Have you had to deal with students responding to nursing related things in media?

[CraigB-RN, MSN, RN]

This is one of those topics that I just couldn't come up with a functional title.

I mediate an interdisciplinary seminar on media portrayal of nursing and health care. Nursing students, med students, PA students etc. A couple of topics came up in discussions.

We talked about NY Med. An hour long show, that show's nurses and mostly MD's in a couple of NY and NJ hospitals. One of the nurses on the show has become very popular. The nursing students were all gaga over the show and how they wanted to be ED nurses like the ones portrayed in the show. The Docs, PA's and PT/OT students were more Meh. It's edited. Good editing can make anyone look good.

One of the nurses was fired for a social media post, is known for breaking rules and bragging about it. Told a story about leaving work after a long shift, having a Long Island Ice Tea and then going back to the hospital and helping restock crash carts. Putting things like urinals and tampons in the cart.

I had to walk a fine line and focus on reality without blaming a person/show that is motivating people.

Have you had to deal with current perceptions on nursing based on current "reality" media presentations of nurses and health care?

[SitcomNurse, BSN, MSN, EdD, RN]

As an educator in a LTC facility, I lack the glamour of the ED, Mother/Baby and even the MD office for that matter. Im in LTC.. But I often have to draw a hard line for whats real and whats not. I have my own orientees and students from 4 surrounding colleges come for clinicals and I interact with them all. I ask them what TV shows they watched growing up. What nickelodeon TV or MTV or whatver genre they are seeming to come from. I remind them that the show needed to go on, and things were resolved in 30 minutes or 60 minutes, and life went on. They cant and dont feel the anguish of the mistake, because the show moves you on to another subject/topic or love scene. In real life a huge difference difference is - Nurses remember everything, and if you were to do an act that is not compliant with good health care delivery, a Nurse will remember.

That Greys Anatomy is all "goo goo" is great. But after a tour around the facility, I ask them if they can visualize it actually happening in these halls, in this room, in that stairway. They cant. I use the enviornment they are experiencing and ask of they can see the same thing happening from TV to real life, and also discuss Immediate Jeopardy definitions and other legal aspects that are magically ignored when TV happens. I give them real life senarios from right around us, as I read Legal Nursing articles consistently, and report on them to the facility I serve and the students that come. Good luck,

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

I teach psych nursing. Talk about the media having a lack of attention to reality! One of my missions is to show my students that psych nursing and psych patients are not like what you see in the media. They begin somewhere between nervous and terrified. Many are afraid the patients will want to kill them. Many are afraid Nurse Ratched will be at work. Many picture all the patients strapped to their beds, zoned out on tranquilizers. By the end they're not so scared and many are even enjoying it.

I wish more realistic portrayals of nursing and patients were as prevalent as the non-realistic...