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News on Nursing in the Media
February 2012 -- Late this month press entities around the world gleefully reported that a real Swedish hospital was seeking to hire "TV-series hot nurses," which allowed some of the media to embrace the naughty nurse while seeming to just be telling the story of a notable hospital recruiting tactic. Lee Moran's February 22 Daily Mail (UK) piece, for example, not only reported on the summer recruiting ad by South General Hospital, but also included an unrelated naughty nurse image (helpfully labeled "picture posed by model"), just to show curious readers what a "TV-series hot nurse" might look like. In response to the press attention, nurse managers at the Stockholm hospital stressed that they were just trying to "catch people's attention" -- mission accomplished! -- and that professional nursing qualifications were all that really mattered in their hiring. But this is a "joke" that has been repeated countless times worldwide for decades, and it is one that some of the media seems happy to amplify whenever there is an opportunity. The result is to reinforce the association of nursing with female sexuality that makes it harder for real nurses, like those at South General Hospital, to get the respect they need to do their work. We urge the hospital and the Daily Mail to find other ways to "catch people's attention." more...
November 1, 2011 -- Today The New York Times published a very good obituary for Joyce Clifford, who led the nursing staff at Boston's Beth Israel Hospital for 25 years. Clifford pioneered the application of the "primary nursing" care model, in which one nurse is mainly responsible for each patient during the course of the patient's stay, and she advocated what the Times describes as a "partnership of equals" between nurses and physicians. Clifford later founded the Institute for Nursing Healthcare Leadership. Paul Vitello's obituary does a fine job explaining the basic significance of Clifford's work in a limited space. And the piece relies on input from nursing scholars Linda Aiken of Penn and Margaret Grey of Yale, in addition to physician and former Beth Israel CEO Mitchell Rabkin and sociology professor Mary Beth Weinberg, whose 2003 book Code Green: Money-Driven Hospitals and the Dismantling of Nursing described the demise of primary nursing at Beth Israel following its 1999 merger with Deaconess Medical Center. Rabkin, a longtime Clifford supporter, notes that he realized on the first day of his internship that "the nurses knew a hell of a lot more than I did," a statement that is impossible to imagine coming from a physician character on any current Hollywood television show. The obituary makes clear that Clifford had a masters degree in nursing and a doctorate in health planning, referring to her as "Dr. Clifford" throughout. We thank Vitello and the Times for this tribute to an innovative and influential nursing leader. more...
July 10, 2011 -- Recent press items in newspapers large and small have addressed the prospect of nursing careers, shedding light on how far society has -- and has not -- come in its perceptions about the profession. On March 28, the Daily Reflector (Greenville, NC) ran "Scouts zero in on nursing," a good report by Jennifer Swartz about Scout Out Nursing, an interactive program to introduce Scouts to careers in nursing. The program is led by Gina Woody at East Carolina University's College of Nursing in collaboration with the Beta Nu chapter of the nursing honor society Sigma Theta Tau. (See a video of the program narrated by Gina Woody). And today, the Sydney Morning Herald published Brian Lane's "Star nurses new ambitions," which describes Australian Olympic swimmer Alice Mills's training to be a nurse, a career she plans to resume pursuing after the 2012 London Olympics. These two pieces look at nursing careers from different angles, but both touch on the unfortunate gap between the public's understanding of the work, particularly as embodied in popular television shows, and the reality of nursing, which is a demanding profession that requires years of university training but enables practitioners to save and improve lives a wide variety of exciting settings. The Herald report is especially powerful in showing how far "television soap operas" are from conveying the reality of the demanding nursing profession, but the Reflector item has good elements as well, notably 11-year-old Scout Bobbie Kochlin's observation that she is drawn to trauma nursing because it "saves people's lives." We thank all those responsible for these pieces. more...
February 28, 2012 -- Tonight, as the NBA champion Dallas Mavericks played the New Jersey Nets, the Mavericks Dancers entertained the crowd and a large television audience at half-time by dressing in naughty nurse outfits and doing a sexually-oriented dance to the tune of Robert Palmer's "Bad Case of Loving You." Unfortunately, the tired but persistent naughty nurse stereotype in this dance undermines real nurses' claims to the resources and respect they need to save lives. We urge the Mavericks to avoid future use of naughty nurse imagery, and to make amends for the damage caused, perhaps with a donation to a Dallas area nursing school. more... or go straight to our letter-writing campaign!
Ridiculously easy tricks help local nurses save lives!
November 21, 2011 -- A year after The Dr. Oz Show featured naughty "nurses" dancing with Oz to promote exercise, the popular U.S. daytime program today offered what may have been an effort to make amends. In a 20-minute segment called "NURSES' SECRETS That Can Save Your Life," Oz paid tribute to nurses' knowledge. And the many nurses who appeared did convey something of nursing expertise, especially the articulate, poised career guru Donna Cardillo, who gave a capsule summary of the roles of modern nurses and the need for adequate staffing, and the nurse midwife Paula Jean Greer, who offered tips on reducing pain during certain procedures and how to use cabbage for home wound care. The nurses were admirably diverse and they all had something valuable to offer. At times Oz did seem to be humoring them a bit, but in general he conveyed a genuine respect for their health insights and a desire to learn from them. At the end, Oz even told the audience that he had learned much of what he knew in medicine from nurses! The segment was marred somewhat by the constant, condescending "secrets" approach, which presented nurses less as college-educated professionals than as a group of low-skilled helpers who had hung around health care settings long enough to have picked up basic tips 'n' tricks, some of which might strike viewers as pretty minor and hardly "life-saving." Aside from Cardillo's general summary, there was little about the advanced assessments and interventions that nurses make every day, and there was no real discussion of nursing education or advanced practice nursing. The segment seemed to be based in part on the November 2011 Reader's Digest cover story "50 Secrets Nurses Won't Tell You." Some of the secrets in the two items overlap, such as a questionable one suggesting that nurses are skeptical about all patients' accounts of their use of things like alcohol and tobacco. Today's Oz segment may have been in part a reaction to the Truth's early 2011 campaign about the show's dancing "nurse" segment, which received global press coverage. In any case, the Oz segment was vastly superior to Dr. Phil's deeply flawed effort to make up for its host's 2004 nurse-as-gold-digger comments, which conveyed almost nothing of nursing expertise. We thank Oz, the producers, and the nurses who played a part in the show. more...
The Lionel Messi of surgeon glorification
March 2, 2012 -- In CBS's new drama A Gifted Man, elite New York neurosurgeon Michael Holt resides atop a pyramid of health expertise, gazing down with some contempt at all the other physicians and even less worthy non-physicians, whose knowledge seems to be merely a small subset of his. The show focuses on the visits Holt receives from the ghost of his recently deceased physician ex-wife, who pushes him to keep afloat the local poverty health clinic that she ran while alive. Holt is a self-absorbed anti-spiritualist who alienates people, but the show presents his skills as fully justifying his over-the-top arrogance; he compares himself to peerless soccer legend Lionel Messi (September 23, 2011 episode). Other characters stand in awe -- one anesthesiologist assures a patient that Holt is not as great as everyone says, he's even better! (October 7) -- and we are expected to take it all at face value. Needless to say, in a world in which even other physicians are treated as inadequate sidekicks, nurses will barely register at all. Holt's boutique neurosurgery facility seems to be staffed solely by swaggering physicians, quivering techs, and high-tech machines, including the advanced HEPA filter that supposedly prevents all infections by itself (October 7).Of course, there is Holt's no-nonsense assistant Rita, who at one point reminds him that she "used to" be a nurse (September 30), apparently before she moved up to the key job of managing Holt's schedule. Holt keeps forgetting her nursing background, evidently because that is irrelevant to the serious health care he provides. The poor clinic, meanwhile, seems to be run by physicians, a social worker, and administrative staff; occasionally, apparent nurses (or just their forearms) will appear to hold something or hand something to physicians. And with physician characters providing all meaningful care, there are many examples of physician nursing and suggestions that health care consists solely of what physicians do. One of the executive producers is Neal Baer, a physician who also worked on NBC's ER. Tonight A Gifted Man aired its season finale, which may also be the series finale, but if the show does return, we urge producers to convey some of the central role that nurses actually play in health care. more...
2012 Project to Nurses: "Don't get mad, get elected!"
March 16, 2012 -- "The 2012 Project, a national, non-partisan campaign to increase the number of women in Congress ...will explain why it is essential for women to throw their hats in the ring in 2012. A Tuesday March 27, 2012 webinar (1:00-2:00 pm EST) will highlight the experiences and insights of two 2012 Project faculty members who will share what it takes to be a candidate, the difference women make in government, and why it is important for more women (like you!) to run. Filing deadlines have not yet passed in many states, so it's not too late!" Sign up for the meeting now!
February 2012 -- The CW's new drama Hart of Dixie is about Zoe Hart, an attractive young New York physician who finds herself taking over her dead father's family practice in the small town of Bluebell, Alabama. The show includes occasional health care scenes, and recent episodes have featured down-home nurse Addie Pickett (right). On October 17, Addie appeared but was not really introduced; she blended in with the wallpaper and might have been a receptionist. But in the October 24 episode, Addie was finally introduced as a registered nurse with 15 years experience, and she did at least show knowledge of Zoe's father's practice and the town. Addie does don gloves to help Zoe and she even collects lab results, though she doesn't always look at them. Mostly, Addie acts as adoptive older sister to the fish out of water Zoe, giving her advice about how to fit in with the locals of Bluebell, for example by going to the hair salon to gossip and show the locals that she's real. Addie is a positive character, but we haven't seen her do anything we'd really call nursing or display much health expertise yet, and it seems unlikely that viewers will consider her a real health professional like Zoe. Thus, though Hart of Dixie isn't mainly about health care, it does subtly reinforce the prevailing view that health care revolves around expert physicians who call the shots, though they may get occasional help from assistant nurses who have practical knowledge based on their years on the job. more...and see the film clips!
Wicked local public health advocates
December 2011 -- Over the past year, news items from around the world have shown nurses speaking out on important health issues and getting good coverage in the media. On February 24, the Wicked Local Sharon (Massachusetts) website posted "Sharon nurses lead no-tan pledge," a good report by Paula Vogler about a high school nurse and town nurse who are (together with the Melanoma Foundation) urging local students to pledge not to get tans, so they can avoid skin cancer. On August 7, USA Today ran a very good piece on the importance of asking questions about hospice options by Kelly Kennedy, who relied entirely on a hospice nurse and a Wisconsin nursing professor for expert comment. On November 25, the Harrow Times (UK) ran a helpful article by Suruchi Sharma about local hospital nurses who had organized a "mouth cancer exhibition" in order to help the local Asian community get "clued up" about the health risks posed by tobacco products. And on December 5, the Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia) published a good piece by Stephen Drill reporting that nurses in Victoria were protesting apparent plans to reduce nurse-to-patient ratios, which the nurses said would lead to an increase in antibiotic-resistant and potentially deadly "superbugs." These short press reports don't just give readers health information that could save their lives. They also show the public that nurses can be strong, knowledgeable health professionals. We thank those responsible for the pieces. more...
A doctor weighs in on the National Nurse
January 2012 -- This month many U.S. blogs have covered the recent introduction in Congress of the National Nurse Act of 2011, the latest version of the legislation conceived and relentlessly pursued by Oregon nurse Teri Mills to create an Office of the National Nurse. For example, on January 11, Brian Klepper posted a short piece on the blog "The Doctor Weighs In" that expresses support for the new bill. Dr. Klepper, whose doctorate is in speech, hearing, and language, reports that on December 15, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) introduced the new bill (H.R. 3679). Klepper explains that the bill "would elevate the existing Chief Nurse Officer of the US Public Health Service to the National Nurse for Public Health, a new full time leadership position that can focus nationally on health promotion and disease prevention priorities." In explaining the basic idea behind the National Nurse, Klepper quotes from the op-ed Mills originally published in The New York Times in 2005 (see our analysis of that op-ed). The excerpt argues that nurses are trusted professionals with a preventative focus that could address some of the nation's most pressing health problems. Klepper endorses these ideas, noting that "physicians may drive care, but nurses are on the front line with patients delivering it," and he urges readers to contact their Representatives to express support for the bill. This is a helpful post, though the suggestion that physicians "drive" care while nurses "deliver" it misses the scope and importance of nurses' autonomous practice. Nurses do deliver care prescribed by physicians, but they also provide a range of expert nursing care that nurses drive themselves and that is independent of physicians.In fact, this care often requires nurses to advocate against physician prescriptions and care plans. In any case, we thank Klepper for his support of the National Nurse, which is a promising way to improve public health and understanding of the value of nursing. Learn more about the National Nurse campaign and click here to get involved! See the article...
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December 4, 2011 -- In tonight's episode of ABC's Desperate Housewives, major character Gaby tried to get past access restrictions at the rehabilitation facility where her husband was a resident by flirting with a male nurse, but she failed when the man simply pointed to his chest and said, "Male nurse"--meaning that he was of course gay and so not interested in Gaby. The nurse was articulate and sympathetic, but he did nothing a lay person could not do, and the first thing he did when Gaby approached was to complain that she was keeping him from reading The Help. That might have been an early hint about his sexual orientation, but it also suggests that nurses are just attendants who enforce minor rules and have time to sit around reading novels. Unfortunately, past episodes of Desperate Housewives have also reinforced nursing stereotypes. In an October 2007 show, Gaby donned naughty nurse attire as a cover to rub lotion on her husband, to covertly heal a case of the crabs she had given him. And in an April 2008 episode, the show presented a hospital nurse as a mousy, pathetic physician lackey who could be bribed into revealing sensitive patient information with free lunch at a French bistro, and who had time to leave the hospital mid-shift to eat that lunch. In tonight's episode, the show has told viewers that all men in nursing are gay, which undermines efforts to increase diversity in the profession. It almost seems like the show is on a mission to reinforce every major nursing stereotype, but if so it had better hurry up--this is its final year, and there are still some big ones that it has not yet exploited for a cheap laugh, notably the angel, the battleaxe, and the wannabe physician! We urge Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry and the other producers to make amends for the damage they've caused and to try to avoid nursing stereotypes in the future. This episode, "Putting It Together," was written by Sheila R. Lawrence. more...
2011 Annual Report: So, what have we done this year to change how the world thinks about nursing?
December 2011 -- Using many strategies, the Truth raises public awareness of how nurses save lives and improve health around the world. When decision-makers understand the value of nurses, it brings more funding for clinical practice, education, research, and residencies. This year, we continued our work to influence the widest possible audience, including in the following ways. See the full report...
December 2011 -- Items appearing in the The New Yorker over the past year offer amazingly varied portraits of nursing. They range from John Colapinto's relatively good December 2010 portrait of the powerful Duchenne muscular dystrophy advocate and nurse Pat Furlong ("Mother Courage"), on the one hand, to physician Jerome Groopman's October 2011 article about the NICU ("A Child in Time"), which reflects the writer's physician-dominated vision of health care. A short letter printed in late November in response to Groopman's NICU piece offers a more holistic vision, describing a mother's appreciation of the breastfeeding and kangaroo care initiatives her child received in the NICU. Another notable item is Ian Frazier's fair, if somewhat bemused, April 2011 "Talk of the Town" piece about a Brooklyn event held by Caribbean-American nurses to celebrate the achievements of Mary Seacole ("Two Nurses"). And a full-page University of Phoenix ad in the same issue presents a real nurse as a leading health expert and executive. But business writer Ken Auletta's October 2011 "annals of communication" piece about Jill Abramson's ascendancy to the editorship of The New York Times includes a brief description of the extensive health care Abramson received after a bad vehicle accident that suggests that only physicians played any role. All in all, The New Yorker remains fairly typical of the elite media when it comes to nursing. The magazine is certainly capable of providing its influential readership with helpful and accurate information about the role nurses play in health care, especially in shorter, less prominent items like the "Talk of the Town" piece and the mother's letter in response to Groopman. But it's more likely to ignore or condescend to nursing in "serious" articles about health care or other matters, especially when the magazine relies on physician contributors or experts. We urge the New Yorker's editors to think carefully about whether the work of the magazine's writers reflects the real nature of nursing. more...
The ends and the means: John Colapinto on Duchenne advocate Pat Furlong
John Colapinto's piece "Mother Courage" about Duchenne advocate Pat Furlong ran in the magazine's 2010 year-end issue (December 20 and 27). The piece explains that Furlong is "a health educator and a former nurse" whose sons Patrick and Christopher developed Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a "rapid, fatal muscle-wasting disease that affects males almost exclusively." Furlong fought for years to increase attention and research funding for the relatively rare disease, continuing even after both her sons had died. The piece presents Furlong more as a fierce and extraordinarily effective parent activist in the Lorenzo's Oil tradition than a health expert (thus the title "Mother Courage"). Other nurses have had a major impact on health care, but it's hard to imagine a New Yorker piece about any of them as nurses. Still, the Furlong piece does link her success to her nursing background at a few points, and the overall portrait of her as a smart, ruthlessly resourceful health leader (who acts like Nurse Jackie at some points) clearly has value. more...
The nursing diaspora: Ian Frazier checks out a tribute to Mary Seacole
Ian Frazier's short "Talk of the Town" item, which appeared in the April 25, 2011 issue, was headlined "Bedside Manner: Two Nurses." The two nurses in question are Mary Seacole and Florence Nightingale. But the piece is really about Seacole, and a recent Women's History Month tribute to her held at St. Francis College in Brooklyn by the Society for the Advancement of the Caribbean Diaspora. more...
Tomorrow's health care leaders: University of Phoenix ad upstages magazine content
Later in the same (April 25) issue, a surprisingly helpful full-page ad for the University of Phoenix appears. The ad shows a woman in a business suit looking upward and the headline: "Offering a faculty of industry professionals to inspire tomorrow's health care leaders." This woman is identified at the bottom of the page as "Diane Wilson, MSN/MHA, College of Nursing, Chief Operating Officer, Community Tissue Services." more...
Groopman on NICU nurses: Swaddling, handing, sitting, walking, placing candles, helping, and letting
The October 24, 2011 issue includes "A Child in Time: New frontiers in treating premature babies," a "medical dispatch" by regular New Yorker contributor and Harvard physician Jerome Groopman. The piece focuses on decisions to treat or not treat NICU patients. Groopman presents a typically physician-centric vision of health care, with physician work dominant and only physicians consulted as experts (along with one social worker, briefly). No nurses are even named. This is especially striking in the NICU context, where highly skilled nurses play a leading role. more...
Times not changing enough: Surgeons administered Jill Abramson's blood transfusions
In the same October 2011 issue as Groopman's NICU article, business writer Ken Auletta has an "annals of communication" piece titled "Changing Times: Jill Abramson takes charge of the Gray Lady." The article describes Abramson's recent ascendancy to the editorship of the New York Times. She is the paper's first female editor. One anecdote, included to demonstrate Abramson's resiliency, is about injuries she suffered after a truck knocked her down and rolled over her in the street, crushing her foot, snapping her femur, breaking her pelvis, and causing "extensive internal injuries." more...
Take Action! Write to the authors of these articles to let them know how you think about them. Click here for contact info. Thank you!
Heart Attack Grill: Successful protest in Las Vegas November 12!
November 12, 2011 -- Today the Truth's Las Vegas chapter held a peaceful rally in front of the new Las Vegas Heart Attack Grill to protest the anti-health restaurant's naughty nurse waitress outfits. A group of nearly 20 nurses, nursing students, and even a respiratory therapist joined forces to hand out hundreds of flyers to Grill customers and passersby. Thank you to our chapter leader Dee Riley, RN, MSN, Faculty, Nevada State College, for organizing the successful rally! Since the Grill first opened in Arizona in 2006, it has been failing and re-opening at new locations. And from the beginning, we have pursued a campaign to persuade the restaurant to stop with the naughty nurse costumes already. Although we have yet to convince the Grill to do the right thing, we have generated global press coverage about why the naughty nurse image undermines the nursing profession's claims to the respect and resources it needs to save lives. See more information on the protest on our Las Vegas chapter page.
November 2011 -- The cover story in this month's issue of Reader's Digest is "50 Secrets Nurses Won't Tell You." But in fact they will tell you . . . in this feature by Michelle Crouch, though many do so anonymously. The sub-head: "Doctors are clueless about what really happens in the beds, rooms, and halls of our hospitals. That's why we went to the experts." Actually, physicians emerge from the piece as worse than clueless. They are presented as people with a basic lack of regard for other humans, particularly in failing to provide adequate pain relief. But the broader focus of the piece is to give readers helpful tips about what happens in hospitals and how to survive there. Some of the 17 nurses quoted convey the challenges of nursing today, and they make good points about nursing skill, from saving lives to psychosocial care. One nurse points out that ABC's Grey's Anatomy is a laughable fantasy, in part because in real life nurses do most of what surgeon characters do on the show. Another nurse asks not to be told that she is "too smart to be a nurse," noting that she is not a wannabe physician. To a limited extent, we even hear about nursing autonomy and advocacy, with several references to questioning physician care plans. Some comments do suggest the great stress of nursing, and there are references to the practice of stacking long shifts, the danger of under-staffing, and the very high overall level of acuity today. Yet the piece does not quite say that nurses often confront dangerously high patient ratios, and most readers aren't going to put it together. Not all of the quotes are helpful. One nurse warns that nurses will gossip about personal details patients reveal because "we're here for 12 hours with nothing to talk about." And the piece's focus on advice from hospital direct care nurses means it does not convey the scope of nursing education or practice. Advanced practice nurses, scholars, and public health nurses are largely unrepresented. But the piece does provide a lot of valuable information about nursing. We thank Michelle Crouch and Reader's Digest. more...
That leg brace graduated first in its nursing school class!
November 3, 2011 -- Recent media about the increasing role of robots and lay persons in health care has persisted in referring to those novice health actors as "nurses." Today a TechNewsDaily item on the CBS News website described some machines Toyota is developing to help those with mobility problems--including computerized leg braces--as "robot nurses." On March 18, an Associated Press story reported that "Purdue University researchers are developing a gesture-driven robotic scrub nurse prototype that may one day relieve the nurse of some of her technical duties or replace the scrub technician who is at times responsible for fulfilling those tasks." The piece repeatedly calls the machine, which currently recognizes five hand gestures, a "robotic scrub nurse." But those robots are not thinking health professionals with years of college-level science education. On February 17, Forbes health blogger Michael Millenson described efforts to use IBM's question-answering machine Watson as a "physician's assistant." The post suggests that IBM consider "a pleasing, deferential, higher-pitched voice, the experienced and trustworthy nurse who knows her stuff, but also knows her place." The headline: "Watson: A Computer So Smart It Can Say, 'Yes, Doctor.'" Millenson claimed that he was just using "droll, tongue-in-cheek understatement" to suggest that physicians might respond better to the "deferential manner" in which nurses have traditionally treated them. But his piece exploits the handmaiden stereotype, and the headline is a weak joke about this "smart" computer being used in a role that consists mainly of saying "yes, doctor." The media seems to assume that anything or anyone who assists in health care can be called a "nurse." A current lobbying campaign by the U.S. long-term care industry to protest potential federal budget cuts includes an ad that blares: "Today, you're an accountant. Tomorrow, you're dad's nurse." Actually, no, you're not. We urge all these media creators to avoid glib statements that suggest nursing consists of performing a few simple tasks. more...
The new Truth movie has everything...
Sexual content! Raw insults! And odd, computer-generated voices!
Watch now!
October 25, 2011 -- Check out the Truth's new movie "Nursing: Isn't That Sweet?!" It's all about what happens when nurse Wendy encounters her old high school classmate Jim at a restaurant, many years later--after the two have taken their lives in very different directions! Can Wendy and Jim make a new connection? Or will things get a little ugly? Made using xtranormal software just in time for Halloween, the short video explores some chilling stereotypes that still infect public understanding of nursing. And for a different take on nursing stereotypes, check out the Truth's classic 2005 report "Nursing: Who Knew?" about a groundbreaking study in which leading researchers discover nurses' real contributions for the first time! See the video! Or if you can't access YouTube at your workplace, click here to see the video on our site. Thank you!
October 10, 2011 -- Recent news items have highlighted some aggressive policy advocacy by major nursing groups on health issues related to current U.S. economic problems. Since June, long before the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests, the National Nurses Union (NNU) has been protesting the financial industry's role in the nation's economic woes and calling for a one-percent tax on Wall Street transactions in order to fund improved health care and other vital needs that are under threat. Over time, NNU's efforts have generated increasing and often helpful press coverage. For example, on September 1, the Orlando Sentinel ran a good piece by Marni Jameson about the 61 protest rallies NNU had coordinated the day before at the district offices of Members of Congress nationwide. The rallies urged legislators to impose the one-percent tax. The article quotes one local nurse as saying that she is seeing sicker patients because people can't afford their medications and those without health insurance wait too long to seek care. We commend the Sentinel for this significant coverage of nursing advocacy. And we salute NNU for advocacy that reflects a holistic focus on some roots of the nation's health problems and shows that nurses can be courageous public health leaders. more...
September 18, 2011 -- A short but helpful August 25 item by Marianna Klebenov on the Examiner.com website reported that the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP) had recently issued an official position statement opposing corporal punishment in homes and schools--another news item highlighting aggressive policy advocacy by a major nursing group on health issues related to current U.S. economic problems. NAPNAP noted that such punishment can lead to escalating levels of violence not only against the punished child, but also by the punished child later in life, as research shows. And sadly, today an Associated Press item reported that a new study published in Pediatrics links higher levels of child abuse, particularly of infants, to the recent recession in the U.S. The AP report, though physician-centric, underlines the importance of NAPNAP's policy position. We commend Ms. Klebenov and the Examiner.com site. And we salute NAPNAP for holistic patient advocacy that shows again that nurses can be strong public health leaders. more...
Understaffed
Fall 2011 TV Preview
September 2011 -- Health-related shows in the new U.S. television season are dominated by nearly 40 physician characters, and there appears to be no major nurse character on any prime time broadcast show. Two new shows have different spins on Hollywood's health care portrayals, but neither seems likely to question the industry's view that physicians are everything. A Gifted Man (CBS, premieres Sept. 23) centers on a brash 'n' brilliant neurosurgeon, nothing new there, but the twist is that his ex-wife recently died and her ghost is back to make him a better human being! There's no sign, though, that she'll be imparting any divine wisdom about the value of nursing. Hart of Dixie (CW, Sept. 26) offers not just an awesome pun on the lead character's name, but a romantic comedy-drama about a cute young New York physician who finds herself in a small Southern town--how will she cope? It'll be without recurring nurse characters, anyway. The returning shows also remain virtually nurse-free. ABC's surgeon-worshipping Grey's Anatomy (Sept. 22) still has no significant nurse characters as it starts its eighth season. A few episodes last year did feature hunky nurse Eli, who actually displayed a little skill and briefly stood up to the physicians, but by season's end he was mainly a love interest for attending surgeon Miranda Bailey and no longer did any nursing work on screen. ABC's Private Practice (Sept. 29), a Grey's spinoff, used to have minor nurse character Dell Parker, but it killed him off two seasons ago. Fox's diagnosis-is-everything House (Oct. 3), which is starting its eighth and possibly final season, has still had no significant nurse character, unless you count all the ciphers who say "yes, doctor!" as being essentially one character. ABC's Body of Proof (Sept. 20), about an elite surgeon-turned-medical examiner, returns for a second season with no significant nurse character. Like last year, nurses will not be completely absent from the small screen. The powerful, nurse-focused off-season show Nurse Jackie (Showtime) will return for a fourth season in 2012. And a new 14-part documentary airing on BBC America, 24 Hours in the ER (Sept. 27), profiles nurses and other staff, not just physicians, at London's King's College Hospital. Sadly, the summer show HawthoRNe (TNT) was recently canceled after three seasons; the show had flaws, but it did present a strong, expert nurse executive and regularly showed bright nurses improving patient outcomes. Some non-health-related shows also have minor recurring nurse characters, but we rarely see any strong, expert nurses in clinical settings. So this year the television landscape looks set to remain dominated by the notion that health care is all about smart, commanding physicians, and nurses are little more than low-skilled helpers. more...
September 2011 -- ABC's summer drama Combat Hospital is a Canadian show about an international team of military health workers caring for the wounded near the front lines of the Afghan conflict in 2006. The first two episodes, airing in late June, indicate that Combat Hospital has some positive features for nursing. Nurse manager Will Royal holds the military rank of commander, and at times he displays authority and clinical skill. And the show seems almost obsessed with tweaking physician entitlement by making physician characters mop floors! But the show on the whole still perpetuates the same damaging myth that the more realistic Hollywood hospital shows like NBC's ER have: that physicians are the smart masters of health care and the only health workers worthy of any sustained interest, while nurses may have some skills but are there to assist. The show's five major characters are physicians. Royal is the only significant nurse character, and he is by far the least important among the health professionals. Royal functions as an unusually assertive aide-de-camp. He actually harasses one surgeon for his arrogant, caddish ways. But Royal's own lines also suggest that physicians are automatically in charge of care, no matter how inexperienced they are; he introduces one brand-new trauma physician to "your nurse." Royal's role is not unlike that of Tuck Brody in CBS's Miami Medical (2010). Brody was also a competent, aggressive black male nurse manager who could display real authority, but who was essentially a logistics manager for the trauma physician stars. Here, as there, nurses rarely play a notable role in direct care except to call out vital signs and carry out physician commands. Combat Hospital could be far worse for nursing. But it's unlikely to disrupt the popular narrative that brilliant physicians rule and pragmatic nurses serve. The show was created by Jinder Oujla-Chalmers, Douglas Steinberg, and Daniel Petrie Jr. more...
The Glades: Working as a nurse
Guest review by Marlene Bokholdt, RN, MS
September 2011 -- The Glades is a police television drama on A&E with a nurse, Callie Cargill, in one of the central roles. The main character is Jim Longworth, a Florida police detective who met Callie in the local emergency department when he came in looking for information relating to a case and the surrounding medical issues. Over the course of the summer show, which has just finished its second season, the two characters develop a personal and professional relationship. Jim frequently consults with Callie on an informal basis, hoping to advance the personal relationship as much as the contribution to his work. Callie is a smart, positive character, and the show has at times suggested that nursing has value. Unfortunately, the show has also indicated that nursing is really just a job, not an autonomous profession, and the most notable example may be Callie's ongoing pursuit of a medical degree as a way to better herself, when real nurses are far more likely to pursue graduate education in nursing. more...
August 2011 -- This month two reports from United Press International (UPI) highlighted the work of nurses in research and advocacy aimed at helping teenagers survive the health challenges of that difficult stage of life. An August 13 item reported that research to be published in the Journal of School Health had shown that Surviving the Teens, a curriculum developed by "suicide prevention expert" Cathy Strunk, significantly reduced rates of attempted suicide. The Cincinnati Children's Hospital nurse's curriculum educates teens about the warning signs of potential suicide and how to get help if needed. And an August 4 report described a recent survey by the National Association of School Nurses and Sanofi Pasteur about the risks of meningitis for those aged 11-17. The study found that 82 percent of children in that age group reported engaging in activities that put them at risk of contracting the disease, though most mothers believe their children are at little risk. The UPI piece notes that school nurses urge teens to get vaccinated, but nearly half of teens have not done so. These unsigned items are short and neither includes much detail or expert comment, but they are eye-catching examples of nurses acting as aggressive public health advocates. We thank all those responsible for these reports. more...
Nursing Times publishes Truth leaders' piece on "Do Not Disturb" tabards
September 14, 2011 -- Today, the prominent U.K. nursing journal The Nursing Times published "Do not disturb: undervaluation in progress," an op-ed by Truth executive director Sandy Summers and senior advisor Harry Summers. The piece discussed media reactions to a new program in which nurses at some U.K. hospitals conduct drug rounds wearing tabards that say "Do Not Disturb" in order to reduce interruptions that can cause potentially dangerous errors. See the full piece...
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Nurse 0D: Sexy killer nurse movie Nurse 3D starts filming
August 2011 -- In recent weeks various film media have reported that the actress Paz De La Huerta will star in Nurse 3D, a new horror film about a sexy but vengeful nurse who targets "dishonest" men for "severe" punishment. Despite suggestions by executives at the production company Lionsgate that this theme is novel and original, it is really just a variation on the classic naughty nurse stereotype that has become well-established in products including prior horror films and ads, such as the posters used to promote the 2006 release of Lionsgate's own Saw III--posters on which Nurse 3D seems to be based. Such imagery, which we call the "naughty-axe," unites the profession's naughty and battle-axe images into one unsavory package of sex and violence, and so it suggests that nursing is all about mindless feminine extremes, rather than life-saving work for skilled professionals of both genders. We hesitate to criticize media products that we have not seen, but it's hard to see how a film with this basic outline--and a promotional photo of a naked, blood-covered nurse De La Huerta--could avoid harming nursing. The film does not start production until next month, but the creators are clearly aiming to exploit the 3D format to bring viewers violence and sexuality, so it's difficult to see how the film could become less harmful to nursing unless the main character had a different job. Please join us in urging those responsible for Nurse 3D to minimize the nursing element, to show that the main character at least has some health skills, and to make amends for the damage their film will likely cause. more...and please join our letter-writing campaign!
August 2011 -- The popular Fockers comedies explore whether Chicago nurse Gaylord (Greg) Focker can meet the challenges of conventional manhood despite preconceptions about his profession, his name, and his Jewish background, but most of all, despite his father-in-law Jack Byrnes, an intense ex-CIA WASP who is obsessed with testing Greg. Mr. Focker was a bit tentative and klutzy in the original Meet the Parents, but he ultimately responded to the male nurse stereotypes that film pushed at him by offering a fairly strong defense of his work. Sadly, the sequel Meet the Fockers associated nursing with friendly mediocrity, suggesting that the job was for those with good hearts rather than keen minds. The third installment, Little Fockers, has been derided as a cynical cash-in, or an elaborate joke, for an ever-expanding crew of Hollywood stars. But the film is actually competent and sometimes amusing, and its treatment of nursing is relatively good. Greg again overcomes misunderstandings and small failures to show Jack why he is the right man for Pam and their two kids. But now Greg is a nursing manager who directs a medical-surgical unit, writes articles for the "AMA Journal," and deals with drug reps, including an attractive, articulate nurse who persuades Greg to moonlight by promoting an erectile dysfunction drug to physicians. That nurse, admittedly, is a glib party girl who tries to seduce Greg. Anyway, Greg also displays some clinical expertise, mainly helping Jack with the effects of a heart condition, though the clinical scenes also have some frat-boy sexual overtones. The film reminds us about society's preconceptions about men in nursing; the director of a private school assumes that Greg and Jack are life partners partly because Greg is a nurse. But what we end up with is that Greg is a regular guy and a talented health professional who is, yes, prone to comic misadventure. When it comes to Hollywood depictions, men in nursing could do worse. more...
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Whitless
July 2011 -- NBC's fall prime time schedule includes a new half-hour sitcom called Whitney, starring comic Whitney Cummings, who has appeared on the E! late night show Chelsea Lately. Whitney seems to be based on Cummings's stand-up themes (a little like the classic Seinfeld). The new show focuses on the lead character's relationship with her boyfriend Alex, and one preview clip finds Whitney seducing Alex with a naughty nurse outfit. This seems to be working out well, until Alex falls while trying to get out of his pants, hits his head on a table, and loses consciousness. They end up in the emergency department, where a standoffish "real" nurse seems to take Whitney for a sex worker and bars her from going back with her injured boyfriend (who soon recovers anyway!). We could interpret the plotline as a rejection of the naughty nurse and even an implication that the image threatens public health. Whitney's outfit sets in motion events that hurt Alex and impair her ability to be with him, and the "real" nurse expresses contempt for Whitney. But we think the message that will stay with most viewers of this show is that the attractive Cummings really spends a pretty long time flirting and preening in her revealing "nurse" outfit. The "real" nurse doesn't display any expertise, and to the extent she shows authority, it's more as a petty hospital bureaucrat, barring a loved one from seeing a patient--a common example of the modern battleaxe stereotype. We urge NBC and the show creators to see if they can offer observations on modern romance without using witless nursing stereotypes. more...and please join our letter-writing campaign!
July 17, 2011 -- Recent press reports show that nurses saving lives outside of the clinical setting is news, but if there is a physician there, the nurses will likely be presented as the physician's assistants regardless of what actually happened. Today, the Raleigh (NC) area television affiliate WRAL posted a fairly good item by Ken Smith reporting that a nurse driving down a local highway had helped to save the life of a police officer who had been gravely injured when a truck struck his motorcycle. The nurse, who is quoted, reportedly directed others to make tourniquets and made sure the officer's airway remained clear. But news items about another recent save are more problematic. On June 29, the Sun Journal (Lewiston, ME) reported that a man had had a heart attack while attending a lecture about heart problems at a local hospital. Daniel Hartill's piece at least credits not only the cardiologist giving the lecture with saving the man, but also several named nurses in the audience, who--based on the report--seem to have done all of the actual saving, including defibrillation, without much input from the physician. The piece does get extensive quotes from the physician and none from the nurses, and it offers a dumb Charlie's Angels-style photo suggesting that the nurses were the physician's sidekicks. The June 29 MSNBC item based on the incident was not even that subtle, leading with a headline that included the phrase "Maine cardiologist saves the audience member's life," though the piece did at least note that a "team of nurses" was part of the effort. The June 30 National Public Radio item about the incident said that the patient "was surrounded by cardiac nurses who grabbed a defibrillator and saved his life," but the item also claimed that "Dr. Phillips oversaw the rescue." An Associated Press item, which ran in The Washington Post on June 29, credited the cardiologist and the "team of nurses" and even mentioned that a nurse did the defibrillation, though again it quoted only the physician. Perhaps it's natural that the person giving the heart lecture would get more credit than those in the audience, but no piece quotes any of the nurses, and only the local piece even names them. Overall, these reports show how media assumptions work to reinforce the impression that nurses are at best physician assistant. more...
Saving lives and selling tomatoes
July 6, 2011 -- Two media items appearing today in southern Africa illustrate the tragic conditions nurses face in the region, which is plagued by low salaries, severe understaffing, and the widespread emigration of skilled health care workers. "Zim nurses 'reduced to selling fruit,'" a South Africa Press Association article on the News24 website (Cape Town), reports that nurses in Zimbabwe "have been reduced to selling tomatoes and other fruit to survive due to poor public sector salaries," according to health minister Henry Madzorera. The minister also notes that Zimbabwe has suffered a "debilitating" brain drain of nurses not only to nations like Great Britain, but also to neighboring Botswana. However, on this same day, the Botswana Gazette (Gaborone) ran the strong editorial "Pay the nurse and save lives," which makes clear that Botswana itself faces the same problems. The editorial, relying heavily on Chief Nursing Officer Thandie Kgosiesele, urges the government to find a way to retain and support the nation's health workers. It also gives readers a remarkably good sense of why nurses are important, not just in providing basic custodial care, but also in saving lives, for instance through their close observation of patients. We thank both publications for telling readers about the terrible shortages of resources that nurses face in southern Africa. more...
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Saving Lives: Why the Media's Portrayal of Nurses Puts Us All at Risk is now out in paperback, with a new foreword by bestselling nurse author Echo Heron! This edition is revised and expanded, discussing Nurse Jackie and the other new nurse shows in detail, and featuring updated information throughout. You can get an author-signed copy of the book when you become a member of the Truth or renew your membership for $30 (click here!). Please help support the Truth's effort to change how the world thinks about nursing today.
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