Saving Hope at Physician Med
Other shows have featured nurses or nurse characters. During this past summer, ABC broadcast the latest of producer Terence Wrong's reality series about prominent hospitals. This one, the 8-part NY Med, focused on New York Presbyterian Hospital, and like Wrong's Boston Med (2010), there were occasional appearances by nurses among the extended scenes presenting physicians, particularly surgeons, as moral and intellectual heroes. As before, the nurses did display a minor amount of knowledge and some slight skills, but no viewer will come away thinking that nursing is a great health profession like medicine is. The summer menu also These characters are generally positive, at least within the contexts of their shows, and perhaps there is some benefit to that--the implied message that nurses can be strong and decent and have normal intelligence, which mildly counters some nursing stereotypes. But none of the shows really displays much nursing, and none is likely to greatly alter anyone's views of the profession. So what remains? A wave of serial dramas whose faces and premises may shift, but which still embody the core assumption that physicians do everything that really matters in modern health care, including many key tasks that nurses do in real life, with the occasional direct insult to nursing thrown in for good measure. See more details on the shows below!
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September 2012 -- More new health-related shows arrive in the fall U.S. television season, and there is actually one new nurse-focused show--the six-part BBC drama Call the Midwife, which focuses on Anglican and lay nurse midwives (apparently eight of them!) who care for poor women in 1950's London. The show, a big hit in the U.K. earlier this year, will air on PBS (premiering Sept. 30). Hollywood-wise, there do seem to be a couple sidekick nurse characters, but the primetime landscape will still be dominated by physician characters--we count 47 physicians to 2 nurses. This year, the four new network shows have different spins on Hollywood's health care portrayals, but none seems likely to question the prevailing view that only physicians really matter in health care. Fox's The Mob Doctor (Sept. 17) tells the story of one of the nation's "most promising young surgeons" who is "caught between two worlds as she juggles her promising medical career with her family's debt to Chicago's Southside mob." Right. And although the surgeon's "protective best friend" is nurse Rosa Quintero, the other three hospital characters are all physicians. In Fox's sitcom The Mindy Project (Sept. 25), created by and starring The Office veteran Mindy Kaling, the lead character is a romantically challenged OB-GYN; in addition to the four physician characters, there is a "male nurse" who is a "reformed ex-con." 
In the new NBC drama Do No Harm (mid-season), the lead neurosurgeon character has a "dangerous alternate personality," but aside from that unusual concept, the show seems to be dominated by its five physician characters. The CW's Emily Owens, MD (Oct. 16) sounds like the most conventional new show. It's not just the name; with all six major characters apparently pretty young surgeons struggling valiantly to grow up, it's Grey's-tastic! And speaking of which, among veteran shows, ABC's 
Maybe we should be happy about Call the Midwife, as limited as its broadcast time and its PBS audience will be, and about the two nurse sidekicks in the new Hollywood shows. The past two prime time broadcast seasons had been essentially nurse-free, something that had not happened in more than 40 years. Up until 2010, there had always been at least one (usually only one) major nurse character on some health-related prime time broadcast show. Of course, in 2009, an amazing three nurse-focused shows were introduced, including one on a broadcast network, NBC's 
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September 17, 2012 -- The electronic version of the paperback edition of Saving Lives: Why the Media's Portrayal of Nurses Puts Us All at Risk now sells for $7 from Kindle! The B&N Nook is also available for $10. The hardback and paperback editions of Saving Lives are currently sold out as we are in a transition to a new publisher. All royalties for the multiple award-winning book go directly to support our nursing advocacy work. Thank you! |
Saving Lives on sale for $7! |
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Planning speakers? Let Sandy Summers empower your nurses! Media images of health care--like the ones on ABC's popular Grey's Anatomy-- have an important effect on the nursing profession. Many nurses and nursing students feel frustrated when influential media products undervalue nurses. But how can we change what the media tells the public about nursing? Sandy Summers has led high-profile efforts to promote more accurate and robust depictions of nursing since 2001. She has shared her insights in dynamic presentations to groups across North America. She empowers nurses and teaches them how to shape their image into one that reflects the profession's true value. When nurses get the respect they deserve, they will attract more resources for nursing practice, education, and research, so we can resolve the nursing shortage. Sign Sandy up for your next conference, nurses' week celebration, or gala event! Click here for more details. |
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The Truth About Nursing is an international non-profit organization based in Baltimore that seeks to help the public understand the central role nurses play in health care. The Truth promotes more accurate media portrayals of nurses and greater use of nurses as expert sources. The group is led by Sandy Summers, co-author of Saving Lives: Why the Media's Portrayal of Nurses Puts Us All At Risk. Thank you for supporting the Truth About Nursing's work! Sandy Summers, RN, MSN, MPH Please circulate this freely. If this was forwarded to you, you can sign up for free news alerts here: https://www.truthaboutnursing.org/members/news_alerts_signup.html To change your email address for news alerts, please send your old and new email addresses to info@truthaboutnursing.org |
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