Nursing is the most trusted profession in the country. Really? Click on your TV and you’ll see a drug addled Nurse Jackie. You’ll see nurses making out with doctors in the linen closet on Grey’s Anatomy. And every Halloween you’ll encounter at least one “sexy nurse” at the neighborhood party. Leaves you wondering how nurses are trusted, let alone respected, at all. But they are — because anyone who has spent time in a hospital or knows a real nurse has an idea of the kind of respect a nurse deserves and the type of character s/he truly possesses.
The UCLA School of Nursing will address the issue of how nurses are portrayed in the media in the annual symposium “Nurses and the Media: A Call to Action” on May 10, 2012.
“Over the past decade, the nation’s three million nursing professionals have been quietly redefining and expanding their roles through championing quality of care improvements, spearheading research innovation, advocating for patient rights and generally challenging the status quo in ways the majority of the public is unaware,” said Courtney H. Lyder, dean and professor of the UCLA School of Nursing. “Now it is time for journalists along with the television and film industries to recognize the growing, positive influence nurses have in every aspect of health.” (newsroom.ucla.edu)
The UCLA School of Nursing, headed by Lyder, will explore nursing images and the media in the upcoming symposium.
Care to share you thoughts on how nurses should be portrayed in the media? The symposium is open to the public. To register or for more information, visit http://nursing.ucla.edu/MediaSymposium. You can also leave your comments below.
Courtney H. Lyder is the dean and a professor at the UCLA School of Nursing.
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But the truth of the matter is that drug use among RN’s is a real issue/problem for our profession. Not to mention, I can spit out 5 names of female nurses who flirt sleep with MD’s before you can say Jack Robinson. What’s the point here of “controlling our image”? Is it to stifle creativity of Hollywood? Or is it to sweep some of the never spoken about realities under the carpet?