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Golden Lamp Awards 2006

The Fourth Annual Golden Lamp Awards rank the best and worst media portrayals of nursing we've seen in 2006.

This is the summary version. Also see the:

full version and the

press release.

The Best

Best Media Depictions of Nursing

Honorable Mention

Best Media on How Nurses Present Themselves to the Public

Best Efforts to Remedy Poor Media Portrayals of Nursing

The Worst

Worst Media Depictions of Nursing

Special "Worst Depiction" Awards

The "Just Joking" Awards

The View From Above Awards

The Evolutionary Dead-End Awards

The 2006 Golden Lamp Awards cover material released in the 13 months prior to the end of 2006. In the list below, television episodes are identified by original U.S. air dates. All dates are from 2006 unless otherwise noted.


Best Media Depictions of Nursing 2006

  1. Celia Dugger, The New York Times, "U.S. Plan to Lure Nurses May Hurt Poor Nations," May 24.
     
  2. Ronnie Polaneczky, Philadelphia Daily News, Sept. 12, Sept. 26 and Oct. 5, three columns on a local labor dispute and the nursing shortage.
     
  3. Katherine Boo, The New Yorker, "Swamp Nurse," Feb. 2.
     
  4. We commend nursing scholars who publicize their research, in areas ranging from preventative care of tobacco users to the role of music in improving outcomes in hospital procedures, and the lay media that covers this important work:
     
  5. Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN, a U.N. news agency providing news and analysis about sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia for the humanitarian community) has run powerful articles, reprinted on the Reuters Foundation website, on the challenges facing nurses in the developing world, from AIDS in Africa to violence in Iraq:
     
  6. Alan McEwen, The Scotsman, "Pioneering nurse wins award for life-saving heart scheme," Jan. 3.
     
  7. Dulce Corazon Z Lamagna, The Daily Star (Bangladesh), "Evaluating the role of nurses," June 12.
     
  8. Bruce Horovitz and Kevin McCoy, contributors Paul Overberg, Tom Ankner, and Bruce Rosenstein, USA Today, "Nurse shortage puts school kids at risk," Dec. 13, 2005.
     
  9. Stanley Aronson, Providence Journal, "Kentucky's intrepid nurses on horseback," Jan. 23.
       
  10. We salute all nurses who advocate in the media to increase understanding of their profession and help their patients, as well as the media entities that work with these nurses, including:

    The International Council of Nursing, International Nurses Day campaign: "Safe staffing saves lives," May 12;

    Barbara Ficarra, Health in 30, WRCR radio show (Rockland County, NY), ongoing;

    Diana Mason* and Barbara Glickstein, HealthStyles, WBAI radio show (New York City), ongoing;

    Raewyn Janota, "The unique gifts that nurses receive," Globe and Mail (Toronto), Dec. 21, 2005;

    Gina Dennik-Champion, "Nurses back medical marijuana," Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Dec. 10, 2005;

    Nancy Banfield Johnson, "Time to split truth from myth about nursing," The Ithaca Journal, May 5;

    Ruth Tanyi, "Bad Sugar," television series on diabetes prevention, airing on KHIZ (Southern California), Oct. 2006 to Jan. 2007;

    The Royal College of Nursing (Wales), policy "manifesto," as reported in "Wales boozing worries nurses," News Wales, Sept. 20.

  11. RAN: Remote Area Nurse, Jan. - Feb, Executive Producer Penny Chapman, SBS-TV (Australia).
     

Honorable Mention: Best Media Depictions of Nursing 2006

  1. Mireille Kingma, Nurses on the Move: Migration and the Global Health Care Economy, 2006.
     
  2. Two episodes of Scrubs: "His Story III," by Angela Nissel, Apr. 18, and "My Extra Mile," by Mark Stegemann, Mar. 21; Executive Producer Bill Lawrence; NBC.
     
  3. Al Lewis, "First aid for 'problem' nurses," Denver Post, Feb. 28.
     
  4. Taunya English, "Mobile clinic brings healthcare information to children," WYPR radio (Baltimore), Aug. 16.
     
  5. Dawn Neuses, Quad Cities Online, "City of Moline saves thousands with on-site 'Nurse Pam'", Aug. 6.
     
  6. Jane Bell, "I'm not a 'male nurse' - I'm a nurse and proud of it," Belfast Telegraph, June 28.
     
  7. Anne Underwood, "Diagnosis: Not Enough Nurses," Dec. 12, 2005; "'CSI' Nursing," Oct. 6; Newsweek; New Ideas For Nurses Oct. 16 Newsweek.
     

Best Media On How Nurses Present Themselves to the Public

Although the Truth's focus is the general media, and the books below are aimed mainly at nurses, these works ably explore how nurses think about their work and present it to others, thus increasing public understanding of the profession.

  1. Bernice Buresh* and Suzanne Gordon*, From Silence to Voice: What Nurses Know and Must Communicate to the Public (2nd ed.), 2006.
     
  2. The Complexities of Care: Nursing Reconsidered, Sioban Nelson and Suzanne Gordon*, editors, 2006.
     
  3. Doris Young, Save the First Dance for You: The Complete Nurse's Guide to Serving Your Profession, Your Patients, and Yourself, 2006.
     

Best Efforts to Remedy Poor Media Portrayals of Nursing 2006

  1. Wynn Las Vegas, especially Jamie Papp, Vice President of Slot Operations, for ending the casino's use of IGT's pernicious "Nurse Follies" slot machines, Jan.
  2. CVS, especially Mark Kolligian, Vice President of Customer Service, for changing a TV ad that suggested a pharmacist could train a layperson to be a nurse in half a day, Jan. 
  3. ALR Technologies, especially Stan Cruitt, President, and Wendy Prabhu, President, Mercom Capital Group, for changing the name of an ALR health monitoring device from the "Electronic Nurse" to the "Compliance Reminder ALRT500," Sept.  
  4. Constellation Brands, especially Michael Martin, Vice President of Corporate Communications, for removing "naughty nurse" images from ads and events for Hydra Vodka Water, Sept.  
  5. Schick, especially John Wergeles, Group Business Director for Men's Systems, for agreeing not to revive naughty nurse print ads for the Quattro Titanium razor, Oct.  
  6. Coors, especially Maxine Rizzo, Consumer Information Representative, for discontinuing the use of various "naughty nurse" images in the Coors Light Trauma Tour in Canada, Dec.  

Worst Media Depictions of Nursing 2006

  1. Eight episodes of Grey's Anatomy: "Owner of a Lonely Heart," Dec. 4, 2005; "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer," Dec. 11, 2005; "Tell Me Sweet Little Lies," Jan. 22; "Break on Through," Jan. 29; "Deterioration of the Fight or Flight Response" and "Losing My Religion," May 15; "Time Has Come Today," Sept. 21; "I Am a Tree," Sept. 28; Executive Producers Shonda Rhimes, Mark Gordon, Betsy Beers, Jim Parriott; ABC.
     
  2. Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders, Nicolas de Torrente, Executive Director, MSF-USA; Darin Portnoy, President of the Board, MSF-USA. The Nobel Prize-winning relief organization has refused even to consider a minor change to its name (such as to Soins San Frontières / Care Without Borders) that would credit the nurses and others who do most of MSF's work worldwide.
     
  3. Johnson & Johnson, Andrea Alstrup, Vice President, Adverting; Andrea Higham, Director, Campaign for Nursing's Future. The pharmaceutical giant continues to broadcast television commercials that aim to recruit new nurses, but mostly ignore nurses' knowledge and skill; instead, the ads focus on the emotional "angel" and handmaiden imagery that is a factor in the very shortage they are trying to combat.
     
  4. An episode of The Sopranos, "Mayham," Mar. 26, Executive Producers David Chase, Mitchell Burgess, Robin Green, Brad Grey, HBO.
       
  5. Four episodes of House: "Who's Your Daddy?", May 16; "No Reason," May 23; "Que Sera Sera," Nov. 7; "Whac-a-Mole," Nov. 21; Executive Producers David Shore, Paul Attanasio, Katie Jacobs, Bryan Singer; Fox.
     
  6. Nancy Gibbs and Amanda Bower, "Q: What Scares Doctors? A: Being the Patient." TIME magazine, May 1.
     
  7. Two episodes of ER: "All About Christmas Eve", Dec. 8, 2005; "Graduation Day", Sept. 28; Executive Producers John Wells, Christopher Chulack, Michael Crichton, David Zabel; NBC.
     
  8. Akeelah and the Bee, written and directed by Doug Atchison, April.
     
  9. The "naughty nurse" image remained a staple of virtually every form of media worldwide. A few examples from different media:
       
  10. Two episodes of Heroes: "Genesis," Sept. 25; "One Giant Leap," Oct. 9; Executive Producers Tim Kring, Dennis Hammer, Allan Arkush; NBC.
     

Special "Worst Depiction" Awards 2006

The View from Above Awards 2006

These awards go to nurses and physicians who have presented the public with contemptuous, distorted visions of nursing.

  1. American Medical Association and Rebecca Patchin, comments in various major newspapers, throughout 2006.
     
  2. Two pieces by Vickie Milazzo: "Why Are Nurses Leaving Clinical Nursing? Not Because of ER!", American Chronicle, Aug. 21; "This I Believe: Stepping Out of Fear," National Public Radio, Sept. 4.
     
  3. Two op-eds by one or more anonymous U.K. physicians: "Why nurses are no angels," The Independent and the Belfast Telegraph, June 20; "Are nurses angels? I don't think so," Daily Mail, July 18.

The "Just Joking" Awards 2006

  1. Mattel, for its "Nurse Quacktitioner" doll, Dec. 2005.
     
  2. IGT, "Nurse Follies," video slot machine, Jan.  

The Evolutionary Dead End Awards 2006

These awards recognize those whose contempt for nursing--at a time when the profession is in crisis--is notably self-defeating.

  1. The Heart Attack Grill, Tempe, AZ, ongoing.
       
  2. Silvio Berlusconi, public comments on recent hospitalization, Dec.

See the expanded version of the Golden Lamp Awards and our press release.

*A member of the Truth's board of directors or advisory panel.


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