A few years ago, a marketing research company called JWT Specialized Communications did a focus group study of 1,800 primary school students who said they got their most striking impression of the nursing profession from the television show "ER."
What these students saw was a technical career in which nurses serve as personal assistants to doctors and stay forever in the background, uttering lines such as "Yes, doctor" as they exit stage right.
Few media images did anything to change that, including the cerebral medical drama "House." But two new cable television shows -- TNT's "HawthoRNe" and Showtime's "Nurse Jackie" -- focus on the lives of nurses, an interesting trend given that doctors normally take center stage in such shows.
In the former, Jada Pinkett Smith plays Christina Hawthorne, chief nursing officer at the fictional Richmond Trinity Hospital, where she handles everything from suicidal cancer patients to overwhelmed novice nurses. Her multi-faceted role of administrator and clinical professional presents an often unseen side of nursing.
In "Nurse Jackie," which plays more like a dark comedy than a drama, the title character is apparently addicted to painkillers. The show is set in a hospital emergency room and reveals many of the difficulties of the nursing profession. In one scene, an uncaring hospital administrator tells Jackie not to work more than 12 hours at a time and then asks her to work a double-shift.
The upside to both shows is that they cast nurses as qualified professionals -- and human beings -- rather than as just bit players or scenery. On the downside, some nursing advocates aren't impressed by "Nurse Jackie," in part because of her dependence on prescription medication. The New York State Nurses Association slammed the show as portraying nurses negatively, even asking for a disclaimer at the end of the credits.
"It is our responsibility as the state nurses' association to speak out on behalf of our profession, which often is misunderstood and marginalized by the media," the association said in a statement.
New York Times blogger Theresa Brown (herself a Registered Nurse) related recently that her husband, completing a crossword puzzle, came across the clue "white-cap wearer." The answer to the clue was "nurse," a clear indicator that there is still much to be done in terms of changing the antiquated image of the profession.
Brown cites a new book called "Saving Lives: Why the Media's Portrayal of Nurses Puts Us All at Risk" by Sandy Summers and Harry Jacobs Summers as a sign that more and more people are taking this image as a serious threat to the profession. Sandy Summers was an emergency department and intensive care nurse for many years and now runs a nonprofit advocacy organization called The Truth About Nursing; Jacobs Summers is a lawyer and senior adviser for the group.
The book lists "ER," "House," "Grey's Anatomy," "Private Practice" and "Scrubs" as the worst offenders, stating that nurses are shown as "helpers" to doctors.
In her blog, Brown noted that another issue is that such shows tend to show doctors performing nurses' duties - things like administering medication, checking I.V.'s, conversing with patients about treatment, and providing ongoing emotional support.
"The problem with how nurses are portrayed in the media is that it has the potential to devalue the way we view nurses in the real world," Brown wrote. "The result is less support for important policy issues like short staffing and nurse burnout."
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