Our executive director's letter to Miami Medical about its depiction of nursing. (Our petiiton is now closed)

Dear "Miami Medical" Executive Producers Jerry Bruckheimer, Jeffrey Lieber, Jonathan Littman and Steven Maeda: I am writing about the depiction of nursing on Miami Medical, which has some good aspects, but is clearly inadequate to convey the advanced life-saving skills and autonomy of today's trauma nurses. In some respects, the show's Tuck Brody character is a positive one for nursing. Tuck displays some clinical knowledge, sometimes speaks to patients, seems to be part of the show's "Alpha Team" of trauma surgeons, and has some authority over other nurses. He is closer to the evolved handmaiden portrayal of nursing often seen on NBC's ER than the more extreme passive servant depiction that continues to dominate today's most popular network shows, notably Fox's House and ABC's Grey's Anatomy. However, the show's depiction of nursing still falls well short of a good one. Brody is mostly a skilled assistant and an eager cheerleader for the show's physicians, presenting his surgeon colleagues as intergalactic gods, but never commenting on the skills of his fellow nurses. Indeed, the minor nurse characters get a few lines, but they seem to play no significant role in patient care. It is clear that (unlike in real life) the physicians on the show make all of the key clinical decisions and provide all important care, and there is little sense that nurses are autonomous professionals with their own scope of care and a vital role in patient outcomes. I urge you to learn more about nursing autonomy by clicking here http://www.truthaboutnursing.org/faq/autonomy.html and to provide a more realistic depiction of trauma nursing--giving nurses due credit for their vital work. Thank you.