Nurses' sacrifices too often go unseen. We often forget that these sacrifices extend well beyond a patient’s bedside. So, for International Nurses Week, GE Healthcare wanted to create a moving tribute that shows exactly – down to the hour – how much nurses care, reminding the world, and themselves, of their endless dedication.

We often forget that the relentless care nurses provide extends well beyond a patient’s bedside. So through in-depth interviews and research, we analyzed the records of five nurses to calculate the total hours of care they’ve given to make them visible to the world.

Introducing Canvases of Care by GE HealthCare. A brush stroke for every hour of sacrifice.

To ensure each tribute stayed true to the calculated hours of sacrifice, we constructed a custom canvas frame using dozens of infrared LEDs. When the artist’s brush broke the LED “barrier” of the frame, it counted one stroke. Our artist could see this counter in real time, working seamlessly with their creative process.

Once the brushstroke quota was reached, the portraits were still incomplete, sending a bigger message that ‘a nurse’s job is never done.’

This campaign was centered around the strategic insight that a nurses' heroism usually goes unnoticed in a medical environment. This, in combination with the overwhelming nature of the job, has led nurses to feel like quitting. By 2030, it is predicted that the US will have a shortage of around 200,000 nursing professionals.

With the goal of reimagining the future of health, GE HealthCare realized that the future of the industry is reliant on those that are on the frontline making a difference. So, this campaign works to raise awareness for clinicians’ efforts in the healthcare industry and humanizes the work of those on the frontline, providing those that they care for with a look into the individualized efforts each of them put into their work during their careers through an artistic lens.

During International Nurses Week, a total of 199696 brushstrokes traveled across the US for GE HealthCare’s Gallery of Care and continued to be showcased to global audiences in the HLTH Europe’s Art Gallery.

GE HealthCare also received 100% positive sentiment during International Nurses Week and traffic to the GEHC Instagram account increased by 24%, making this campaign highly talked about and engaged with. But most importantly, nurses everywhere were recharged with pride over the relentless care they give.