History of The Truth About Nursing

The Truth About Nursing was founded in April 2001 by its executive director, Sandy Summers, and a group of seven fellow graduate students at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. We came together after one member suggested that we form a group to help address the growing nursing shortage, which we felt was caused in part by inadequate understanding of and support for the profession.

Our first project focused on the popular television show ER. In our view, ER's portrayal of nurses, while positive in some ways, had been inadequate and inaccurate in important respects. The show strived so mightily to portray medical diagnosis and treatment realistically that we feared its millions of viewers might think it was equally dedicated to a realistic depiction of nursing and the roles of health care professionals generally. In November 2001, members of our group, which we originally called the Nursing Vision, had a one-hour conference call with an ER producer and the show's medical advisor to discuss our concerns. We were not pleased with the outcome of our call since ER responded so little to our concerns.

From there we created a non-profit organization to focus our efforts more broadly on improving the portrayal of nurses in the media, especially Hollywood, since television and films are so influential. Five of our original group established The Center for Nursing Advocacy in late 2002 during which time we made some progress and earned a few awards. In December 2008, our same group of five re-branded our movement, which is now called The Truth About Nursing.

Further information on the Truth's advocacy efforts can be found on the campaigns and successes pages of our web site. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or comments.

Please join our effort to change how the world thinks about nursing. Thank you.

See The Nursing Vision's original members

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