January 2016 — Saving Lives: Why the Media’s Portrayal of Nursing Puts Us All at Risk has won two 2015 Book of the Year awards from the American Journal of Nursing! Written by the Truth About Nursing’s Sandy Summers and Harry Jacobs Summers, the book won 2nd place awards in the History and Public Policy category and the Consumer Health category. This updated and expanded second edition is published by Oxford University Press and it joins the first edition (2009) as an AJN Book of the Year recipient. See all the awards won by Saving Lives. If you donate to the Truth About Nursing now at the $30 level, we’ll send you a free copy!
Praise for the book:
Saving Lives has a serious point, that the devaluation of nursing–both by overlooking nurses’ contributions to positive outcomes for patients, and more subtly by emphasizing their devotion, compassion and self-sacrifice over their lifesaving skills–discourages students from the field and contributes to a critical nursing shortage.
— Newsweek, Jerry Adler, Senior Editor, in his March 9, 2009 review of the first edition “The Nurse Will See You Now.” See a longer quote from Newsweek
In reviewing the second edition, Glycosmedia editor-in-chief Jim Young praised the book’s “forensic erudition,” noting that it
is a thought-provoking dissection of the depiction of nurses and nursing in the entertainment industry and media. … The detailed explanations of what nurses can and must do themselves to more realistically inform their own image will ensure that the book assumes a unique place in the chronology of the evolution of nursing practice in the 21st century.
(See the full review in pdf)
–Glycosmedia, Jim Young, editor-in-chief, January 2015
Written with the general public in mind, but with a lot of valuable information for nurses, Saving Lives outlines all the damaging images of nursing in the media including in popular TV dramas and comedies. The naughty nurse, the battle-axe nurse, they’re all described in this must-read book. Then the Summers duo discuss why and how these images minimize the highly scientific, fast-paced, demanding profession of nursing and what that means to patients. … Chapter 11 is the meat of the book. It is chock full of great tips for nurses, media, authors, general public, e.g., patients, bloggers and Internet aficionados on how to promote a better, more accurate image of nursing. Every nurse should read Saving Lives and then pass it on to their family and friends to read as well.
— ADVANCE for Nurses, Gail Guterl, editor, May 20, 2009 in her review of the first edition.
Every nurse should recognise the damage that negative portrayals of nursing in the press, films, television and even books can do to our image. … This well-researched text explores the negative effects of adverse publicity and how it inhibits our professional growth. … The book deserves wide reading. Hopefully some firebrand may even be driven to duplicate this study in the UK.
— Nursing Standard (UK), Dame Betty Kershaw, April 29, 2009 in her review of the first edition.
See more reviews and praise of Saving Lives: Why the Media’s Portrayal of Nursing Puts Us All at Risk.
