celebrate the profession. We hosted the film’s first screening during Nurses Week in Washington, D.C., a location where many associations and schools are headquartered, and many policymakers and social justice advocates live and work.
In 2023, SHIFT outperformed benchmark engagement rates compared to similar advocacy brands, and through the end of 2023 highlighted conversations and research about racism in nursing. This intentionally set the stage for the release of “Everybody’s Work” in 2024, which we began teasing in March 2024. With the film debut date established, we began teasing the film over these two months prompting conversations about anti-racism in nursing to bolster our social media following and newsletter subscriptions to learn more about the film’s release.
Because we did not partner with a distribution platform, our primary call to action once the film debuted was to encourage our audience to request to host a screening. We positioned the film as an inspirational complement to curriculum for nursing educators. For workplaces and associations, we positioned it as a tool to foster healing, anti-racist conversations by featuring solutions to empower.
"Everybody's Work" is more than a film; it's a call for change on an individual and systemic level. Therefore, the tagline for the campaign is “Start your SHIFT,” which encourages audiences to visit EverybodysWork.com. There, they’ll find additional resources for education and action, including opportunities to request to host a screening of the film or provide an endorsement. Extended footage from the film has been packaged into themed playlists on YouTube to explore issues further.
With emotionally engaging and motivational content, “Everybody’s Work” has deeply resonated with its community and reached thousands of nurses nationwide. As a result of our social media and outreach efforts more than 200 nurse leaders, deans at nursing schools, and federal nurse officials attended our first screening at The Howard Theatre on May 10. The SHIFT Nursing social accounts garnered nearly 204,000 impressions on all channels during the two weeks leading up to and after the
DC screening.
The momentum from this event kicked off a movement among nurse leaders to host screenings, and since the trailer was released in April, over 500 high-value targets of nursing schools, hospitals and health systems, and nursing associations have requested to host screenings at their institutions and conferences. This includes deans, chief nursing officers, and executives of associations and other healthcare organizations. Screenings have reached classrooms, hospitals, and conferences with audiences ranging from 10 to more than 300.
In our survey of 323 nurses who participated in or hosted a screening of the film, 97% said they either strongly agreed or agreed that they learned something from “Everybody’s Work” about how nurses can help patients overcome social and cultural barriers in healthcare. As many as 95% said they were motivated to understand how they can help patients in my daily work environment overcome the social and cultural barriers in healthcare.
Screening inquiries include the following institutions and organizations:
1. President of the National Black Nurses Association (for their annual conference in July)
2. Stanford Health Care and Stanford University School of Medicine
3. Penn State Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing
4. Indian Health Service
5. American Nurses Association
6. GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ Equality
7. Chief Nurse Officer of the U.S. Public Health Service
8. National Association of Hispanic Nurses
9. American Holistic Nurses Association (for their annual conference)
10. Washington State Nurses Association (WSNA)
“Everybody’s Work” has also been officially selected for two film festivals, both of which speak to the film’s resonance with our core mission and audience, as well as the quality of the work amongst its peers.
Our social media strategy leveraged extended film footage, emotional clips, and engaging graphics to drive awareness and action around “Everybody’s Work”. By consistently using strong calls-to-action, including “Host-A-Screening,” SHIFT’s channels and post performances saw significant growth, with follower counts increasing by 240% and engagement rates reaching 2.4%. The documentary's trailer became the top-performing post, with 215,000+ reach and over 15,500 clicks, while other posts organically reached thousands of non-followers, sparking conversations and inspiring audiences to engage with the film and the movement.
Nurses across the country took to social media to share endorsements of “Everybody's Work.” From nursing students to seasoned professionals, the film resonated deeply, with many calling for it to be required viewing in healthcare education and workplaces.
