Videos create awareness of bullying in healthcare places

A scene from “Incivility and Bullying in Healthcare”

The audience for training videos on how to change workplace bullying, produced by photographer Jonathan Levin, are primarily people who work in the healthcare industry — “although they could be in any other field, since the behaviors of incivility are the same everywhere,” he says.

“The number of people leaving the healthcare industry because of this issue is staggering,” says Levin, a longtime still photographer who switched to “one hundred percent video.” “Of those who left the healthcare field, sixty percent did so because of co-workers’ negative behavior toward them.”

To help healthcare providers to work towards a more civil and respectful workplace environment, Levin was hired to produce a “Civility Toolkit” of videos by Pacers, a national organization of healthcare professionals.

A $25,000 grant was used to fund the “Incivility and Bullying in Healthcare” videos, which, because of the “challenging budget,” Levin produced almost entirely by himself.

The first two videos, presenting the overview and challenges were each 16 minutes, and the third, “Practice Vignettes,” illustrating actual situations of incivility and how they could be handled, was 33 minutes.

Presenters and Pacer members Dr. Beth Bolick, a professor at Rush University College of Nursing and Dallas-based Dr. Cole Edmonson, VP/chief nursing officer at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, were taped for on-camera scenes and voiceovers in Levin’s Logan Square studio.

Using medical center staffers instead of live action actors, Levin shot black-and-white photography and edited the stills and voiceovers into dramatic case studies for “Practical Vignettes,” video three.

“I handled the entire production myself,” Levin says. “I was DP and sound engineer, recording voiceovers at Rush University Medical Center, and the graphic designer for the motion graphics.” The background music was created in Apple Logic Pro 10 using loops and effects.

“The only real crew I had was a teleprompter operator and makeup artist for the two presenters.”

The “Incivility” series is available on YouTube, “so healthcare professionals can tune in anytime if they face this issue,” Levin says. “It’s expected that these videos will have a global reach.”

The positive reception of the videos by the healthcare community pleases Levin. “I’m at the juncture of my career, where I’m interested in working on projects that can make a difference. If there is a project that can help change lives for the better, I am there.”