Movie reflection

The Visitor –Director Tom McCarthy

You will be completing Reflection Assignments on the four movies you will be watching during this semester. These are smaller writing assignments to teach reflective and critical thinking regarding the Nursing profession. This course is focused on three topics; Politics, Health Policy and Advocacy. Advocacy is a topic that can be Advocacy for the Profession of Nursing, Advocacy for your patients and their families and Advocacy for a Health Issue or Public concern that impacts the health of your patients or the population in general. You may rent these movies from vendors like You Tube,  Amazon.com or Netflix etc.

For this week the topic will be on Immigration.  The movie, “The Visitor” portrays a Northern immigrant center- and a pretty  sanitized version of immigration and detention for  illegal immigrants. However the You Tube  segment you will watch specifically address the crisis at our Southern border and the immigration centers being run there by and for the United States Government- While this particular segment from June 2018- this is still occurring, and each month or so the the Government shows  updated numbers that have shown   even more children have been separated, than previously reported,  through these processes at the immigration centers- In fact, some  International  Civil Rights groups have stated that America is committing Human Rights Violations through these actions. This past year  the US government was taken to court for not supplying soap, tooth paste & brush , a comb/brush or basic  human hygiene needs, like diapers and clean clothing.  Young menstruating females are left in soiled, bloody clothing without sanitary hygiene supplies in these centers.In some centers it was reveled that immigrants don’t even have enough space within these camps to lay down to sleep at night, they are physically standing or in sitting positions while being housed in these centers.  The Government lawyers told the courts that the US should not have to supply these types of services to detainees.  Even our men and women  who in the past  have been imprisoned in  Prisoner of War Camps under the Geneva Convention (The Geneva Convention was a series of international diplomatic meetings that produced a number of agreements, in particular the Humanitarian Law of Armed Conflicts, a group of international laws for the humane treatment of wounded or captured military personnel, medical personnel and non-military civilians during war ) received better care than what is being given to these immigrants/detainees.  The US government has hired out the services for many of these centers to private business, for  millions of dollars, and the US alone has moved many immigrants including  children included to military bases at our Southern borders, in the dessert into tent cities- leaving immigrants, including small children to freezing night time temperatures and  temperatures during the daytime of over 100 degrees  during summer months.  Further aggravating the essential problem, is that immigrants, including many children and teenagers are dying while in these detention centers, under US care (something which has never occurred before ) . The US Government states they are under no obligation to vaccinate these individuals for Influenza, chicken pox, measles, TB etc. – Most recently a group of  International  Physicians  arrived at a center with 100 free doses of influenza vaccine, and were turned away not allowing to inoculate as many as they had brought supplies for. This has been true with soap and hygiene products which organizations have brought and donated, the government refuses to accept these items, even though they are free. Having this many people in such close living conditions is risking the families of guards and workers in these centers, who then  bring these  potentially fatal  bacteria and disease home, exposing their own families, and bringing disease into the surrounding communities.

Answer the following questions:
1. Identify whether this movie encompasses Politics, Health Policy or Advocacy (what type of Advocacy) or more than one or more of these topics. Explain why you think the movie touches base on the topic(s) you choose.

2. How did this movie make you feel?
3. Do you feel the subject of the movie is an issue or health problem or topic that Health professionals can be an advocate for?
4. How do you think it could impact you as a future Nursing Professional and your Practice?
5. Do you think the movie presented a discussion of potential solutions or ways to combat the issue or problem? How would you approach the issue or problem? Could a Legislative bill at the state level or federal level help solve the problem or would research monies or federal research funds or grants provide support?
6. Is the problem global and cross international borders? Does that make it harder to address the problem and find solutions for it?
7. Did you like the movie? Why or why not? Were you aware of the issue prior to viewing this movie?