Creating psychiatric nursing promo video opened eyes of student filmmakers

Two Brandon University psychiatric nursing students tasked with making a community health promotional video say they got as much out of the assignment as any viewer will.

“This project has changed the way I think about psychiatric nursing in many ways,” said third-year student Kim Harrison, adding that she hadn’t realized how little the general public understood about psychiatric nursing before starting a project to better explain it.

“I also realized that when working on a community project like this, there is no official end,” she said. “You are always reevaluating outcomes to better provide for individuals within the community.”

The final video, the scope of which evolved dramatically over the course of the project, is about a minute long and is now hosted on the Department of Psychiatric Nursing webpage. It features a number of brief profiles of psychiatric nurses in the community, and current students, accompanied by a voiceover that explores the meaning and wide impact of psychiatric nursing practice.

“Psychiatric nursing puts incredible emphasis on empathy and building genuine connections with patients,” said Michael Hull, a third-year student who partnered with Harrison on the video. “It’s not just about administering medication, it’s about understanding and supporting people through some of the most difficult times in their lives.”

The video helps start a conversation about psychiatric nursing, said Carrie McCallum, BU’s Student Advisor in the Department of Psychiatric Nursing. She worked with Harrison and Hull to craft the project.

“Psychiatric Nursing can be difficult to describe as a career choice, with so many different pathways an individual may take once they have completed their degree,” McCallum said. “Chances are, most people have encountered a Psychiatric Nurse at some point in Manitoba, but didn’t realize it.”

For the students, the project was part of a Community Health course. They were required to think of all aspects of the community – and why it’s important the public knows about Psychiatric Nurses, and what they do.

“Having students work on this project has brought a perspective to the field that we haven’t had in a long time – their eagerness to be in the field, and to give back to the community,” McCallum said. “Having a video means another way to open the conversation on mental health careers, and show the familiar faces we already may know.”

Harrison and Hull, who are both currently in clinical placements, said working on the project was eye-opening, but just a start.

“Working on this project showed me the complexities and the difficulties it takes to work with a community as a whole,” Hull said. “After doing some networking within the community, I realized how unaware people are about the psychiatric nursing profession. And that stigma around the profession still is alive and well. I hope this changes in the future.”

When he earns his degree, Hull said he hopes to work in an adult psychiatric facility, perhaps in Winnipeg. Harrison said she is still weighing which direction among the many options presented by psychiatric nursing she’ll be choosing after graduation.

“This project allowed me to educate people in the community about psychiatric nurses and our wide scope of practice,” she said. “I truly look forward to seeing what future students do with this project in the future, as what has been accomplished is only a beginning.”

Brandon University is the only institution training psychiatric nurses in Manitoba. In the Faculty of Health Studies, BU has a four-year program leading to a Bachelor of Science in Psychiatric Nursing that is offered at both the Brandon campus as well as in Winnipeg. Brandon University also offers a Master of Psychiatric Nursing degree that was the first of its kind in Canada.

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