Nurses SHIFT Change: The National Movement to Unite Nurses for Real Change
- Nurses SHIFT Change encourages collective action through nurse-led platforms, community partners, and allies that amplify nurse voices.
- The grassroots, horizontal organization offers many opportunities for nurses to get involved in making change, from ebooks to talking scripts to community events to platforms to share their own stories.
- They believe that nurses are ready to lead beyond survival mode and shape the future of healthcare with intention, integrity, and collective strength.
We know the nursing industry needs changes. This organization is helping to get it done.
Many of us talk about how needed changes in the nursing industry are, but not everyone knows how to actually make those changes happen. And that's where Nurses Shift Change, a grassroots organization focused on mobilizing healthcare workers across the nation, comes in.
"At its core, the movement is about shifting nurses from being overworked and unheard to being visible, vocal, and influential, and using that leadership to help activate broader collective action to shape healthcare, policy, and the conditions under which care happens," representatives of the organization explained to Nurse.org.
The Nurses of Nurses Shift Change
Just like nursing itself, the nurses of Nurses Shift Change are diverse, representing the "full spectrum" of nursing in terms of roles, settings, and career stages.
The leadership of the organization consists of founders and facilitators with experiences that range from acute and critical care, advanced practice, nursing leadership, public and community health, school health, academia and research, workforce development, policy, and entrepreneurship:
- Dr. Sharon Goldfarb, NSC co-founder, co-facilitator, CA
- Tanya Lowry, NSC co-facilitator & co-founder, VA
- Dr. Danielle McCamey, NSC co-facilitator & co-founder, MD
- Dr. Lendra James, NSC co-facilitator & co-founder, NJ
- Gloria Barrera, NSC co-facilitator & co-founder, IL
- Dr. Celia McIntosh, NSC co-facilitator & co-founder, NY
- Dr. Roberto Roman, NSC co-facilitator & co-founder, FL
- Bryanna U. Patterson, NSC co-facilitator & co-founder, NY
- Sheila Caldwell, NSC co-facilitator & founder, NJ
"Our diversity of perspectives is one of our greatest strengths," the organization explains collectively. "It fuels creativity, community-building, and non-traditional problem-solving."
The range of nurses and leaders within Nurses Shift Change is a direct reflection of the intersection of how healthcare touches every part of people's lives—and the divergence of those paths fuels the mission of change.
"Our journeys reflect the real pathways of nursing," adds the NSC. "Among us are former CNAs, patient care technicians, LPNs, and nurses prepared at the associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels. We’ve lived the pipeline. We understand the system from the bedside to the boardroom, and that perspective informs everything we build."
What Nurses Shift Change Does
So what exactly does Nurses Shift Change build? Well, they build momentum, and they build movements for change.
Eschewing a traditional advocacy model, the organization explains that they operate "horizontally" rather than hierarchically. "We center culture, creativity, storytelling, and public visibility not just policy process," they note. "Nurse SHIFT Change is about professional identity, cultural voice, and collective power, not just legislative agendas."
The nurse-led grassroots movement aims to leverage shared nursing experiences—like those missed bathroom breaks, understaffed shifts, and looming workplace threats you've received personally—to real, collective action.
"Our intention is to mobilize everyone: nurses, patients, families, and communities to speak up and take action together," they explain. "At its core, the movement is about shifting nurses from being overworked and unheard to being visible, vocal, and influential, and using that leadership to help activate broader collective action to shape healthcare, policy, and the conditions under which care happens."
On a practical level, they create collective action through nurse-led platforms, community partners, and allies that amplify nurse voices. Some of their action steps include:
- Public visibility campaigns
- Community conversations and listening sessions
- Storytelling and media projects
- Advocacy and civic engagement
- Sharing tools and resources
They also list specific causes and action plans on their website with clear, practical action steps nurses can take rights way to help. For instance, they recommend nurses ask for their facility's climate-readiness plan to support a healthy environment or present workplace safety briefs to administrators to prevent workplace violence.
As just one example of the work they do, one of Nurses Shift Change's first major call to action was the nationwide Report for Duty Rally in May 2025, organized in just a few months with coast-to-coast participation and satellite locations, demonstrating how quickly nurses can mobilize and how powerful it is when communities move with them when the moment demands it.
They will be repeating that Report for Duty Rally in Washington, D.C., in May 2026, with RSVPs now being accepted on their website to attend.
Enacting Change with Solid Values
While the entire purpose of the organization is to spark change, the one aspect that remains solid and stable is its core values.
At the heart of everything they do is a focus on humanity, ethics, social justice, and science (HESS).
In keeping with that focus, Nurses Shift Change works towards three pathways in its work:
Priority Lane #1: Values & Unity
"Our foundation is unifying nursing around shared values, breaking down silos, and creating national unity beyond traditional associations and bureaucracy," they note.
Priority Lane #2: People Power & Infrastructure
This priority lane is focused on building organizers, leadership, funding, and operational capacity so nurses can sustain momentum and move from moments of action to long-term impact.
Priority Lane #3: Visibility, Storytelling & Policy Influence
A large part of what the organization does is amplifying the voices of real nurses in everyday life. Elevating those voices helps shape public narrative and strengthens nursing’s presence in the workforce and policy conversations where decisions are made, they explain.
How Nurses Can Get Involved
Nurses Shift Change has what they dub "bold and unapologetic" goals for 2026 that include:
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Mobilizing one million nurses for the Report for Duty Rally and Capitol Hill Day on May 7, 2026
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Expanding nationwide satellite participation
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Growing nurse storytelling and media platforms
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Centering nursing voices in national workforce and policy conversations
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Building infrastructure for sustained local and state-level organizing
If that sounds like something you want to be a part of, you can get involved with Nurses Shift Change by:
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Joining their email list
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Following their socials: @nursesshiftchange on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, or BlueSkye
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Attending virtual conversations and listening sessions
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Engaging locally in your state
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Participating in national calls to action
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Sharing your personal story as a nurse anonymously or publicly
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Bringing colleagues into the movement
And if you want to walk away from being inspired by Nurses Shift Change to take one action, they say, let it be this:
"Speak your truth by sharing your story," the organization recommends. "Telling the truth about the nursing experience is a powerful first act of advocacy."
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