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

CashewLPN, LPN · Feb 15, 2001

All I'm gonna refer to is the Saturday Night Live "Staten Island Nurses" skit from a while back... it tends to be replayed on comedy central at time...

More often than not, no... we're not... to the public, we're typically a MD's man-servant obeying every wish and whim...or a pretty lady who passes out happy pills... UUUGGGHHHH!

--Barbara, LPN

Staying sane inside insanity

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · Feb 16, 2001

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?

Tiara · Feb 16, 2001

Nurses are not really taken seriously. The image is one of a cute little handmaiden. On the other hand, the hospitals have the image of charity, compassion and dedication to patients. What's wrong with this picture??

Mijourney · Feb 17, 2001

Hi. I agree with the previous posters. Nurses are frequently portrayed as spineless subordinates to the physician in the media. As it stands now in reality, the physician is the designated team leader of patient care but is not and never has been a nursing supervisor. Lawyers have begun to recognize this, and they are suing us more. Perhaps for security reasons and due to ingrained learning, many nurses still insist on blindly following the medical model of care and insist that the physician is right all the time. Nurses, the physicians are not gods nor are they our daddies/mommies. Physicians do need to have their education and achievements acknowledged. But, realize that if we as nurses want to be recognized as independent from medicine, we need to be willing to accept the consequences. That means accepting responsibility for med errors and the like. That also means pushing the media to portray us in a more serious light.

TXERRN · Feb 17, 2001

When ER first aired, Carol, RN was strong and fought for nurses rights. She fought when they cut hours, fought for unfair staffing, floating, etc. Then... they turned her into "Carol... the nurse sleeping with the doctor" and the strong nurse character failed to exist. Now there is no strong RN on the show. I work in an ER and those ER docs depend on us to know our patients. They will ask us "what's the status?" or say "go ahead and order what you think is appropriate (tests)". We do a lot more than start IV's and draw blood. It's rediculous to not show the people who spend 95% of the time with the patients: THE NURSES!

nursedude · Feb 18, 2001

Are nurses portrayed positively?

http://www.nurse-betty.com/

Need we even discuss this further?

Or here is a good one... Do a search on www.google.com for the word "nurse".

- See what comes up 1st on the return to your search " http://www.google.com/search?q=nurse "

duckie · Feb 19, 2001

Many years ago, there was a show which featured this adorable little nurse, wearing high heels, short skirt and low cut top. I'm thankful to see that TV finally put us in real clothes. Ever try running to a code in heels??? PPLLEEAAZZEE!!!! They've got a long way to go before they really figure it out. Maybe they should shadow a nurse for awhile, then I bet they'd change their toon.

dfromgbg · Feb 19, 2001

Nurses are portrayed as short-skirted doctor/patient chasers or interchangeable background figures. We need to raise public awareness of what our profession really involves! I work in a small community hospital. In one 12-hour night shift in CCU I have been a teacher (staff and patient), social worker, psych counselor, housekeeper, maintanence person, computer tech support person, IV therapist, monitor tech, patient care tech, pharmacist, physician's assistant, discharge planner, and about 20 other people because on night shift ther IS no one else to do these jobs. Patients and families get thier ideas of nurses from the soaps and "ER". They are clueless when it comes to what nurses actually DO. I love my profession -I've been in this for over 20 years- but we need to do something about the general outdated image of our profession. (Doctors need a little consciousness-raising in this respect also)!!

susanmary · Feb 20, 2001

Nurses are portrayed neither positively nor realistically in the media. I've yet to see any television show, including public television, which accurately depicts nurses.

prmenrs, RN · Feb 20, 2001

How can you have a poll like this? A yes or no answer to how nurses are portrayed in the media? IT DEPENDS!!! Depending on the media setting...you'll get different answers! A soap opera? The "Nurses" documentary on Discovery Health Channel? Benny Hill?

Please try not to make your polls so simplistic that no meaningful information can be gleaned from the results. Thanks

Brian, ASN, RN · Feb 20, 2001

Originally posted by prmenrs:
How can you have a poll like this? A yes or no answer to how nurses are portrayed in the media? IT DEPENDS!!! Depending on the media setting...you'll get different answers! A soap opera? The "Nurses" documentary on Discovery Health Channel? Benny Hill?
Please try not to make your polls so simplistic that no meaningful information can be gleaned from the results. Thanks

prmenrs,

Thanks for your feedback. These surveys are informal "yes or now" surveys, they are not intended to be considered scientific by any means They also help to open discussions on differnt topics. Please submit your ideas for survey questions to [email protected].

Thanks

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Brian Short

https://allnurses.com

It's how nurses surf the web!