Meet Bethany Murray, PhD, RN, PMHCNS-BC, and Clinical Assistant Professor at the IU School of Nursing. (She is pictured above, far left, with IU School of Nursing students and Samantha Eads.) Dr. Murray is a practicing psychiatric and mental health Clinical Nurse Specialist. She is ANCC-certified in child/adolescent but sees clients of all ages, specifically those with comorbid mental health and developmental disabilities. Dr. Murray teaches psychiatric nursing on the Bloomington campus.
What do you enjoy most about teaching?
What I enjoy the most about teaching is watching for that “Ah, ha!” moment, or the elusive point at which students cross over from being an outsider of nursing to being an insider. I love being able to coach and mentor our students through this journey. Even though I have specific knowledge to share, I find the most satisfying part of teaching is watching students take the initiative to be responsible for their own learning and realize that education is a lifelong process, not just something we “give” you while you are in college.
I also love seeing students start to put all the pieces together across different specialties and populations. For example, students may think they want to work in emergency care but will have to know how to care for a pregnant woman, who has schizophrenia, and who is in a hypertensive crisis! Once they realize the complexity of this field, they seem to become much more interested in putting it all together and using best practice evidence to inform their care.
You are actively involved in developing study-abroad opportunities for our students. How did that passion come about and what is your vision/are your plans for IUSON’s study abroad programs? What are you currently working on?
I am a first-generation, rural Indiana woman. My parents were married very young and struggled to finish high school. It was always expected that I would go to college. I chose nursing as a career because of the broad opportunities it can provide. I love learning about other places and how other people live. In 2014, I had an opportunity to accompany the Hutton Honor’s College to the Kingdom of Eswatini (then Swaziland) for an education abroad experience.
Six nursing students went on that trip. I interviewed the students on my return and developed a model of transformational processes that student nurses go through when developing cultural understanding. This was an epiphany for me! I discovered that the cognitive dissonance - or “stress” - of encountering health systems different from our own forced students to examine their own implicit attitudes, beliefs and values. Following this experience, I was able to develop a proposal for my PhD dissertation research in public health, during which I returned to Eswatini to interview women and learn about the social and cultural factors that impacted or informed their own health decisions.
I am so excited about the opportunities that the IU School of Nursing has given me and is developing for our students in terms of education abroad and internationalization of the curriculum. Last spring, Dr. Barb deRose, Ashley Burelison, and myself visited three Schools of Nursing in Mexico City and neighboring Puebla City, then we hosted three faculty and two students from one of those universities in June. We hope to bring students to Mexico later in 2024.
At the same time, we are seeking approval to begin an education abroad initiative with Moi University in Kenya, where IU has an existing relationship.
Additionally, I am currently mentoring an MSN student in psychiatric nursing who attends Moi University through the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) program with his research on the utilization of Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral (SBIRT) services for alcohol use disorder by nurses in the rural medical clinics surrounding Eldoret, Kenya.
Anything else that you’d like to share?
In my downtime, I enjoy gardening, being outdoors, and spending time with my husband and grandchildren. We are IU Women’s Basketball fans, but I do prefer watching my 14-year-old granddaughter play basketball on her 8th-grade team! I also enjoy bargain-hunting (flea markets, garage sales, and secondhand stores), which probably arises from my upbringing combined with my strong feelings about reducing waste and protecting the environment.
