The 2011 Truth About Nursing Awards

  
Ten Best Media Portrayals of Nursing 2011

1. National Nurses United

   Long before the Occupy Wall Street movement, National Nurses United (NNU) protested the financial industry's role in the nation's economic woes and called for a one-percent tax on Wall Street transactions to fund improved health care, generating helpful press coverage, such as a September 1 Orlando Sentinel piece. NNU's aggressive advocacy reflected a holistic focus on health problems and showed that nurses can be courageous public health leaders. 
    

    

2. Reports highlighting nursing careers

   Jennifer Swartz, The Daily Reflector (North Carolina), "Scouts zero in on nursing," March 28. This item describes a nursing instructor's annual efforts to introduce girl and boy scouts to nursing through interactive programs. See Gina Ann Woody's video. 
    

3. Nurses advocating in the media and elsewhere

Wendie Howland, for relentlessly monitoring Help a Reporter Out (HARO) and educating reporters seeking health experts that the better choices for their stories are often nurses, rather than the physicians they seek;

Dee Riley, for leading the Las Vegas chapter of The Truth About Nursing in a peaceful rally on November 12 in front of the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas to protest the anti-health restaurant's naughty nurse waitress outfits;

Florida nurses seeking staffing legislation, as described in The News-Press (Fort Myers), "St. Bernard from Lehigh leads nurses rally in Tallahassee," April 2, which included a surprisingly detailed discussion of how better nurse staffing saves lives and money;

The National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP), for issuing an official position statement opposing corporal punishment of kids in homes and schools, as described on Examiner.com, "NAPNAP calls for an end to corporal punishment of children," Marianna Klebenov, August 25;

Kathleen Bartholomew, for advocacy efforts including an op-ed in The Seattle Times, "Health care: a new civil-rights movement?" October 7;

Theresa Brown, for media about nursing, including New York Times op-eds "Looking for a Place to Die," December 21, and "Physician, Heel Thyself," May 7; Well blog posts "When Nurses Make Mistakes," July 6, "A Hollywood Movie Takes on Cancer," October 5, and "Practicing on Patients," November 16; and an appearance on NPR's Talk of the Nation, June 6.
 

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6. Michelle Crouch, Reader's Digest, "50 Secrets Nurses Won't Tell You," November.

   Nurses featured in this cover story made good points about nursing skill, from saving lives to psychosocial care, and a few even conveyed something of nursing autonomy and advocacy, with several references to questioning physician care plans.
    

 Honorable Mention

• Allison Gendar, New York Daily News, "Nurse fired for trying to expose Roosevelt Hospital's neglect in death of homeless man: lawsuit," March 28.

  This piece described Danna Novak, an emergency department nurse, who says she tried but failed to get colleagues to treat a man who was later found dead outside the hospital and that she was then fired after trying to expose what happened.