A Letter to Hollywood: Nurses Are Not Handmaidens

newtress, LPN · Mar 25, 2010

This.. is a masterpiece.

HeatwaveRN · Mar 25, 2010

:yeah:AWESOME:yeah:

evolvingrn, BSN, RN · Mar 25, 2010

That is sooooo true. I watched an old episode of scrubs the other day. Where carla (the nurse) and the resident were hanging out and he asked her if she took up photography in college and she got all upset and said "i never went to college' and then it turned into this 'social issue' of privledge/education. the whole time im thinking :eek: how can a modern tv show insinuate nurses don't have a college education.

CoffeemateCNA · Mar 25, 2010

I feel like standing up and shouting, "AMEN!" :thankya:

Thanks for posting.

mightymitern · Mar 25, 2010

Awesome! I worked as an EMT-B for 8 years, and when I decided to go to nursing school was scoffed at. "you can't do anything without a Dr's orders, (we can we have protocols) you'll be wiping butts all day(we don't have to). but wait, many of those medics I worked with are, guess what, nursing school. Some of them are doing an online program, they think it's that easy, that they do not have to do any cliniclas. Oh yea the money's better as a nurse that's why they are doing it, not because they think nursing is a valuable, HARD, physically, and mentally challenging career. It's all about just giving out meds, and sitting at the nurses station drinking coffee. And don't forget that ALL the nurses depicted on TV get a lunch AND dinner break. HHMMM, wonder where they get the idea from. there is a huge difference between the two professions, not one is better than the other. Both nurses and medics are in it (hopefully) to help the Pt's they care for. I know , I did it, w/ some great medics. Sorry don't mean to gripe but I am griping, just tired of all the medics thinking it's easy as pie, anyone can do it. Boy there are days after my shift that I long to be back on the streets in an ambulance where it was "easier". No disrespect to any EMT-B's or P's out there just please stop telling us.... pppffffft nursing I could do that with my eyes closed.

OK so come to work w/ me and do my whole shift without me telling you this:

6 patients, 5 on tele,

1) s/p MI w/ new pacer,

2) etoh,pancreatitis, severe pain, demanding more pain med & food, is NPO.

3) from group home (doesn't communicate) picc, trache, suprapubic, bowel regimen, pulls out tubes, g tube w/ hourly meds, and tpn and bolus which can only go through the J-tube because G-tube is not functioning, so all meds need to be crushed into fine powder and dissolved and put through J slowly.

4) admission, w/ dementia, UTI, high fall risk, screaming profanities (doesn't realize he is doing this), keeps climbing out of bed,needs posey, no extra staff for 1:1, oh and his Na is 118.

5) GI bleed w/ HcT of 22 getting 2 units blood, and drinking go-lytely for colonoscopy in am, (commode q 10 mins or incontinent, feeling SOB, and dizzy, tachy.

6) CMO Pt w/ all of family, call bell q5 mins because he/she is having perieds of apnea, end of life teaching was not done. How come we don't see this on TV LOL, because nobody would watch. :clown:

just a couple more things, charting, looking up labs, restart IV, get meds out on time, call MD w/ results, admit assessment, dsg changes, oh and BTW you cannot keep your coffee at the nurses station, JACHO rules. Just use your nursing judgment, who needs you first, etc. it's so easy just close your eyes and do it. ANd yes I, we (nurses) are highly college educated, skilled, professionals. :nurse: :nurse:

OK they're all yours have a great shift, and don't forget to smile.

Anxious Patient · Mar 25, 2010

From Medscape Nurses:

Dear Hollywood,
We, the nurses of the world, have something to say to you. Nurses are not what you think. Nurses are independent, highly educated, and skilled healthcare experts who save lives every single day. We work hard and are dedicated to making differences in people's lives.
And we are really sick of going home after a 12-hour shift, turning on the television, and seeing ourselves depicted as brainless bimbos. This has been going on far too long, and it has to stop.
It isn't just disrespect that comes through in Hollywood portrayals -- it's contempt, and it's not at all subtle. You scorn us in the way you pigeonhole nurses on the small screen -- it seems that we're either half-wits, nymphomaniacs, or latter-day Nurse Ratcheds

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/718032?src=mp&spon=24&uac=101920EK

ikimiwi · Mar 25, 2010

isn,t nurse Jackie a on the job drug abuser/ She may be tough ,but I hope my patients don't think I am in the getiing percs with a little on the side:confused:

mariahas4kids · Mar 25, 2010

There are reasons I do not watch "professional" shows. Worked at as a 911 dispatcher, so I know Rescue 911 was about the cops, not really about the dispatchers. Cop shows are hilarious. I really didn't know that many "donut eating" officers. My dad was a firefighter, so we make fun of all the movies that show firefighters running into burning buildings without safety equipment, say like breathing apparatus???? :eek: So when I watch medical shows, I just laugh, because it is just the same.

There is no such thing is reality TV. Who wants to see someone get up at 5:15 am, rush to use the shower before the hot water is used up by a husband and 2 teens, try to get ready when one of the kids yell upstairs that I am supposed to sign a permission slip and didn't they tell me that they needed something for school today that I didn't magically pick up on my way home from work yesterday. Then the kids start squabbling over who's turn it is to feed the dog and someone used up the last of their favorite cereal yesterday and mom, is there clean socks somewhere? Finally, ready for work, slurp down an instant breakfast because who has time to eat, pile kids in the car for early morning jazz band class, realize that I forgot my lunch, mentally think if I have any soup in my desk. Get to work, do my shift, assessing patients, working with docs, passing meds, admits, discharges, (oh my back, the beds do not go up high enough for tall nurses to put foleys in comfortably), then I can go home. Nope, have to go to the store to pick up whatever the kids forgot to tell me yesterday, we are out of milk, what's for dinner, I need help with homework. Have an adult conversation with my husband that doesn't involve bodily fluids. Oh, band concert tomorrow? Clothes need to be washed? Lunch money?

Then it starts again tomorrow... Do you think any networks would pick this up as a pilot? LOL! :lol2: I wouln't have my life anyother way. Thank goodness for my family. They help me stay insane!

Claritee · Mar 25, 2010

I :redbeathe this article!!! I was so affected by this stereotype as a child that I actually grew up thinking nurses in the hospital worked for, and could be fired by, doctors. As a child watching TV, I came to the conclusion that all doctors were men, all nurses were women, and the doctors were in charge of the nurses. As a little tomboy/feminists type of child , I was annoyed by this and had little respect for nurses because of it. Both of my grandmothers, and a few aunts and cousins were all nurses, and my mother is a PA (who encouraged me to be a NP instead). I always thought that it was crazy for them to want to work a job where they were simply servants to some "doctor dude".

I now know that nurses and doctors are independent members of the same team, not boss and employee. Hollywood, however, hasn't caught on just yet (although Hawthorne and Mercy are huge improvement).

Bubbles · Mar 25, 2010

Totally agree! Refuse to watch those programs because they are so harmful to our profession. In all my years as a hospital nurse I never saw nurses going out for lunch or swooning over doctors or getting a quickie with the pharmacist! Saw the beginning show of Nurse Jackie - nauseating garbage!! I wonder if this negative protrayal of nurses has anything to do with the fact that many of the Hollywood producers are Jewish. I am not trying to upset anyone, but when I was a student nurse only one of my classmates (out of 60) was Jewish. She was a friend and often spoke of the difficulty she experienced within her family for wanting to be a nurse. Her family did not respect nurses and considered my classmate's decision to go to nursing school something of a disgrace. Just last night there was a Law and Order program which protrayed three male nurses as being private duty nurses for a quadruplegic black woman who was unable to speak due to advanced MS. Each of these nurses were very rough looking characters and 2/3 had criminal histories. One had kept a video camera at this patient's home to protect himself from false allegations of abuse or theft by his patient and/or their family. But when he viewed the tape and saw the patient's sister beating on the patient all he did was report it to his boss who did nothing!

belgarion · Mar 25, 2010

Problem is that as long as the only place that stuff gets discussed is on sites like this. When we gripe about it here we are definitely preaching to the choir.

Maybe an e-mail campaign to Dr. Phil, NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, CNN. Maybe Dr. Oz. Surely one of the national organizations that claims to "be there" for nurses could set up enough of a stink to at least throw a little public notice on the subject.