We All Have a "First Time"... Tongmyong University Nursing Students Win Excellence at Busan Nurses Association Short-form Contest

"Everyone has a first time. Mistakes are also part of the growth process."

The student team "Donggani" from the Department of Nursing at Tongmyong University was recently selected as an award-winning entry in the "2025 Short-form Video Contest" hosted by the Busan Metropolitan Nurses Association. Their work, "Everyone Has a First Time," received high praise for its honest portrayal of the unfamiliarity and tension felt during the first clinical practice, as well as the budding potential for growth within that experience.

The Donggani team was inspired to participate in this contest through their university's CHIP extracurricular program. While engaging in various activities such as attending academic conferences and internships at community care centers, they were given the assignment to "participate in a contest." Although they had always been interested, they had previously hesitated to take the initiative in this field. Having taken classes and practiced together in the same section, they naturally formed a team.

Short-form Contest Excellence Award Winner 'Everyone Has a First Time'.

The starting point of their work was the contest’s subtitle, "A Touching Moment." However, they judged that, as students, it would be difficult to directly present specific cases from the clinical field. Instead, they chose to focus on their memories of their very first hospital practice. The nervousness of stepping onto a ward for the first time, the moments when even a small comment would freeze them, and the cautiousness stemming from fear of making mistakes became the backbone of their story. They aimed to portray both the fears inherent in "first times" and the growth potential that is open to everyone.

The video depicts small mistakes that are typical for beginners. Drawing inspiration from scenes in the drama "Hospital Playlist," the team recreated the awkward and clumsy moments that student nurses experience in a realistic way. The video became even more vivid as team members added their own stories, such as the time one misunderstood a request to measure "residual urine" during practice and brought a blanket instead.

However, this video goes beyond simple laughter. Rather than making fun of student nurses’ inexperience, Donggani expanded the focus to include the warm perspective of senior nurses and the solidarity among student nurses. The message is that everyone has gone through such periods, and it is by passing through them that they stand where they are today. To senior nurses, the team expressed hope that recalling their own rookie days would inspire more understanding and kindness toward new nurses, while to fellow students, they offered encouragement: "Since we’re all beginners, let’s support each other and grow together."

To make the most of the short-form format, the team also paid close attention to visual storytelling. They used practice uniforms and props to recreate the hospital atmosphere and received help from faculty and teaching assistants during filming. On the day of the shoot, there was an unexpected mishap when a prop drawer wouldn’t open, so they quickly borrowed another from a professor’s office. Although unplanned, the team embraced even this experience as just another "awkward first" in their journey.

The Donggani team said, "We are still student nurses building our professionalism," and added, "Rather than shrinking from fear of making mistakes, we hope students enjoy the learning time that is allowed to them." They also expressed their belief that today’s small mistakes will become the foundation for growing into more capable nurses in the future.

Although brief, the message from "Donggani" carries weight. The courage to reveal anxieties and mistakes that come with "first times," and the call to cross that period together in solidarity, is quietly resonating throughout the nursing community and beyond.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.