VICE on nurses who spread false information about Covid 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…
Category: NEWS
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.
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.
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.
Serving and saving lives
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.
Orchids
CNET reported that the Doodle marked the start of National Hispanic Heritage Month. Its piece also noted that the Panamanian-American nursing pioneer stressed cultural awareness in care, founded the National Association of Hispanic Nurses, and became the first Hispanic nursing dean at New York University.
We belong together
News reports by Reuters and others have described strong public protests during early 2019 by Portuguese nurses seeking better pay and working conditions. One union leader even staged a short hunger strike! And in April the New York Times reported that three major New York hospital systems had avoided a strike only by agreeing to minimum nurse staffing ratios, a result that may have wider effects.
OnlyNurseFans
An October 2020 Buzzfeed piece reported that some nursing students had turned to sex work on the OnlyFans website to survive during the Covid-19 era. But the report failed to clearly explain its nursing focus, or whether there is any reason to think those in nursing are disproportionately taking this path. And the piece may reinforce the naughty nurse stereotype, especially in light of some of its imagery and comments.
Wishful acting
The May 2021 piece had some strong advocacy from National Nurses United, which argues that it’s too soon to tell vaccinated people they can stop wearing masks in most U.S. settings. Sadly, the article includes more about how the new guidance is playing out in California politics than it does about whether NNU is actually right.
Communication breakdown
A September 2018 piece in U.S. News & World Report does a generally good job of addressing the problem of poor communication between the professions, exploring some key causes and promising solutions. It relies on two experienced nurses who make many excellent points, although some comments from one of them manage to both understate nursing autonomy and overstate nurses’ responsibility for conflicts.
Just pick anybody up off the street and turn them into nurses
In March 2021 Dame Donna Kinnair, leader of the UK’s Royal College of Nursing, appeared on the BBC radio show Newshour to discuss nursing during the Covid-19 era. Dame Kinnair made good points about the value of UK nurses’ work, the poor public understanding of their roles, and the inadequate pay they receive.
Running the show
New York Times opinion items show the value of nursing—and how it is threatened In late February 2021, two nurse-related opinion pieces appeared in the Times almost at the same time. A…
Macho macho man
A strong 2018 item in The Economist discussed the stereotypes that still deter men from nursing, even at a time of critical global shortage. And an NPR report from a few months later offered valuable social science insights that the problem has roots in pervasive male anxiety about manhood. But then the piece seemed to recommend a “real men” approach to nursing recruitment that would reinforce the same regressive gender stereotypes.
She may destroy you
Since mid-2020, Boston nurse practitioner Christina has been posting strong refutations of Covid misinformation on TikTok, as reported in a good Wired piece in September. Christina’s video style is comic, hyper-articulate, and at times brutal; it may not be for everyone. But her TikTok account presents an image of a practicing nurse as a fiercely intelligent, authoritative, and compelling public health advocate.
An army of traveling nurses
As 2020 ends, coverage of nursing in Covid care still depends on who is involved. A recent NBC News piece offered a good quick look at the travel nurses who are trying to cope with the current U.S. surge. In a BBC Newshour report, an NYU physician forcefully affirmed the key role skilled nurses play, especially in ICUs. Yet a long New York Times article on a shortage of “specialists” to run ventilators excluded nurses. And one governor had to defend his health commissioner, an RN, from an MSNBC anchor’s suggestion that an “upgrade” to a physician was needed.
Nurses may be useful in triage, say non-nurses
A September 2018 piece in the Post says a new program in which nurses triage 911 calls has helped some patients get better access to care, although it has not yet greatly reduced needless ambulance trips. Sadly, despite plenty of commentary from D.C. emergency services personnel, the piece fails to quote or even name a single nurse.
The old front line
The July 2020 issue honored those on the “new front line.” One cover featured a midwife. And inside, that nurse advocated for more NHS funding. But nurses are not the “new” front line—they have been saving lives for a long time! Yet the editor’s essay did not group them with physicians, the recognized health experts, but with workers who are not in health care at all.