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Press Releases -- The Truth About Nursing
September 12, 2011 -- Hundreds of nurses from across North America have written to protest Nurse 3D, a new horror film about a "sexy but vengeful" nurse who targets men. Filming starts this month in Toronto with actress Paz De La Huerta of Boardwalk Empire in the leading role. Production company Lionsgate has described the movie's theme as novel, but the Truth About Nursing, a Baltimore-based nonprofit group, says it is just a common variation on the tired "naughty nurse" stereotype that is well-established in past media products like horror films and ads. "It's pretty clearly another 'naughty-axe,'" said Sandy Summers, executive director of the Truth About Nursing, using the group's term for images that unite the profession's "naughty" and "battle-axe" stereotypes. "Of course we're just going on Lionsgate's own publicity materials, but it's hard to see how a film with Nurse 3D's basic outline could avoid harming nursing." more...
Truth About Nursing Sets First Conference for Big Easy
The Truth About Nursing will hold its first conference in the lively and historic city of New Orleans on April 15-17, 2011. Empowering Nurses and Improving Care Through Better Understanding of Nursing will help nursing leaders develop and focus their skills in interacting with others in ways that enhance respect for the profession. Conference speakers including leading voices in nursing empowerment, including Donna Cardillo and Kathleen Bartholomew, as well as a representative from Rutgers University's 2012 Project, which aims to increase women's involvement in politics at all levels. See the full press release or conference overview.
The 2010 Truth About Nursing Awards Rank Best and Worst Media Portrayals of Nursing
January 6, 2011 -- The Truth About Nursing announces the eighth annual list of the best and worst media portrayals of nurses. The year 2010 featured the continuation of Nurse Jackie and two other nurse-focused U.S television shows, but it also included countless damaging distortions from long-running hits like Grey's Anatomy and a new crop of "naughty nurse" imagery from sources ranging from Mariah Carey to Helen Mirren to Dr. Oz. more...
Dr. Oz's sexy "nurse" backup dancers
December 7, 2010 - Hundreds of nurses have written to Dr. Oz to protest a recent segment the daytime television host did that featured images of "nurses" as sexy physician handmaidens. The Dr. Oz Show segment aired on November 4 and featured Angel Williams, who lost 200 pounds by dancing. Dressed in a short white nurse's dress, Williams said she was going to "get sexy" and unbuttoned the top of the dress to reveal her red bra. Then she and five similarly dressed "nurses" led Oz in several dance steps, including one she called "sexy salsa girls." more...
Nurses protest Mariah's new video
Express concern about pop star's face
March 10, 2010 -- Nurses say they are concerned about Mariah Carey's new "naughty nurse" video--and about the singer's own well-being. The video for Carey's "Up Out My Face," released to promote her new remix album Angels Advocate, features the pop star and rapper Nicki Minaj in skimpy "nurse" outfits, with white stockings and high heels. Nurses say such imagery makes it harder for them to do their jobs. more...
The Truth's Decade Awards Rank Best and Worst Media Portrayals of 2000-2009
Three New Nurse TV Shows Among "Best"
Veteran Hollywood Dramas Lead "Worst"
December 31, 2009 - The Truth About Nursing announces its list of the best and worst media portrayals of nurses it saw between 2000 and 2009. The Truth's Decade Awards highlight media from a decade in which the world has faced a deadly nursing shortage fueled in significant part by poor public understanding of the profession. The three new nurse-focused shows that appeared on U.S. television in 2009, led by Showtime's Nurse Jackie and NBC's Mercy, made the "best" list despite their relatively recent appearance, because they have consistently presented millions of viewers with compelling portrayals of skilled nurses fighting for patients. Other "best" award recipients include the HBO film Angels in America, and nursing media advocates Diana Mason, Theresa Brown, and Suzanne Gordon. But on the whole, the media continues to undermine the profession. The "worst" list was led by the globally popular hospital dramas Grey's Anatomy (ABC) and House (Fox), which have portrayed nurses as low-skilled physician helpers who are irrelevant to serious health care. Others cited for notably poor portrayals of nurses include the American Medical Association, for its repeated but baseless public attacks on advanced practice nurses, the ABC News documentary-reality series Hopkins 24/7 and Hopkins, and the long-running NBC drama ER, though the Truth also gave that show a "most improved" award for better portrayals in its final years. Of course, any list that tries to cover this much ground is bound to be somewhat subjective--many other items could have appeared on these lists. But the Truth hopes the lists identify notable examples of portrayals of nursing at a time when public understanding of the profession is more important than ever. See our press release or our go straight to our full awards.
The 2009 Truth About Nursing Awards
Rank Best and Worst Media Portrayals of Nursing
Three New Nurse TV Shows Lead "Best" List
December 29, 2009 -- The Truth About Nursing announces its annual list of the best and worst media portrayals of nurses. This year featured the unprecedented appearance of three new nurse-focused shows on U.S. television, after no such show had appeared in more than 15 years. Showtime's Nurse Jackie, NBC's Mercy, and TNT's HawthoRNe each had flaws, but their relatively strong portrayal of skilled professional nurses advocating for patients placed them at the top of our "best" list. The far more popular veteran hospital dramas--ABC's Grey's Anatomy, Fox's House, and ABC's Private Practice--again led the "worst" list because of their continuing misportrayal of nurses as low-skilled physician helpers who are irrelevant to serious health care. The Awards highlight media portrayals from around the world that the Truth believes deserve attention, for better or worse, during the deadly nursing shortage. See the entire press release or go straight to the 2009 Truth About Nursing awards.
Dr. Lung Love's Labors Lost...on Nurses
November 13, 2009 -- Real nurses are objecting to "naughty nurse" imagery in a major new media campaign to increase awareness of lung cancer by the Washington, DC charity Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA). Launched at the start of November for Lung Cancer Awareness Month, the LCA campaign is built on a rap video called "Waitin' Room Service" that features the fictional "Dr. Lung Love." The lyrics highlight the threat lung cancer poses to women. The LCA video parodies rapper Pitbull's recent video for "Hotel Room Service," which featured attractive young women in lingerie. The LCA video substitutes scrubs-clad "nurses" who offer special attention to Dr. Lung Love, caressing him and dancing suggestively with him. In one lyric, he says that the "nurse just left," so he'll "love your lungs tonight. "The underlying message is that masterful physicians handle important health matters, while cute nurse helpmates provide, well, waitin' room service," said Sandy Summers, executive director of The Truth About Nursing. See the full press release...
The 2008 Truth About Nursing Awards Underscore Issue of Public Misperceptions about Nursing
February 18, 2009 -- The Truth About Nursing announces its annual list of the best and worst media portrayals of nurses. Recipients of the Truth About Nursing Awards include NBC's ER, which aired one of the best portrayals in its final year on the air, as well as ABC's Grey's Anatomy and Fox's House, which were singled out for especially poor performance. The Awards highlight media portrayals from around the world that the nursing advocacy group believes deserve attention, for better or worse, during the deadly nursing shortage.
See the full press release. Or see the 2008 Truth About Nursing Awards....
Saving Lives: Why the Media’s Portrayal of Nurses Puts Us All at Risk
February 5, 2009 -- Saving Lives shows how the media perpetuates nursing stereotypes (the handmaiden, the naughty nurse, the angel and the battle-axe), presenting negative images that affect real nurses and their patients. These powerful images fuel the global nursing shortage--one of the world's most pressing public health crises--by weakening nurses’ claims to adequate resources for clinical practice, education and research. Although Showtime reportedly plans to introduce Nurse Jackie this summer, today, 41 out of 45 major characters on the top five U.S. health-related prime-time television shows are physicians (see attached list). The shows present physicians as the sole masters of health knowledge and the only important staff in hospitals. In fact, Hollywood physician characters often do exciting procedures that nurses would actually perform. Physician characters like House often disrespect nurses with no real contradiction. That fosters more social contempt and makes it seem like no person of substance or intellect would even think of becoming a nurse. See the full press release...
Advance Praise for Saving Lives...
Dust Jacket from Saving Lives....
About the co-authors: Sandy Summers, and Harry Jacobs Summers
Naughty nurses too scary for Halloween
Nurses say "naughty nurse" costumes are too spooky even for Halloween--and they're conjuring a spell to exorcise the sexy demons. The Truth About Vampire Slaying Nursing leads a torch-wielding mob urging all who make, sell, or wear the costumes to end the naughty nightmare. The group says the stereotype that nurses are sponge-bath sex zombies has bedeviled real nurses for decades. A monstrous example: the lingerie-like "nurse" costumes worn at Halloween. more...
January 9, 2008 -- The Truth About Nursing is announcing its 5th Golden Lamp Awards, the annual list of the best and worst media portrayals of nurses we've seen in the past year. The 2007 list includes influential media from Hollywood shows to reports on the nursing crisis in Africa. Most of the best depictions of nursing continued to appear in the print media. Among the best were pieces in The Wall Street Journal and The Star-Ledger (Newark), and on WBUR, a Boston NPR affilliate. Among the "worst" award recipients were "Grey's Anatomy," "Private Practice," "House," Kelly Ripa, New York Times puzzle master Will Shortz, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, and Members of the U.K. Parliament. The Truth also recognizes nursing scholars and advocates who have made a positive impact in the general media. See the full press release or see the full awards.
Dentyne gets fresh with nurses
October 2, 2007 -- Hundreds of nurses have protested Cadbury Schweppes' decision to keep running a "naughty nurse" TV ad in Canada. In the ad, "nurses" give patients romantic attention the instant the patients pop the company's Dentyne Ice gum into their mouths. The gum ad's tag line is "get fresh," but the nurses say the "naughty nurse" stereotype is so stale, it's toxic. "The naughty nurse has been around for decades," said Sandy Summers, executive director of The Truth About Nursing, which launched the campaign. "And it remains an ad industry staple." more...
Nurses want "sponge bath" Kelly scrubbed
May 15, 2007 -- A nursing group wants morning TV host Kelly Ripa suspended for vowing to be co-host Regis Philbin's "sponge bath nurse" in her "little nursey costume" after his March heart surgery. see the full release...
Nurses Find Media Image Needs Intensive Care
January 10, 2007 -- The Truth About Nursing announces its fourth "Golden Lamp Awards," our annual list of the best and worst media portrayals of nurses. The 2006 list includes a range of media from all over the world. Among the "worst" award recipients were the Nobel Prize-winning Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), Italian 
political leader Silvio Berlusconi, nurse recruiting campaigner Johnson & Johnson, and hit Hollywood shows including ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" and Fox's "House." "Most of the best depictions of nursing appeared in the print media," said Center Executive Director Sandy Summers, who cited specific pieces in the The Philadelphia Daily News, The New Yorker, and Bangladesh's Daily Star as being among the best. Summers also praised nursing scholars and advocates who had made an impact in the general media, and many companies, including Wynn Las Vegas, drug chain CVS, and ALR Technologies, for promptly modifying damaging images in their products or ads. The Truth noted that, as usual, many of the least accurate and most damaging depictions were in the influential television medium. Besides "Grey's Anatomy" and "House," the Center's "worst" list included episodes of NBC's "ER" and "Heroes," and HBO's "The Sopranos." See our press release, or our full or summary versions of the Golden Lamp Awards.
Real nurses want "naughty nurse" off menu
October 26, 2006 -- Nurses are asking an Arizona theme restaurant to change one small thing about the "naughty nurse" outfits its waitresses wear: omit the "nurse" part. The nurses argue that Tempe's Heart Attack Grill is exploiting harmful stereotypes at the worst time for their profession. The Grill, which sells "double bypass" burgers, boasts that its food is "worth dying for." But that's a result the nurses say really will become more likely if they cannot overcome nursing's status as the most sexually-fantasized-about job on the planet and resolve the worst shortage in its history. "The 'naughty nurse' isn't going to save your life when you need her to," said Sandy Summers, RN, MSN, MPH, Executive Director of The Truth About Nursing, which works to improve public understanding of nursing. "And I think the Heart Attack Grill could clog just as many arteries if it altered its naughty nurse uniforms to be just, well, naughty." see the full press release...
Open letter from nurses to the American Medical Association
September 28, 2006 --
Dear Dr. Rebecca Patchin and the AMA Board of Trustees:
I am writing to urge you to rectify the damaging distortions about nurse practitioners (NPs) propounded recently by Dr. Rebecca Patchin in high-profile media pieces about retail store "quick clinics." Dr. Patchin has exploited her status as a "former nurse" to buttress unfounded attacks on the training and care of NPs. In particular, Dr. Patchin has claimed that physicians receive five more years of education than NPs, which is misleading at best, and suggested that NPs do not know enough to effectively diagnose or treat patients, which is plainly false. see the full letter...
August 23, 2006 -- Nursing advocates are asking celebrities from Hollywood hospital shows to donate their "swag" from Sunday's Primetime Emmy Awards to schools and charities working to ease the global nursing crisis. The Truth About Nursing says that shows like ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" and Fox's "House," both nominated for Best Drama, have profited by presenting viewers worldwide with a vision of hospital care that grossly undervalues nursing. "On these shows, physicians are often shown doing important work that nurses really do, while the few nurses are usually pathetic handmaidens," said Truth executive director Sandy Summers. "Research shows that entertainment television affects how the public views nursing. Because most people don't understand what nurses really do to save and improve lives, nursing doesn't get the funding or respect it needs, and the shortage gets worse. We think those responsible for these shows should help undo the damage." more...
April 21, 2006 -- White Stripes leader Jack White has just given the leader of an international nursing group a "Metaphorical Ignorance Award," complete with a signed certificate. The alternative rock icon issued the "Award" for "outstanding inability to recognize metaphor," after the Baltimore-based Center for Nursing Advocacy gave his band one of its annual Golden Lamp Awards, for creating one of the worst media portrayals of nursing in 2005. The "award-winning" song was "The Nurse," written by White, from the Grammy-winning album "Get Behind Me Satan." more...
Heroes, Whores and Handmaidens: 3rd Annual Golden Lamp Awards Rank Best and Worst Media Portrayals of Nursing in 2005. Awards featured on Jeopardy! and in the January issue of the American Journal of Nursing
Baltimore, MD, December 27, 2005 -- The Truth About Nursing and the American Journal of Nursing announce this year's annual list of the best and worst media portrayals of nurses. Media recognized by the "Golden Lamp Awards" include such well-known television hits as ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," singled out for especially poor performance. The Golden Lamp Awards highlight media portrayals from around the world that The Truth believes deserve attention, for better or worse. See the full press release or go straight to the awards in full or summary version.
Nurses convince Gillette to pull "lusty-nurse fever" TV ad
October 4, 2005 -- Yesterday the Gillette Company agreed to pull a television ad for TAG Body Spray, in response to a Center for Nursing Advocacy campaign. The ad featured a provocatively dressed "nurse" who developed "highly contagious lusty-nurse fever" because of the product and climbed into bed with the stunned male patient wearing it. See the full press release and the ad.
Nurses and physicians protest medical students' raunchy "Nurses' Song"
July 17, 2005 -- More than 500 nurses and physicians across Canada, the United States and overseas have written to object to the lyrics of a song performed by some University of Alberta medical students at their recent "MedShow," a traditionally irreverent annual event. The "Nurses' Song," sung to the tune of a song from "Jesus Christ Superstar," stated that nurses were "whores" and "bitches" whose "incompetence" threatened to "make our patients die," but that they were qualified to "fill up my coffeepot" and "give good head." The refrain urged nurses to "show me those boobs." See the full press release.
Landmark JAMA study finds nurses to be autonomous, skilled; nation reels
April 1, 2005 -- Registered nurses are autonomous professionals with years of college-level training, and their clinical skills are critical to patient outcomes, according to researchers writing in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association. The massive study "Nursing: Who Knew?" was based on extensive research by physicians at the Harvard and Johns Hopkins medical schools. For the "Who Knew?" project, 
physicians did field work in hospital locations ranging from so-called "nurses' stations" to the more rarely seen "patients' rooms." They also conducted the first detailed interviews with the recently discovered "nursing scholars" and "nurse practitioners." Among the key findings were that nursing was a distinct science, that many nurses had graduate degrees in nursing, that most nurses had no particular wish to be or to date physicians, and that nurses performed critical health tasks long thought to be the sole province of physicians. more...
Nurses urge corporate giants to divest from NBC's "ER"
March 24, 2005 -- The Truth About Nursing has launched a campaign asking 23 major corporate sponsors of the NBC/Warner television drama "ER" to refrain from placing further advertising on the popular show worldwide until it dramatically improves its portrayal of nurses. more...
2nd Annual Golden Lamp Awards: The Truth About Nursing ranks best and worst media 
portrayals of nursing for 2004
December 28, 2004 -- The Truth About Nursing has issued its list of the best and worst media portrayals of the nursing profession that it has seen during 2004. The list highlights a variety of depictions of nursing--from television to the print media, from Dallas to South Africa--that The Truth believes deserve recognition, for better or worse. more...
Nurses urge U.S. to change name of "Doctor Day" campaign
December 17, 2004 -- Last week The Truth About Nursing launched a campaign to persuade the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to change the name of its annual "Take a Loved One to the Doctor Day" campaign to one that would not exclude Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs), who provide vital primary care to the very minorities the campaign targets. The nurses' campaign has been joined by prominent nursing groups including the American Nurses Association, American College of Nurse-Midwives, American Academy of Nurse Practitioners and the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists. Nurses have already sent more than 200 letters to HHS and prominent urban radio figure Tom Joyner, who serves as honorary chair of the HHS campaign. more...
Nurses tell Dr. Phil to "get real"
November 24, 2004 -- Hundreds of nurses have already written letters of protest to Dr. Phil McGraw, as part of a campaign announced yesterday by The Truth About Nursing, following on air comments by the popular talk show host that he had seen "lots of cute little nurses go after doctors, because they're going to seduce and marry them a doctor, because that's their ticket out of having to work as a nurse." more...
Nurses decry Skechers ad campaign featuring Christina Aguilera as dominatrix nurse
August 9, 2004 -- The Truth About Nursing has launched a campaign to protest a new global ad campaign by shoemaker Skechers that features pop star Christina Aguilera as a "naughty and nice" nurse, and over 600 nurses have written to protest the ad in the campaign's first few days.
The ad, which shows Ms. Aguilera in a sexually suggestive dominatrix outfit confronting a patient in a hospital bed, reinforces stereotypes that nurses are sexually available and abusive to their patients, at a time when the global nursing shortage is a major public health threat. The Truth understands that the ad will be seen in magazines and retail locations all over the world. more...
Nursing group ranks best and worst media portrayals of nursing for 2003
December 31, 2003 -- The Truth About Nursing has issued its list of the best and worst media portrayals of nursing during 2003. The list highlights a variety of depictions of nursing--from television to the print media, from fiction to news, and from Milwaukee to Malaysia--that The Truth believes deserve recognition, for better or worse. more...
Nurses find orangutan "nurse" on NBC's "Passions" less than precious
December 16, 2003 -- The Truth About Nursing has launched a campaign to protest the use of an orangutan to play a character called "Nurse Precious" on the NBC soap opera "Passions." Since March 2003, the campy daytime drama has featured the monkey in the role of a private duty nurse of one of its characters--a bold step backward in the already slow evolution of the media's treatment of nurses. more...
Nurses say NBC's "ER" contributes to nursing shortage
November 10, 2003 -- Baltimore, MD -- The Truth About Nursing has kicked off a major campaign to convince NBC's popular television drama "ER" to portray the nursing profession accurately, in response to long-standing misrepresentations that The Truth believes are contributing to the nursing shortage, one of the nation's most critical public health problems. more...
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