Today I made a special trip to Hamilton to do a TV interview for the show “For the Record” that would be aired on Cable 14 on Cogeco or Shaw cable providers. At first, I didn’t think much of the interview and was not nervous or worried about it – I thought that I understood the messages enough to be sufficiently eloquent on TV. I realized that I didn’t have a chance when I was prepped by a very experienced media relations woman, whom I would name C. She taught me very much about getting the messages out as short, succinct sentences; after all, I would probably get cut off after 1-2 sentences due to time restrictions. The entire 30 minute preparatory conversation was probably the equivalent of a dummy’s crash course in how to do a TV interview. Frankly, after that conversation, I was quite shaken up and realized how wrong everything could go.
Although I was late in leaving the house, the traffic was very good to me and I somehow got to Hamilton in around 50 minutes (and to think that I required 90 minutes!). After getting lost briefly (damn you, G-maps!), I made it to the TV station on time. I met up with M (one of the pharmacists whom I’ve met in Hamilton), who is very outspoken and very knowledgeable in pharmacy practice in Canada and practice models in other countries. In addition to C’s tremendous efforts in helping me prep for the interview, find the station and the talks to calm my nerves, my conversation with M also relieved some anxiety. (Seriously, with the capabilities of M and C, who needs anxiolytics?) Thus, when I went on TV, I was able to channel what I learned from C and broadcasted my messages as eloquently as I could.
Such messages included the following:
- the tour’s objectives in educating the public about the detrimental impacts on healthcare and pharmacists’ ability to provide patient care should these cuts follow through
- telling the public that such cuts, when implemented by the government, can only be reversed with the support of the public
- the government’s reckless healthcare funding cuts will greatly affect patients and pharmacists by decreasing pharmacists’ ability to provide best possible patient care and decreasing the quality of the healthcare system
- the decreased staffing, which the pharmacists are forced to do in light of these funding cuts, would lead to heartbreaking decisions to let go of students and their abilities to provide mentorship that is essential to providing students the practical experience needed to become ideal future pharmacists
The interview was a success and it was an incredible experience with media. While it was much harder than I thought to be interviewed on live TV (with minimal editing, if any), this experience taught me very much about how to present myself to the public. I owed the help of C and M (C especially, as I had bugged her incessantly with call after call) to calm my nerves, provide help when I required it the most and teach me how to respond to media and their potentially difficult questions while sending short succinct messages to the public at the same time. I cannot thank you both enough for everything today, and I hope to work with at least one of you in the future. (I also promise not to have nerves as shot as those of today.)
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