Reba Benschoter Interviews and Transcripts - Reba Benschoter Audio Interview

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Abstract/Description: Reba Benschoter begins her interview discussing her education background in psychology and how she wanted to apply it to the field of television. She describes how she used that knowledge to get hired at UNMC to create TV and video programming for early distance learning and group therapy with the Department of Psychology of the Nebraska Psychiatric Institute. She details the six year grant funded program working with Norfolk State Hospital to evaluate the effectiveness of television programing (1964-1970) and a partnership with VA hospitals (1968). Benchoter also describes the expansion of distance education through televisions and film at UNMC, first with the establishment of the Biomedical Communications Division (1970) and the learning resource center in the medical library (1971) and later working in conjunction with the College of Nursing and satellite campuses (1990s). She ends her interview covering her accomplishments in numerous “rural-focused projects” and planning internet-based courses during her tenure as Associate Dean of Allied Health.
Subject(s): Biomedical Communications Division
Department of Psychiatry
Nebraska Psychiatric Institute
Benschoter, Reba
Title: Reba Benschoter Audio Interview.
Name(s): Greiner, Carl, Interviewer
Benschoter, Reba, Narrator
Type of Resource: sound recording-nonmusical
Other Date: 2019-09-30
Physical Form: WAV
Abstract/Description: Reba Benschoter begins her interview discussing her education background in psychology and how she wanted to apply it to the field of television. She describes how she used that knowledge to get hired at UNMC to create TV and video programming for early distance learning and group therapy with the Department of Psychology of the Nebraska Psychiatric Institute. She details the six year grant funded program working with Norfolk State Hospital to evaluate the effectiveness of television programing (1964-1970) and a partnership with VA hospitals (1968). Benchoter also describes the expansion of distance education through televisions and film at UNMC, first with the establishment of the Biomedical Communications Division (1970) and the learning resource center in the medical library (1971) and later working in conjunction with the College of Nursing and satellite campuses (1990s). She ends her interview covering her accomplishments in numerous “rural-focused projects” and planning internet-based courses during her tenure as Associate Dean of Allied Health.
Abstract/Description: Keywords: Wittson, Cecil; Johnson, Van; Nebraska Psychiatric Institute; Department of Psychiatry; Biomedical Communications Division; learning resource and center; College of Nursing; Swanson Hall; School of Allied Health; Rural Health Opportunities Program; Interdisciplinary Training for Heathcare in Rural Areas; Rural Health Distance Learning Research Center; television; National Institute of Mental Health; Northwestern Bell Telephone Company; Norfolk State Hospital; distance education; Nebraska Educational TV; National Medical Audio-Visual Center; NEB*SAT
Identifier(s): AV-002-004-017-02
Subject(s): Biomedical Communications Division
Department of Psychiatry
Nebraska Psychiatric Institute
Benschoter, Reba
Held by: University of Nebraska Medical Center
In Collections:
Title: Reba Benschoter Interviews and Transcripts.
Name(s): Greiner, Carl, Interviewer
Benschoter, Reba, Narrator
Other Date: 2019-09-30
Abstract/Description: Reba Benschoter Ph.D. directed the UNMC Biomechanical Communications department from 1970-2000 and was an associate dean of the School of Allied Health Professions from 1985 to 1995. Benschoter helped innovate a two way closed circuit T.V project, which would keep a patient in twenty four hour contact with their medical official from the safety of their own home. In 1973, Benschoter helped design and teach the biomedical communications internship program, offering 12 months’ worth of courses to produce professional personal with the skills required to organize, plan, establish, and administer programs of biomedical communications within schools of health professionals, teaching hospitals, national organizations of health interest, and government agencies at all levels.

Reba Benschoter’s interview focuses on the establishment of distance education with two-way closed-circuit television and films at Nebraska Psychiatric Institute during the 1960s. She details how Cecil Wittson first got interested in audio-visual technology while serving in the Navy. She discusses the estimated forty films produced for the project. She also discusses a six year grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to explore distance teaching and patient treatment at Norfolk State Hospital (1964-1970).
Identifier(s): AV-002-004-017
Subject(s): Biomedical Communications Division
Department of Psychiatry
Nebraska Psychiatric Institute
Benschoter, Reba
Held by: University of Nebraska Medical Center
In Collections:

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