The Media Portrayal of Nursing

Question

Instructions

Hello,

MY ASSIGNEMENT IS TO RESPOND TO MY PEER TRISTAN REGARDING HIS DISCUSSION POST BELOW:

The media portray many images of nursing, some favorable and some unfavorable.

Does media portrayal of nursing affect how patients perceive nurses as authority figures? Why or why not? Think about nursing stereotypes and discuss the ways you can influence the public image of nursing. 

The media throughout the years, in my opinion has had a large influence on how nurses are perceived to the general population whose only exposure to medical professions is through TV/Movies. Nurses have been portrayed as very cruel in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as well as being skill less workers like in shows like greys anatomy where the nurses are ignored and the focus on the doctors that basically control everything. The same thing goes for many other professions that are left out like, PAs, NPs and CRNAs, many patients will come in d/t these portrayals and only want to speak with the doctors for what ever issue. I have seen patients at our hospital refuse to speak with Nurse Practioners because they believe they are incompetent and only want to speak with the doctors. "Nurses remain invisible in health news media, despite their increasing levels of education, unique roles, and expertise" (Mason et al., 2018).

Discuss the various roles nurses can play that support the real image of nursing. Think about community health care and preventive services for all, but especially the underserved.

There has been organizations pushing for a better depiction of nurses, so just by educating the people in charge of the projects on the actual harm this can do for patients with the miseducation as well as nurses making more of a presence in community health areas like shelters and clinics like the one in Arlington can help reach out and help many families that may not understand the care they are able to receive from nurses. Also just making more presence in hospital settings like getting involved in policy and politics can help promote a better view on what nurses actually do.  

References 

Mason, D. J., Nixon, L., Glickstein, B., Han, S., Westphaln, K., & Carter, L. (2018, November). The Woodhull STUDY revisited: Nurses' representation in health news media 20 years later. Journal of nursing scholarship : an official publication of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. Retrieved September 28, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6282954/.