School of Nursing clinical instructor uses her background in restorative justice to facilitate group discussions around such topics as faculty/staff collaboration and diversifying the faculty.
This is the latest in a series from the University of Maryland, Baltimore's Diversity Advisory Council (DAC) highlighting a student, faculty, or staff member. Read previous DAC Spotlights.
Hannah Murphy Buc, MSN, RN, CNE, brings more to her role as a clinical instructor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON) than 12 years of clinical and teaching expertise in nursing. With her background in restorative justice (RJ) circle practices, she is facilitating group discussions on a number of topics such as faculty/staff collaboration and diversifying the faculty, with more to come in the fall semester.
Murphy Buc’s calm and optimistic nature is a perfect fit for discussions that can deal with sensitive subjects, which could elicit strong emotions. She enjoys the work because it helps remind everyone why they do the work they do and to connect with one another on authentic and personal levels.
When reminiscing about the RJ work she did as an assistant professor of nursing at Notre Dame of Maryland University, Murphy Buc says the school incorporated RJ practices into everyday interactions such as staff meetings, addressing hurt or offended feelings. She acknowledges that the early stages of using RJ for everyday work took a little longer than usual because the discussions were deeper and it took time for people to talk about feelings as well as brainstorming solutions, a hallmark of RJ.
However, Murphy Buc smiles when she says that initial extra time spent getting to know one another paid dividends later on when making plans. Since the work group knew each other better as people with unique strengths, delegating tasks was expedited because they knew who would be best qualified for various responsibilities.
While Murphy Buc is just finishing her first year at UMB, she has readily attended professional development training on RJ and joined UMSON’s Restorative Justice Interest Group, which will be providing leadership in facilitating RJ processes for departments in the school in the future. She has long been a proponent for social justice, spending her undergraduate years as a Bonner Scholar at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C., doing service and social justice work. She chose to go into nursing after coordinating a free medical clinic for people experiencing homelessness in Atlanta.
Murphy Buc is working on her PhD in nursing at Catholic University of America and focusing her dissertation on a grounded theory study of the process of receiving hospice care in prison. She also enjoys raising her 5-year-old daughter, Michaela.