Posted: 3/22/2006
A student-led effort at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing (SON) is transforming a blank wall adjacent to the Student Lounge into a 150-square foot “Faces of Nursing” mural. The project depicts the diversity of the nursing workforce and is the result of collaboration among a unique group of Hopkins students, coordinated by nursing student Rayanne Harris from the SON traditional class of 2006.
After the initial design was created by mural artist Frank Gallimore, a creative writing graduate student at the Johns Hopkins University, nursing student volunteers worked through the month of February to trace the mural’s outline onto the wall. Twenty-two students attended a “paint-in” event on February 24, covering most of the mural’s surface with colorful paint. The final details, to be finished by May 1, 2006, will take considerable time and effort to complete: each one of the faces takes 5-6 hours of work.
The mural consists of five panels – about 5’6″ wide – that each show a distinctly different “face” of nursing. The first scene depicts a nurse listening to the heartbeat of a hospital patient, while another features military nurses caring for a patient in a field tent. The center panel shows community health nurses visiting a family in a neighborhood of East Baltimore rowhouses. Another nurse is shown giving Reiki to a patient, and the final image is that of a nurse educator in front of a classroom.
“This vibrant mural will inspire students, staff and faculty alike,” says Harris. “‘Faces of Nursing’ emphasizes that creativity and beauty are not lost elements of nursing. The mural’s many layers of meaning reminds students that though we have many choices in our professional paths, all of them carry common elements of compassion, knowledge and responsibility.”
Working with Harris and Gallimore are team members Bhavini Mody ’06, art director; faculty advisor Jo Walrath, PhD, RN; and staff advisors Sandra Angell, Associate Dean of Student Affairs, and Nancy Rent, Administrative Assistant in the Office of Admissions and Student Services. Funding was provided through the Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association and donations from the senior class of 2006 and the junior class of 2007.