ethics Archives — The Truth About Nursing

Evolving standards of decency

Posted on March 22, 2020March 26, 2020 by Sandy Summers and Harry Jacobs Summers

Huffington Post and Hill items portray the ANA as a policy force Recipient of a Best Public Health Advocacy by Nurses 2010-2019 Award The Huffington Post reported that the American Nurses Association had decided to oppose not…

66,068 total views, 2 views today

Let them eat cake — from some other hospital!

Posted on December 30, 2017December 27, 2019 by Richard Kimball

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…

2,261 total views, 2 views today

Significant unknowns

Posted on November 7, 2014March 25, 2020 by Sandy Summers and Harry Jacobs Summers

Nurses consulted, or not, about long-term care November 7, 2014 – Recent news items have shown the media consulting–or totally failing to consult–nurses for their expertise in managing serious long-term illnesses. Sometimes…

1,824 total views

Could charting software be improved?
Could charting software be improved? We will be meeting with Epic soon - please weigh in!Read More »
Submit nominations for the 2021 Truth About Nursing media awards!
Submit nominations for the 2021 Truth About Nursing media awards! These annual awards spotlight the best and worst of media for nursingRead More »
Nurses’ public image undermines their claims for clinical support
New MSNBC op-ed by Truth leader argues that nurses need assistantsRead More »
Jane the…Daughter of a Nurse
On the final season of The CW’s popular telenovela Jane the Virgin, 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.Read More »
Nursing mysteries
The paper’s “Medical Mysteries” column tells how a new pediatric nurse discovered the rare disease that had been causing her mother pain for years, “stumping doctors,” after seeing a lecture that referred to the condition in passing. The piece shows the nurse to be an educated, alert, and persistent patient …Read More »
Bottomless wells
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 …Read More »
Serving and saving lives
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 …Read More »
The Artist Currently Known as Martha
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 …Read More »
A very cheeky display
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 …Read More »
Slaying: “Paris Hilton Is a Naughty Nurse”
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 …Read More »
Unidirectional sexual healing
Unidirectional sexual healing--MSNBC publishes Truth leaders’ op-ed on naughty nurse Halloween costumesRead More »
Sex candy
Yahoo report on naughty nurse Halloween costumes relies on Truth director and advisorRead More »
Buckets and Dollies
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 …Read More »
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.Read More »
Nurses Make America Great
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 …Read More »
Cancel that culture
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.Read More »
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 …Read More »
The Marvelous Messrs. Mayo
Ken Burns’ two-hour film The Mayo Clinic: Faith – Hope – Science makes a strong case for Mayo physician achievements, highlighting their innovative treatments and progressive financing. But it mainly portrays nurses as good-hearted assistants who couldn’t hope to do as much for patients as the nuns who co-founded the Clinic.Read More »
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 …Read More »
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 …Read More »
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 …Read More »
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 …Read More »
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...Read More »
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 …Read More »
Absolute beginners
The show began airing in the U.S. in December 2020. It has five main characters, and all are new hospital nurses. Each one shows real health knowledge and operates with some autonomy—but not when physicians are present. And without an expert, authoritative major nurse character, Nurses seems to be a …Read More »

Translate »