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.
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.
A May 2017 report addressed how “napping pods” can ease the effects of sleep deprivation on high school students. And an August 2017 piece described research finding that many postpartum nurses are ill-prepared to educate new mothers about risks to their health. Both reports show how nursing research can improve health.
On NPR’s “The Call-In,” nursing is just as hard as low-skilled tending can be! On Weekend Edition Sunday, several direct care nurses addressed the state of nursing. Unfortunately, what came across was mostly the suffering…