In March 2023 VICE News reported that Nevada nurse Nicole Sirotek and her group American Frontline Nurses had been spreading disinformation about Covid-19 and vaccines, while harassing those who challenged them. A particular focus was the group’s targeting of nurse practitioner Tyler Kuhk, with tactics that included meritless complaints to his employer, his nursing board, and the police.
In August 2022, The Spinoff reported that the New Zealand government planned to team up with the soap opera Shortland Street to address the nation’s nursing shortage. This move was easy to mock, but in fact even the silliest fictional media has the potential to affect how the public sees nursing—for better or worse.
These annual awards spotlight the best and worst of media for nursing We are now accepting nominations for the Truth About Nursing awards, which recognize the most notable – best and worst…
More good portrayals of nursing are coming on the BBC’s Call the Midwife and Netflix’s Virgin River. But Bob Hearts Abishola (CBS) returns with a nurse who remains determined to become a physician because she believes it has a higher status. And the prime-time landscape is still dominated by physician-centric programming, including Grey’s Anatomy, The Good Doctor, and New Amsterdam.
Each episode of Doc McStuffins sends a basic health message, usually in a narrow, physician-centric “diagnosis and treatment” framework. But wait! One of the dolls, Hallie the Hippo, is “Doc’s nurse.” At different points the Hallie character reflects most of the major nursing stereotypes, from low-skilled handmaiden to motherly angel to crusty battle-axe. Her main job often seems to be fetching the Big Book of Boo-Boos for Doc. . The show’s creator has noted that she originally saw the Hallie character as a “fumbling, bumbling mess,”
NPR on RaDonda Vaught National Public Radio has run fairly good items about Tennessee nurse RaDonda Vaught, who was recently convicted of a homicide charge in the accidental death of a patient….
RaDonda Vaught provides guidance on those offering letters of support
Chicago Tribune highlights pioneering work of local nurses
In November 2019 the paper had two good pieces about nurses improving health in innovative ways. First, it ran a substantial obituary of Vivian Meehan, a ground-breaking national leader in addressing anorexia nervosa and related conditions. And a later article profiled sexual assault forensic nurses, discussing their vital work at the intersection of health care and law.
The Truth About Nursing stands with the people of Ukraine
We support the nurses of Ukraine and everyone affected by the Russian invasion of February 2022. We call on all involved in the conflict to avoid harming health workers and facilities, and we urge anyone who can to support relief operations for the people of Ukraine.
Washington Post aims to debunk myths about U.S. nursing
A fairly good February 2022 feature, “Five myths about nursing,” addresses some misconceptions about the profession. The piece focuses on ideas that have only arisen during the Covid era, such as that nursing is “lucrative” and that nurses are “superheroes.” But it also discusses some enduring threats to nursing practice.
NYT: “Your Head of H.R. Is Now Basically the School Nurse”
A January 2022 New York Times report says Covid has forced corporate human resources personnel to manage new health-related tasks, including testing and vaccination procedures. But that does not mean, as the headline suggests, that they are now “the school nurse.” School nurses hold a professional health care position that includes clinical management of complex health problems and requires at least a bachelor of science degree in nursing.
New Amsterdam pushes reform—but through the same old physician-centric narrative.
On the NBC drama’s first season (2018-19), maverick medical director Max Goodwin and a half dozen physician colleagues shake up conventional care at an overburdened public hospital. But aside from a few plotlines involving the minor nurse character Casey Acosta, it’s more of the same damaging Hollywood model, with nurses as silent servants to the brilliant physicians who call all the shots and save all the lives.
CBS News report highlights crisis of too few nurses in U.S. schools
The 2019 piece explains that only three in five schools have a full time school nurse and that this presents serious risks to students. It does a good job consulting nurses, who describe the cause of the problem—budget cuts—as well as some of the effects on student health. The piece might have also explored how the shortage affects education, since kids can’t learn as well while they are needlessly sick.
December 2021 MSNBC op-ed by Truth leader argues that nurses need assistants
Washington Post highlights a nurse’s diagnosis of her mother’s mysterious disease
A 2019 “Medical Mysteries” column tells how a new pediatric nurse discovered the rare disease that had been causing her mother pain for years after seeing a lecture that referred to the condition in passing. The piece shows the nurse to be an educated, alert, and persistent patient advocate.
Reports show Covid is overwhelming school nurses nationwide
As students are back at schools across the U.S., school nurses are confronting real challenges. Most obviously, they face a huge expansion of their already excessive workloads, as explained in a September 2021 piece in The Philadelphia Inquirer. But as the Wyoming Tribune Eagle reported on the same day, some school nurses – like the one in Cheyenne who resigned over lax quarantine rules – also face bad Covid policies.
Malawian nurses urge media to provide more balanced coverage of the profession
In late October 2021, the Nyasa Times reported that the National Organization of Nurses and Midwives of Malawi had hosted a media workshop to improve relations with the press. The group’s leader Harriet Chiomba urged journalists to change their focus on a small number of problematic nurses and do more to highlight the positive contributions of the profession.
In October 2021, Martha Stewart Living reprinted an image of a Halloween costume Stewart had created in 2016. She wore an old-timey nurse outfit and was covered in blood, as a tribute to Richard Prince’s nurse paintings. This image isn’t very naughty, with limited cleavage, nor very battle-axey, as Stewart looks more terrified than terrifying. Still, after a while, and without the cultural backstory of the paintings, continuing this antiquated imagery isn’t great for a modern profession.
In June 2021 Megan posted photos of herself in a naughty nurse outfit on Instagram to promote a new song that was about “shakin’ ass.” That imagery, which has been reproduced in many prominent places, is damaging to nursing in a fairly standard way. But in the video Megan also – for a short time wearing the same naughty nurse outfit – sexually terrorizes and physically disfigures a misogynist U.S. Senator, in a revenge fantasy that fans are meant to admire. And others, we assume, to fear.
The Code of Ethics calls nurses to action The Truth About Nursing denounces the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and the many other persons of color who have died as a…