Survey: Do you think nurses are portrayed positively in the media?

manettohillnurse · Jan 10, 2007

Nurses are NOT portrayed in a positive way. I don't watch any medical shows. I'm getting up in years and I STILL get comments such as " being a nurse, you must have been a real hottie". How demeaning!!!!! I still find this attitude about nurses being "easy", alive and kicking today. I met my husband through a patient who told my husband that I gave the greatest back rubs (I think that that was meant to be a compliment) and then I found out that he told my husband that as soon as he was "finished with me, he"d have a go". The patient by the way was a married man.

sillyxaria · Nov 16, 2008

After Halloween and seeing the variations of nurse costumes available. Not so much..........there is still the need to educate.

lvnlrn · Feb 22, 2009

The main characters on hospital based TV shows are docs, the main caregivers in the hospital are nurses.
Docs in entertainment programs reprimand nurses, and say they have the power to fire the RN, this is not true.
When a scene calls for emotion, or a sincere conversation the nurses are outside, while the student doc listens carefully and takes action. I have yet to meet a student doc who knew how to listen let alone what to do with the info they had.
Nurses always call on the docs for help, not fellow nurses. Docs always identify the patient's deterioration, not nurses. (Opposite to my experience)
Recently, on ER, a patient arrested in the operating wound as the docs worked feverishly to save his life. Nurses were in the background handing the surgeon his tools, and looking with concerned admiration as he swore at them for not reading his mind. During the arrest the nurses for some reason all disappeared from the room as the heroic doc and his faithful resident ran the code by themselves. The patient died (of course). Pan out to a wide shot of an operating room empty save for these two docs left to suffer the loss of their beloved patient.
I wrote to ER on that one, told them that if they had written nurses into the scene the patient would have lived. No reply.
Nurses are 30 years behind in the media. Why aren't we all protesting?

"I wrote to ER on that one, told them that if they had written nurses into the scene the patient would have lived. No reply."

Of course you didn't get a response...but you made me smile :)

rabbitgirrl · Mar 10, 2009

The best portrayal of nursing (and others perception of nursing) I've experienced is in a Pulitzer Prize winning play entitled 'Wit'. The playwright is Margaret Edson, who once worked as a nursing unit clerk. It is about a woman's experience with terminal breast cancer- reflection's on her life and her entrance into our foriegn, dehumanizing medical world. It very accurately portrays our hospital culture.
The nurse is knowledgeable, caring, informative and a patient advocate. I could go on about the patient, doctor and resident, but this post would become far too long. It is a very funny, sad play and if you ever have the opportunity to see it- Don't Miss It!! You'll love it on many levels.
Comments from others who have seen it are appreciated!

I know this is an old thread, but I have seen Wit and think it is the only thing I have seen where the nurse is even close to being portrayed realistically! Plus, it is a great, great movie.

lananp · Mar 10, 2009

Hello there! I know it's an old thread but I wanted to give some input. I've been writing an evidence based report about vertical violence, specifically physician to nurse abuse. I have to agree with all other posts before: nurses's portrayal is overwhelmingly negative on TV shows- nurses are either invincible (thank you for that, House!), or kind, but dumb or incompetent. Well, I personally can be kind to my patients, but I will give it back to any physician who insults me, or being condescending to me: that you have a couple of years education more than me, doesn't give you the right to consider me dumb.

I'm a MEPN student (master entry in nursing; have another master degree in another field and have being successful in my previous profession) at a highly rated nursing program, and I'll never comprehend that: how come nurses, who are the most numerous group amongst healthcare professionals, can't defend their right to be treated respectfully as a part of an interdependent team? Yes, historically nurses were women and in subservient role, but that was at least half century ago.

If a physician yells at you, or being disrespectful, talk to him/her, state that is not acceptable, write it up, report him if needed. Abusers abuse because they are allowed to do so. Nursing is a profession with amazing, independent, smart, critical thinking nurses. Don't sell yourself cheap! We didn't become nurses because we failed medical school. Neither to be treated as subservient. I have so much respect for nurses after seeing what they do. Stand up for yourself because you deserve to be treated as a professional.

rabbitgirrl · Mar 10, 2009

Hello there! I know it's an old thread but I wanted to give some input. I've been writing an evidence based report about vertical violence, specifically physician to nurse abuse. I have to agree with all other posts before: nurses's portrayal is overwhelmingly negative on TV shows- nurses are either invincible (thank you for that, House!), or kind, but dumb or incompetent. Well, I personally can be kind to my patients, but I will give it back to any physician who insults me, or being condescending to me: that you have a couple of years education more than me, doesn't give you the right to consider me dumb.
I'm a MEPN student (master entry in nursing; have another master degree in another field and have being successful in my previous profession) at a highly rated nursing program, and I'll never comprehend that: how come nurses, who are the most numerous group amongst healthcare professionals, can't defend their right to be treated respectfully as a part of an interdependent team? Yes, historically nurses were women and in subservient role, but that was at least half century ago.
If a physician yells at you, or being disrespectful, talk to him/her, state that is not acceptable, write it up, report him if needed. Abusers abuse because they are allowed to do so. Nursing is a profession with amazing, independent, smart, critical thinking nurses. Don't sell yourself cheap! We didn't become nurses because we failed medical school. Neither to be treated as subservient. I have so much respect for nurses after seeing what they do. Stand up for yourself because you deserve to be treated as a professional.

I think that, like many difficult problems, there is a matrix of causes and conditions that lead to nurses' collective lack of self-defense in the hospital hierarchy.

1. Lingering feminine subservience, reinforced by the conservative nature of the demographic

2. "helping" profession, which attracts enablers from dysfunctional families, who tend to reinforce the status-quo "victim" role

3. Tendency for women and other disenfranchised groups to engage in horizontal hostility, which short-circuits attempts at organization.

4. Poor comprehension on part of the public as to what nurses do.

I think one of the important questions to ask is not so much "Why can't nurses defend their rights", as it is, "Why won't nurses defend their rights?".

Please don't get me wrong; I am very pro-woman and very, very pro-nurse, but nursing culture is totally whack. You are entirely correct; abusers will abuse until someone stops them, and the someone has to be us.

Please feel free to use any of these ideas. If you want to talk about this further, feel free to write, I am looking for people who want to do some things, or connections to those who already are doing things.

BigIsleBound · Mar 23, 2009

Well, please don't throw stones at me for this... but the image of nurses that I had gathered from the media is one reason that I had never considered nursing as a career until recently. Nurses are portrayed as mindless servants of doctors, who spend every waking moment trying to seduce married doctors and breaking up marriages so that they don't have to spend their days cleaning up poop. It didn't help matters that I have personally known families in which this has occured, where a doctor abandoned his family to run off with a nurse. Plus the belief that CNA's etc are "nurses" has people looking down on the whole profession.

rabbitgirrl · Mar 23, 2009

Well, please don't throw stones at me for this... but the image of nurses that I had gathered from the media is one reason that I had never considered nursing as a career until recently. Nurses are portrayed as mindless servants of doctors, who spend every waking moment trying to seduce married doctors and breaking up marriages so that they don't have to spend their days cleaning up poop. It didn't help matters that I have personally known families in which this has occured, where a doctor abandoned his family to run off with a nurse. Plus the belief that CNA's etc are "nurses" has people looking down on the whole profession.

I am right with you on this. I would probably have been a nurse much, much sooner had I realized the challenges involved.

From the media portrayal (remember, even patients don't really see what we do), I thought nurses were sappy fluff-headed people who couldn't cut it elsewhere.

One commercial run here in the early 90s planted a seed in my head that this image may be untrue. It said something like: Are you strong enough? are you smart enough? Can you keep up? Can you do the math, the science? Do you have the courage (shows resucitation shock) to save lives? Then maybe you could be a nurse.

I wish they still showed that commercial or something like it. People in the general public have NO idea what we do or how exciting nursing is.

colta · Apr 16, 2009

One tv show that I find doesn't bash Nurse's into the ground with idiotic clothing and random disappearing acts was House.

While yes, the nurses aren't the focus of the show by any means, usually... when walking through the hospital, if you look behind the other characters, there are nurses everywhere doing something. They all wear clothes that make sense for work and are always shown to be in and out of a patients room, there when there is a code, or something else happening.

One example, I can't remember what episode per say, but someone called a code and they cut to a shot of about 6 nurses, (male and female... whoo) all running in and taking over the various tasks. They even have a no holds barred Charge Nurse who doesn't take flack off House or any of the other doctors.

I do agree though, that more often then not, nurses are protrayed miserably on television, and because of that, the general public seems to think of a small nurses dress, blonde bombshell and stilletos whenever they hear the word nurse. I told a few friends I was going to go into nursing school, and the first thing they thought of was, "Do you get to wear a sexy nurses outfit" (a joke from them, but still).

Ah well, hopefully things will someday change.

live4today, RN · Apr 18, 2009

Hmmm...let me think... :igtsyt: NO. :no: urwlcm:

After over two decades in nursing, I'm still praying for a healthy report to be portrayed in the media when it comes to nurses. It would mean even more if the healthcare industries that hire nurses would portray and recognize us -- not just in "word", but in "deed" -- for how truly valuable we are to their place of business. :twocents:

TruCompassion · Apr 19, 2009

Well, please don't throw stones at me for this... but the image of nurses that I had gathered from the media is one reason that I had never considered nursing as a career until recently. Nurses are portrayed as mindless servants of doctors, who spend every waking moment trying to seduce married doctors and breaking up marriages so that they don't have to spend their days cleaning up poop. It didn't help matters that I have personally known families in which this has occured, where a doctor abandoned his family to run off with a nurse. Plus the belief that CNA's etc are "nurses" has people looking down on the whole profession.

Yes, nurses are portrayed horribly in the media. Nursing is very stressful, and take a really strong person to survive in this profession. I wish the media would show the abuse that nurses go through..mental, physical, verbal and even sexual abuse. Nurses are very smart individuals. They have to use the brains all the time, even for the Doctor. Imagine a Doctor without a nurse...sheesh, they'd be lost. As a nursing student, a Doctor asked me to read his notes because he couldn't read his writing..he said, "Can you read that, I can't understand it"...simply pathetic right?

Ginger's Person · Apr 19, 2009

Yeah, it wasn't until I actually met some very intelligent nurses when a family member was in the hospital who were able to make important decisions that I even got past the whole handmaiden idea about nurses, and realized that it's something a smart ambitious person would want to do. Before that, I knew what I new about nurses from the TV. Lots of my family members and neighbors are MD's, and I would never have wanted to have the kind of subservient relationship with them that I see between nurses and MD's on TV.

This looks like it could be good...

http://broadwayworld.com/article/Falco_Led_NURSE_JACKIE_Premieres_on_Showtime_68_Best_Smith_to_CoStar_20090416