#mhTV episode 34 - Arts, performance and the emotional aspects of nursing

Welcome to episode 34 [originally broadcast on Wednesday 27 January 2021] of #mhTV. Presenters Vanessa Garrity and Nicky Lambert were joined by guests Fiona Bastow and Dr Alex Mermikides to talk about arts, performance and the emotional aspects of nursing. Fiona is a nurse and lecturer in adult nursing at Edinburgh Napier University. Before embarking on her nursing career, Fiona studied for an arts degree in Drama, and she draws on these skills in her educational role. She is committed to influencing nursing education in order to engage students in high quality teaching and assessment strategies within the contemporary education and the clinical practice environment. Drawing on her range of clinical and educational experience she has developed effective partnerships to deliver innovative evidence-based education that supports students to meet the challenges of current nursing practice. In her most recent project, Fiona has enjoyed collaborating with students, community actors and her academic colleagues in bringing service user experiences to life through the medium of drama and film. This co-productive work brings together her passions for nursing care, authentic learning in education, and performance. Dr Alex Mermikides is a theatre researcher investigating the intersections between contemporary performance, healthcare and medicine. Her books include Performance and the Medical Body (2016) and Performance, Medicine and the Human (2020), both published by Bloomsbury). She runs Chimera, an arts/research network founded with an award from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Through this network, she creates performances on medical themes, often working in collaboration with healthcare specialists and patients. Her work has been featured in The Guardian, The Times Higher Educational Supplement and on This Week (BBC Radio 4). Some links to follow are: * Performance for Care - https://performanceforcare.com & https://twitter.com/perform4care * Performance, Medicine and the Human - https://www.bloomsbury.