The media portray of nursing
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.
· I think that the media does play a big role on how nurses are perceived. Many times, nurses are discredited or not shown to be the primary health care workers in hospital settings. Doctors are normally portrayed as the main caretakers and interventionalist. I do not want to discredit them because they play a major part in patient care but, nurses are the driving forces in the clinical setting (Van Bekkum & Hilton, 2013). This portrayal leads patients, families, and other clients to believe that they do not hold and authoritative position. I think that the media is also flooded with medical malpractice and negligence cases and not enough positive actions that take place on a day-to-day basis. There are even movies on popular streaming services like Neflix that highlight bad nurses. I think nurses are even sexualized in the media’s eyes. Just googling “nurses” you find numerous articles that support this belief. One BuzzFeed article stated, “nurses always look sexy” or “every nurse has had a least one love affair with a doctor” (Zender, 2017). I think that in order influence the nurse’s image to be more realistic and beneficial is to interview them and show statistics of the concrete work nurses put in. This can be displayed on news channels and in media.
· 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.
· I think that because of the pandemic the real image of nurses has been shown. There were pictures that surfaced of nurses that removed there PPE after a long day of work with red sores on their face and nurses that were burnt out and pulled an extra shift because they were short-staffed due to COVID. I think the media should also display nurses working with the community to get the public vaccinated and tested because they had a big part in helping during the pandemic. Nurses are also primary leaders when it comes to helping and assessing community needs. They look at health concerns in the public and ways they can assist the community.
