The Truth About Nursing 2021 Awards
January 2023 -- The Truth About Nursing announces our list of the best and worst media portrayals of nursing for 2021! We regret that moving and other transitions this past year delayed these awards, but better late than never. The year featured more generally strong portrayals of nursing skill and autonomy from television dramas Call the Midwife (BBC/PBS) and Virgin River (Netflix). It also included some great advocacy from nurses themselves, and even from U.K. pop star Dua Lipa, who used an award show appearance to push for better nurse pay. Some of the best news and social media items involved nurses speaking out about conditions in the ongoing Covid crisis. Among the nursing leaders creating powerful media were Josiah Jackson-Okesola, Marion Leary, Christina NP, and Julie McFadden (HospiceNurseJulie). On the downside, portrayals of nurses as the low-skilled servants of brilliant physicians continued to dominate the U.S. television landscape. That was the case in shows like Grey's Anatomy (ABC), The Good Doctor (ABC), and New Amsterdam (NBC). Even Bob Hearts Abishola (CBS), with a strong central nurse character, reinforced the wannabe-physician stereotype by having her decide to attend medical school. Meanwhile, some mainstream reporting focused on hospitals “running out of beds” because of the pandemic, with no indication that this actually meant running out of nurses. And some celebrities, notably Megan Thee Stallion and Martha Stewart, exploited the tired naughty nurse stereotype. Better understanding of nursing is possible—if nursing supporters work together to educate others about the real value of the profession!
The Best
The Worst
Best Television Series
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Created by Heidi Thomas, from a memoir by Jennifer Worth; BBC and PBS For portraying skilled, autonomous nurse-midwives delivering babies and providing other effective care to poor patients in 1960s London in season 10 |
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Created by Sue Tenney; Netflix For showing nurse practitioner Mel Monroe provide expert and sensitive care to her small California town in season 3 |
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Honorable Mention
Created by Dick Wolf and Matt Olmstead; NBC For showing nurses playing important roles in urban emergency care in seasons 6 and 7 |
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Created by Adam Pettle; Global and NBC For showing new Toronto nurses display skill and advocacy in season 1 |
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Best Reporting on Nursing 2021
Best Short Radio 2021
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NewsHourBest Video News Coverage 2021
Alexander Stockton and Lucy King "Death, Through a Nurse’s Eyes -- an intense look inside a Covid-19 I.C.U.," The New York Times, February 24 |
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Best News Articles 2021
"Twelve hours in a Florida COVID-19 ICU," Tampa Bay Times, September 2, for reporting on how ICU nurses really care for Covid patients |
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For covering the poems of nurse Sara McDonald: Rachel Cohen, "A Boise nurse shares her frontline experience through poetry," Boise State Public Radio, October 4; and |
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| "Philly’s school nurses are exhausted as staff shortages and COVID-19 double their workload," The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 20 |
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"Meet the hospice nurse whose viral TikTok videos make death a little less scary," Upworthy, November 19, for covering the work of HospiceNurseJulie |
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Best Investigative Journalism 2021
"Nurses in diapers: General Santos hospital workers look for jobs," Rappler (Philippines), September 15 |
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Best Celebrity Advocacy for Nurses 2021
Brit Awards acceptance speech, as covered by BBC and others, May 12, for using her appearance at the U.K. awards show to pay tribute to nurses — and argue for a pay rise for them |
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Best Media Created by Nurses Themselves
Best All Around Nursing Advocates 2021
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This Nigerian nurse is a tireless nursing advocate, hosting the Nurses on Air radio show and creating a range of media to empower the nursing profession, in partnership with international organizations including the Truth About Nursing (where he is a member of the advisory panel) |
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Marion Leary, RN, MSN, MPH This University of Pennsylvania nursing professor does it all, in wide-ranging efforts to support nurses and share their health expertise with the public - social media, podcasting, nursing media, and traditional mainstream media, including opinion pieces in the Philadelphia Inquirer, creating the Amplify Nursing podcast and the Nursing Story Slam, and serving as Director of Innovation at the Penn Medicine Center for Health Care Innovation |
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Best Nurses on Social Media 2021
The Relentless School Nurse has a weekly blog, a monthly column in My American Nurse, and a very active Twitter and social media presence
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This nurse practitioner campaigns persistently for better health care, less ignorance and less hate |
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An authoritative nurse practitioner who uses her popular TikTok account ChristinaaaaaaaNP to dispel Covid-19 myths in a fiercely comic style |
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For her influential TikTok account HospiceNurseJulie, where she sensitively educates the public about end-of-life care and death |
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Best Nurse-Penned Editorials 2021
"Covid-19 Is ‘Probably Going to End My Career,’" The New York Times, February 25 |
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"Nurses Deserve Better. So Do Their Patients," The New York Times, August 12 |
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Kelly Potter, Michelle Lynn Wright, Stephen Ferrara, Ann-Marie Brown, Tanya Trotter and Kirstin Manges "Without a Nurse, a Hospital Bed Is Just a Bed," Ms. Magazine, January 28 |
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Best Radio Shows for Nursing 2021
By speaking about health care in a compelling and authoritative way, the nurses who host these programs show society that nurses are college-educated science professionals who deserve respect.
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Diana Mason and Barbara Glickstein — Healthcetera, WIOX (Catskills, NY) |
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Diane Reed — Nurses Rock! (Orlando, Florida) (Dr. Reed is a member of The Truth About Nursing's advisory panel) |
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Maureen McGrath — Sunday Night Health Show (formerly the Sunday Night Sex Show), CKNW (Vancouver, Canada) |
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Josiah Jackson-Okesola — Nurses on Air (Lagos, Nigeria) |
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Leanne Meier — Once a Nurse, Always a Nurse (Minnesota) |
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Casey Hobbs and Shayne Mason — Nurses Talk (California) |
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Worst Portrayals of Nursing in a Television Series 2021
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Created by Shonda Rhimes; ABC Once again in seasons 17 and 18, heroic surgeons saved lives as background nurses took orders when they appeared at all |
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Created by David Shore; ABC Brilliant physicians did everything and nurses barely appeared in season 4 and the episodes of season 5 airing this year |
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Created by Matt Reeves, Russel Friend, and Garrett Lerner; NBC In season 1 of this now-canceled drama, Nurse Joe at times displayed skill and even patient advocacy, but his job was really just something he had to settle for |
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Created by David Schulner; NBC In seasons 3 and 4, assistive minor nurse characters occasionally showed knowledge and skill, but the overwhelming focus remained the expert, life-saving physicians |
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Worst News Articles 2021
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"When hospitals run out of beds, here's how they ration care," CNN, September 13. This piece mentions the lack of staff in passing, but fails to mention or quote any nurses, relying entirely on physicians, politicians, and non-nurse health policy figures |
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Priyanka Dayal McCluskey, Martin Finucane, and Felice J. Freyer "‘We ran out of ICU beds today:’ Hospitals stagger under strain as COVID-19 cases reach highest level since winter," Boston Globe, December 2. This piece fails to mention or quote any nurses, relying instead on physicians, politicians, and non-nurse health policy figures |
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Some celebrities continue to exploit the naughty nurse stereotype.
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For video and other promotional imagery for the song "Thot Shit,” which featured the rapper in a naughty nurse outfit |
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For resurrecting an image of a naughty-axe outfit she had worn years earlier to a Halloween party |
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These media products looked good for a while, but that did not last.
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Created by Chuck Lorre, Eddie Gorodetsky, Alan J. Higgins, and Gina Yashere; CBS The show's portrayal of the tough, smart central nurse character was helpful - until the season 2 episode when she decided to attend medical school, reinforcing the wannabe-physician stereotype |
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Created by Amy Holden Jones, Hayley Schore, and Roshan Sethi; Fox The expert nurse practitioner Nic Nevin never abandoned nursing for med. school, but unfortunately the show did reduce her nursing role in season 4, then killed her off at the start of season 5, leaving only peripheral-subordinate nurse characters |
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See our awards for previous years since 2003 |
Educate the world that nurses save lives!
