Is Squeezing Nursing Healthy?

Is Squeezing Nursing Healthy? is an excerpt from the film Land of the Long Weekend (55 mins), produced in 1994.

Land of the Long Weekend: Australia was the first country in the world to institute a 40-hour working week. It was the first to say there was such a thing as a fair and reasonable wage. Conditions like these helped win Australia its reputation as the mythical land of the long weekend. Yet today, for those with work, overtime has increased and penalty rates are disappearing. The nation’s population is increasingly divided between the over-worked and the under-employed. Now that Australia is more the land of the level playing field than the land of the long weekend, have we abandoned the idea of the “fair go”?

Land of the Long Weekend is a Film Australia National Interest Program.

This digital resource can be used to achieve the following outcomes:
A student
4.1 responds to and composes texts for understanding, interpretation, critical analysis and pleasure
4.5 makes informed language choices to shape meaning with accuracy, clarity and coherence
4.6 draws on experience, information and ideas to imaginatively and interpretively respond to and compose texts
4.7 thinks critically and interpretively about information, ideas and arguments to respond to and compose texts
4.9 demonstrates understanding that texts express views of their broadening world and their relationships within it

Nursing in Australia has long been a female-oriented and a relatively poorly-paid occupation.
Although nursing is a demanding job, many people become nurses because they gain great satisfaction from caring for others. For them, nursing is a vocation.
But, like all industries, hospitals are under pressure to run in a more economically efficient way and to reduce costs.
If nurses are put under too much stress or pressure, they can make mistakes – and these mistakes can be life threatening to the patients and devastating for the nurse.
When nurses are allocated little time for each patient they can also feel emotionally stressed. They want to feel the satisfaction of caring for others and it is often difficult to hurry ill people.
What happens when those who are caring for the sick are too tired or too sick themselves? Where does the responsibility for patient care lie – with the health care professionals or with hospital management?

1. 1. Discuss and identify the following aspects of the video clip.
      * Purpose
      * Message(s)
      * Intended audience
      * The point of view presented.
   2. Write a 100-word summary of the video clip incorporating your points from Q1a.
2. Write a 300-word explanation of how the filmmaker conveys their message(s) using the following subheadings; subjects, dialogue, music and visual images.
3. 1. Create a poster that aims to recruit men into the nursing profession. Use at least five images and 200 words of text in your poster.
   2. Create and present a one-minute TV advertisement aimed at recruiting both men and women into the nursing profession. You will need to:
      * List visual images and their shot sizes and duration
      * List titles of music to be used
      * Write one page of script which can be voice-over or dialogue.

Literacy Activity: Focus=Analysing / Responding

1. Explain the pun in the title, ’Is Squeezing Nursing Healthy’. (1 mark)
2. What are the new problems faced by the nursing profession? (1 mark)
3. How do some of the images and the soundtrack create an impression of difficult / challenging situations? (3 marks)

Extension – This clip was made in 1994. Produce a follow up report on the state of nursing now using some of the issues raised in the clip as a guide for your report. (5 marks)