Nurses have been portrayed differently in media, and this has been of great concern to nurses. For more than two decades, the media images of nurses have influenced public perceptions of health delivery asserting that consumer demands for the nursing services will determine the role of nurses in future. The way in which nurses are presented is believed to have an impact on the general public for the status of nursing in society. In this context, media is defined in its broadest terms ranging from visual, aural and written associated with contemporary society. The recruitment of nurses to the nursing profession might also be influenced by the image of nursing portrayed by the media. The media images have changed nurses professional identity and the public conception of the role of nurses.
In the earliest days of television, the nurses were portrayed as sympathetic characters and never showed their real skills in the nursing profession. In most of the media episode such as scrubs and anatomy, nurses were relegated to background roles such as taking patients pulse or blood pressure, emptying bedpans or dating doctors. The stereotype has made nurses look unskilled in their profession while doctors were portrayed performing critical tasks that in real life are performed by nurses. The nurses are not seen delivering care as knowledgeable professionals, working with the physician to keep the patients healthy or safe or monitoring the condition of patients. The stereotypes have demeaned the nursing profession and are an insult to the years of education and hard work of the nursing profession delivering care to patients.
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Secondly, the media has portrayed nursing as a woman's profession. The depiction of nurses as a gender-bound career has deterred men from entering the nursing profession. Most shows like grey anatomy, ER, and scrub doctors, surgeons and interns are mostly male while the majority of them are nurses. In one season of scrub, a male nurse dates a female doctor. His character is displayed as less of a man because of his nursing profession. The female doctor keeps low on their relationship and even does not want their relationship to be disclosed. In this scenario, it is seen that nursing is considered as a female job and such programs perpetuate this stereotypes.
The media has also been at the forefront of portraying nurses as sexual objects and source of immorality in the hospital setting. In most of the shows, nurses are seen playing love interests to handsome, charismatic doctors. On the long-running television series MASH, Houlihan despite being a passionate and skilled nurse have multiple love interests as well as Carol Hathaway in the ER series who had a long-standing romance with a heartthrob doctor.
The pervasive stereotypes have hindered the nursing profession. Nurses need to speak up about their performance, speak out against the contemporary depictions and forge alliances with other nurses, journalists, and doctors to encourage a larger understanding of the profession. Changing the way media portrays nurses could change societal views, reduce nursing staff turnover, improve patient safety and boost public health.
In conclusion, media plays a significant role in how the world views the nursing profession. Nurses spend a lot of time with patients in hospitals than anyone else. Nurses are the ones who take care of patients around the clock while doctors are not around. Therefore, an excellent medical show should strive to capture all the complexities of the role, the multiple responsibilities, the stress of the job and the interaction with patients and their families. These films should expose the superb care provided by the nurses and the compassion they show for patients. More emphasis should be put upon showing how vital nurses are to medicine and health.
