Press highlights ethical concerns of Navy nurse who refused to force-feed A late 2014 Miami Herald piece described advocacy, including by the American Nurses Association, for a Navy nurse at Guantánamo who…
Heimlich heroes
WTOC on student who saved choking classmate after training by school nurse The Savannah (GA) CBS TV affiliate reported that a local fourth grader had saved a classmate using the Heimlich maneuver…
Poverty, etc.
On The Mindy Project, nurses are comic relief for the comic relief The sitcom’s third season does offer a few fleeting images of its nurses as actual health professionals. But mostly, they…
Chickens without heads
Press items highlight nurse staffing crisis in Quebec The Montreal Gazette says understaffing is so bad that some nurses have reported themselves for unsafe care. A Public Radio International piece reports that 700 physicians…
Something to tell you
Florida ED nurse has a simple request: “Wash your stinking hands”! The Washington Post reports that nurse Katherine Lockler posted an amusing video to Facebook explaining key ways people can avoid the…
The tragic hero
Nurse Jackie says goodbye The Showtime comedy’s final seasons had flaws, occasionally suggesting that nurses report to physicians. But there was still a lot of expert care and creative advocacy from the…
Fancy dresses and dead patients
U.K. hospital refuses £2,500 donation raised with naughty nurse stereotype But the BBC report about the “fancy dress” fundraising by Ludlow Hospital’s League of Friends mostly highlights the views of people who…
Kisses for cops
The Town Talk on a special thank you from nurses Some Louisiana nurses thanked local police for their service with “kisses for cops” – apparently just baskets of Hershey’s Kisses. But ideally…
#EndNurseAbuse
Salt Lake Tribune items about abused Utah nurse show power of advocacy After nurse Alex Wubbels was forcibly detained for refusing to let a police officer draw blood from an unconscious patient,…
A comedy of errors
Inside Amy Schumer mocks nurses In 2014 Inside Amy Schumer aired a segment called The Nurses (a parody of The Doctors) that viciously reinforced most major anti-nurse stereotypes, including the ignorant physician…
Excessive and unrealistic
Vox investigation exposes emergency dept. billing abuses, but also its own ignorance of nursing A Vox piece commendably highlights excessive emergency department charges. But the piece reflects the view that only physician “treatment” and…
Woodhull Study Revisited released
Twenty years after the initial Woodhull Study on Nursing and the Media, a reexamination of how nurses are portrayed in the news media is released Out of George Washington School of Nursing,…
Mashability
New York Times and Mashable items show range of nursing expertise Wendy Lu’s July 2017 Well blog post on the New York Times site told how her home care nurse saved her…
Love heals all things
A message to nurses from Angel Williams, the woman at the center of the 2010 Dr. Oz naughty nurse segment January 28, 2018 — We recently received a phone call from Angel…
$3 for seven days of night shift
Reports from Zimbabwe show lack of resources for nursing May 2015 – This month news items from Zimbabwe showed that the salaries of nurses in some settings remain absymally low. On May…
Ratched or Wretched?
Netflix Should Support Women, Not Damaging Stereotypes by MarySue Heilemann, RN, PhD, FAAN January 25, 2018 Dear Nurses and Allies, I’m writing because the Nurse Ratched show in development at Netflix has…
Who’s who
AARP magazine sends mixed messages on nursing roles January 2015 – Recently AARP The Magazine has published items explaining the roles of various health professionals, especially nurse practitioners (NPs). In the August…
Angels and advocates
The nurses of Fox’s Red Band Society February 2015 — Fox’s Red Band Society was a teen hospital drama that featured three recurring nurse characters, each somewhat stereotypical, yet each displaying some…
Let’s get to a better future…by showing our NPs more respect
UnitedHealth ads suggest NPs need physicians to solve health problems October 2015 — UnitedHealth Group has been displaying large ads in Washington, DC Metro stations, including one near the U.S. Capitol, proclaiming…
Let them eat cake — from some other hospital!
Wealthy nurse, now in Congress, says EDs should be able to turn patients away Major media reports that Member of Congress Diane Black is relying on her emergency nursing background to support…