Our January 2022 discussion with the leading charting software maker focused on ways to improve nursing care
Truth About Nursing director Sandy Summers and colleagues recently met with representatives of Epic. They discussed how charting software might be improved to reduce the burden on nurses and allow them to give more and better patient care.
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.
We started meeting with Epic in January 2022 – please weigh in!
December 2021 MSNBC op-ed by Truth leader argues that nurses need assistants
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.
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.
Two roads diverged in the woods of Halloween 2020, and celebrity mogul Paris Hilton took the one too much traveled, with a tired naughty nurse outfit that undermined real nurses’ efforts to get resources during the pandemic. Meanwhile, Katherine Schwarzenegger kneeled in scrubs with her rescue dog and homemade box structures that honored essential workers, in an effort to at least make things a little better.
Unidirectional sexual healing–MSNBC publishes Truth leaders’ op-ed on naughty nurse Halloween costumes
Yahoo report on naughty nurse Halloween costumes relies on Truth director and advisor
More good portrayals of nursing are coming on the BBC’s Call the Midwife and Netflix’s Virgin River. On the new Ordinary Joe (NBC), a nurse is one of the lead character’s three alternative personas. But Bob Hearts Abishola (CBS) will return with a nurse who decided last season that high achievement required her to become a physician. Ratched (Netflix) will likely have more battle-axe and other stereotypes. And otherwise, the prime-time landscape will be dominated by physician-centric shows, including the new Good Sam (CBS) and Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. (Disney+)
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.
The sitcom’s first season (2019-20) focused on the relationship between the Nigerian-born nurse Abishola and Bob, the head of a small Detroit sock company. Culture clash was the main theme, but Abishola was also shown to be a tough, skilled patient advocate, notably in helping Bob’s mother recover from a stroke. A downside was Abishola’s obsession with her young son becoming a physician.
Robert Pearl’s piece argues that physicians undermine health by focusing on lucrative short-term interventions rather than primary and preventive care. But the piece itself reflects a culture that ignores the key role of nurses, who have long had the same holistic practice model that Pearl favors.
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.