Running in the RCN Scotland Library in Edinburgh until May 2024. The ‘Unmasked: Real Stories of Nursing in COVID-19’ exhibition sets out the crucial role nursing staff played in caring for people during the COVID-19 pandemic and in past pandemics.
The exhibition looks at the personal and professional challenges faced by nursing staff. It includes Michael Rosen’s patient diaries. The famous poet and children’s author contracted COVID-19 in March 2020 and was put into an induced coma for 48 days. The nurses caring for him kept a diary and wrote letters of hope and support.
It also includes an exciting partnership with theatre producing studio China Plate and features their Humans Not Heroes project which began in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Visitors will be invited to listen to a series of audio artworks which have been co-created with healthcare workers. As part of the exhibition programme, China Plate will be running a series of workshops with artist Caroline Horton, inviting RCN members to help create a seventh audio artwork to add to the Humans Not Heroes series and to tell their stories.
Booking is now open for the exhibition launch event, an evening of discussion looking at the real-life experiences of working through this and past pandemics. The programme features talks from Scottish government’s National Clinical Director of Healthcare Quality and Strategy, Professor Jason Leitch and from Professor Christine Hallett and Amanda Gwinnup on the parallels and differences between nursing during COVID-19 and the 1918 Flu pandemic.
Sian Kiely, Knowledge and Research Manager, RCN Scotland said: “Nursing staff across Scotland’s health and care services supported the country through the COVID-19 pandemic, doing their best in extremely challenging circumstances and often at great personal cost. This exhibition is an opportunity to recognise that contribution, to share some of those personal stories and to capture more, so we have a record of the impact on nursing for generations to come.
“We are delighted to be working with China Plate on their Humans Not Heroes project and to be adding voices from Scotland to this important collection.”
Talking about their involvement in the Humans Not Heroes project, one participant said: “It’s been really nice to be part of a process where you feel like your voice is heard… these are stories worth telling. These are experiences, feelings, emotions that are worth being portrayed through the arts.”
