As nurses and their supporters, we urge the public to make immediate and sustained efforts to resist the Trump Administration’s agenda to destroy global health. We have devoted our professional lives to…
Category: MEDIA
Burn the witch
Questions raised about the conviction of nurse Lucy Letby Recently New Yorker journalist Rachel Aviv examined whether British NICU nurse Lucy Letby should have been convicted of killing infants in her care….
Malicious
The Philippines-based news website Rappler reported that nurses at one local hospital were being required to wear adult diapers so they could care for Covid-19 patients for 12 hours straight, without breaks
Brilliant
New health-related shows are here, and some have nurse characters. The central character on the NBC mockumentary St. Denis Medical seems to be a senior nurse. And ABC’s Doctor Odyssey, set on a cruise ship, actually has two nurse characters. But other new shows seem to fit the physician-centric model of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, especially Fox’s Doc and NBC’s Brilliant Minds. In any case, good portrayals of nursing will return, on the long-running Call the Midwife (BBC/PBS) and Virgin River (Netflix).
Nurse of America
Remembering nursing pioneer Claire Fagin. In January 2024, U.S. nursing leader Claire Fagin died at the age of 97. Obituaries appeared in many major publications. One of the best was in the Washington Post. That one focused on Fagin’s year leading the University of Pennsylvania, but also on her key role in pushing nursing forward, through her forceful advocacy and emphasis on a stronger academic curriculum. At the Truth About Nursing, we especially appreciated her mentoring and support over the last two decades.
A job with your best friends
Fall 2023 TV Overview! Despite the Hollywood strikes, good portrayals of nursing are coming on the BBC’s Call the Midwife and on Netflix’s Virgin River. But when more shows appear, the prime-time landscape will likely…
The Misinformers
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.
New Zealand government partners with soap opera to promote nursing
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.
Submit nominations for the 2022 Truth About Nursing media awards!
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…
“Does nurse BokHee ever speak?”
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.
Doc McStuffins
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,”
They don’t even get a pen!
In a March 2022 episode, Mrs. Maisel offered a short tribute to the unsung nurses caring for a family member. She praised the nurses for spending time with patients and comforting families, as well as doing work like changing bedpans. But she portrayed nurses as unskilled female angels, not as serious health professionals like the male physicians who, though self-important and uncaring, at least got to use pens.
Push
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.
Living up to this superhero image is impossible
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.
Yeah, not really
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.
Progress and Regress
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.
The school health scandal
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.
Jane the…Daughter of a Nurse
As Jane the Virgin ends, Xo finds her way—to nursing school!
On the final season of The CW’s popular telenovela Jane the Virgin, ending in 2019, the main character’s mother Xiomara finally decided on a career path that held promise: nursing. In general, the plotline tracing Xo’s decision-making and nursing school application process told viewers that nursing is a challenging science profession.
Nursing mysteries
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.
Bottomless wells
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.