Appreciation for the nursing profession drives Community Work students' project

With a bit of paint and lots of inspiration CIT Community Work students created a mural at CIT Bruce to express appreciation to nursing professionals - at the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic - and encourage CIT students training to join the workforce and care for individuals and communities.

The impactful mural, a study project of Certificate IV in Community Services (CHC42015) students Kayla Wowk, Sarah Blake, Lauren Bruce, Daniel Sheville and Melissa Heckenberg was grounded on collective action, one of the pillars of community development theory. The students' project aimed to enhance the wellbeing of CIT nursing students by improving the surroundings of their training environment.

Depicting nursing superheroes in a comic book style design, the mural is located outside the state-of-the-art nursing labs where students develop hands-on skills. CIT Nursing Teacher Lisa Burling said, "It is in the perfect location as sometimes this is where the students await assessments and looking at the mural will help them to remember the impact nursing has on the wider community and how important patient safety is."

The mural was also well received by CIT nursing students whose messages of gratitude are shown in the slide show above. "I'm glad we were able to create a project for students in another area of CIT," said Lauren. The mural reminds students about the attributes that characterise their chosen career - "Compassionate, resilient, dedicated, brave and kind."

Daniel said, "Even if COVID hadn't happened, the mural would be relevant. It reminds students that they chose a good and fulfilling career path."

"The mural has provided a ray of light during a difficult year for students and staff. It makes me smile and think how lucky we are to work in a wonderful profession," Lisa said.

Image credit: Photo George Serras - National Museum of Australia