Plot Prominence
Portraying the professional and personal life of midwives, Call the midwife shed a lot of light on the significance of an APRN’s role in the hospital setting, as well as the effect that a nurse has on the wellbeing of the patient Particularly, the fourth episode of the 2015 season, in which the issue of safe sex and STD is discussed, deserves to be mentioned. Although the importance of making essential information available to the patients is stressed often to the nursing staff, the ways, in which significant data can be transferred to the target audience, are often overlooked, especially if modern media tools related to IT are taken into consideration. More importantly, nurses often fail to reach the target population that comes from a poor social and economic background (i.e., belonging to the lower-class layer of the population) with the essential information concerning STD and safe sex (Thomas & Mendels, 2015). As a result, the issue of informing the specified demographics on the subject of STD and pregnancy can be viewed as a rather hot-button issue for nurses. The episode, in its turn, outlines the course of actions that an APRN must take in order to address the issue properly and sends an important message that an APRN must be concerned with the needs of all patients no matter what their background, profession, or social status is.
Demographics
Seeing that the movie is targeted primarily at women, mostly women are featured as nurses. The episode in question, however, clearly aims at avoiding any gender stereotypes. For instance, the episode passes the Bechdel test (Hanson, 2015) easily.
Personality Traits
Much like any other episode in the show, the fourth episode favors the character traits such as compassion and openness. Traditionally, these qualities are considered essential for a nurse (Hosseini, 2007).
Professional Competencies
Therefore, the movie’s message can be considered positive. As a result, the importance of proper communication tools is also emphasized.
Nursing Education/Administration
The episode in question features primarily experience-driven education. In other words, the characters learn valuable lessons from the life dilemmas that they have to face. Nevertheless, the lessons seem to have a very long-staying power.
Nursing as a Profession
The movie portrays evidence-based learning. In other words, though the nurses featured in the show clearly have the skills required for the provision of the corresponding services, the episode ends with a valuable lesson concerning the use of tools for enhancing mass awareness concerning specific issues, STD and pregnancy being the focus of the case in point.
Overall Assessment
Despite the fact that the episode in question idealizes nurses as altruistic and empathic people, it does help get rid of a stereotype of a nurse as a tool. The episode makes every character human, thus, allowing for a better connection between the nurse and the patient. Therefore, the means of creating the environment for a patient-centered therapy are shown in the movie. Thus, the episode can be viewed as a good tool for learning more about the role of an APRN.
Strategies for Changing the Image of Nursing
Though a negative portrayal of a nurse is rather rare in media, it still distorts the image of a nurse greatly. Therefore, it can be suggested that the person dealing with the media piece on the subject of nursing should learn about the role of a nurse and the significance of nursing from trustworthy sources, such as the official sites of nursing organizations. A personal interview with an APRN can also be considered a valid source of information.
Reference List
Hanson, R. E. (2015). Mass communication: Living in a media world. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Hosseini, M. M. (2007). Important leadership characteristics of nurse leaders in 2010. Ann Arbor, MD: ProQuest.
Thomas, H. (Writer) & Mendels, S. (Director) (2015). Episode 4. [Television series episode]. In H. Warren (Producer), Call the midwife. London, UK: Neal Street productions.