Closing General Session: In Case of Emergency: A Filmmaker Witnesses our World (GSIII)

Carolyn Jones—author and filmmaker behind The American Nurse Project and Defining Hope—spent over ten years documenting the work of nurses across the country, a journey that led her to conclude that “without them, we don’t stand a chance.” That was before the global coronavirus pandemic that has thrust our nation’s nurses even further onto the frontlines of healthcare, addressing our physical and emotional needs before sending us back out into the world. When COVID hit, she had an opportunity to see what emergency nurses were dealing with on the front lines of the pandemic. In this session, Jones will share excerpts and stories from her book The American Nurse, and her three documentary films, including the recently released “In Case of Emergency,” shedding light on some of the biggest health care challenges facing Americans today—from the opioid crisis to gun violence to behavioral health and lack of insurance—and the ways in which nurses are able to tackle them head-on.