Review of the truthaboutnursing.org Website
The website, www.truthaboutnursing.org, provides useful insights into how the nursing profession is portrayed in mainstream media. It cites specific instances whereby the character, roles, knowledge base, and nurse-physician relationships are depicted in an adverse light in television ads, newspaper articles, you-tube videos, and medical drama episodes and series. Such publicity creates inaccurate perceptions of the nursing profession and its practitioners amongst the general public.
The articles in the website highlight numerous incidences whereby the character of nurses is ridiculed and greatly misrepresented by the media. In some commercials and videos, nurses are depicted as sexual objects dressed in bikinis and other inappropriate dressing. Such characterization of nurses strips away the dignity and integrity of the profession. In other instances, nurses are portrayed as abusive, uncouth, rude, and dumb. Such publicity is demeaning to the characters of nurses who comprise one of the most disciplined professions. It largely ignores the fact that nursing practice is guided by professional standards and ethics.
The site also brings to light the fact that the role played by nurses in patient care is given little or no mention in the media. In contrast, these roles are assigned to physicians with the media trying to create the impression that physicians solely provide health care services with no input from other professionals. Nursing authors and nurses in general are given no credit for the critical roles they play in research and patient care.
The authors additionally point put that the media tries to portray nurses as uneducated. They cite numerous instances where nurses are depicted as nothing more than physician assistants whose main role is to implement physician orders. They contend that the media fails to show that nurses undergo intensive training, are autonomous and well educated with practitioners graduating at associate, baccalaureate, and graduate levels. In so doing, it fails to paint a true picture of nursing as a profession guided by a specialized body of knowledge.
In conclusion, the www.truthaboutnursing.org website has useful information on how the nursing profession is depicted negatively in mainstream media. In numerous instances, the media fails to capture the true essence, roles, character, knowledge, and skills of nursing practitioners. This negative publicity perpetuates negative stereotypes of nurses amongst the general public.
Reference
The Truth about Nursing (2013). The truth about nursing: Changing how the world thinks about nursing. Retrieved from www.truthaboutnurisng.org.
