Ottawa’s Health Department has launched a campaign to improve the public perception of its nurse-led chaplaincies.
A new video, released Monday, shows a young woman explaining that she is not a nurse, but an ambulance nurse, and that she has been a nurse for three years.
The video was part of a new campaign to increase the perception of chaplains as caring professionals and to encourage people to ask questions about them.
“It’s a job that I am passionate about,” says the woman, who identifies as an immigrant.
“The first time I saw a doctor, I was in my first year of nursing.
So that was my whole career.
I really have a passion for helping people.”
The campaign is part of the ministry’s “Make A Difference” initiative, launched in the fall to raise awareness of health-care workers.
The initiative includes a website, a new video series and an online chat room where people can share their stories and ask questions.
As well, the video includes images of chaplainry workers, including one with the title “Who is the nurse?” and one with a caption that reads “Who are you?”
The campaign aims to educate Canadians about what nurses do and how they are seen in the public eye.
“When we were in the hospital, we had the nurses.
When we were at home, we did the nurses,” says Catherine MacKinnon, a nurse-policymaker and a member of the minister’s cabinet.
“If I were a nurse in the emergency department, I would be the first person in the room.
If you were a hospital resident, you would be first in line.”
MacKenzie’s video, titled “My first day at work,” was produced by the Ottawa Public Service Commission.
She says she is looking for feedback on the video, and hopes to present it at the next Canadian Federation of Health Workers meeting, which will be held in Ottawa on April 16-17.
“We want to show people how to ask, ‘What does it look like to be a nurse?'” says MacKinnys husband, Kevin MacKinnie.
“I would like to ask that they see this as a learning experience.
We want them to see it as a part of their life.”
The ministry also released a video featuring two women who are both chaplins, one of whom is a recent immigrant.
One of the women explains how she became a nurse while she was in the middle of an emergency.
“You can’t be a good nurse without being good at what you do,” says one of the woman’s captions.
“In this case, we were doing our job,” says another woman, whose video is titled “Can I help you?”
In both videos, the women describe how they were trained as nurses by the ministry, and how it is a challenging and rewarding job.
“One of the challenges of being a nurse is that you don’t know what you’re doing,” says Mac Kinnie.
