The Image of

Nursing
Gail Luskin
NURS 450

Introduction
Nurses go through rigorous education to gain skills and competencies that
help them to provide exceptional patient care.
The world is fascinated with medical dramas and interested in keeping up
with healthcare in the news.
The way that the world perceives nurses can impact what they expect from
their healthcare experiences.
Stereotypes of nurses can potentially cause a distrust or lack of confidence in
nursing care.
The image of nursing needs to be considered a crucial part of appropriate
care.

Introduction continued
Images of nursing in popular media, such as television, can influence how nursing is
viewed and potentially both shape and reinforce stereotypes about nursing (Weaver,
Salamonson, Koch, & Jackson, 2013, p.2636).
Studies show that the public image of nurses does not always match their professional
image; nurses are not depicted as autonomous professionals and the public is not aware
that nowadays nursing is to a great extent a theory-based and scholarly profession (ten
Hoeve, Jansen, & Roodbol, 2013, p.296).
With the current emphasis on patient choice in healthcare, mass media such as the
Internet, television, print media and radio, plays an important role in the communicating
and raising awareness about health research and services to patients, and in shaping
public perceptions and decisions about health (van Bekkum & Hilton, 2013, p.1).
Care provided by nursestends to become blurred into the global delivery of healthcare,
becoming almost indistinguishable by society (Cardoso, Graveto, & Queiroz, 2014, p.145).
In 2013, in Canada and the United States, only 5% of nurses are men (Zamanzadeh,
Valizadeh, Negarandeh, Monadi, & Azadi, 2013, p.49).

Objectives
Evaluate personal observations of the depictions of nurses in
medical television shows or movies.
Identify the implications of medias portrayal of nurses.
Propose improvements that new nurses can make to improve the
image of nurses.

What do you think I do?

What I actually do!

Who is the nurse?

1

Who is the nurse?

1

Whats the same in each picture?

Who is this nurse?

Discussion Questions?

What medical dramas are on TV currently and in the past?

What stereotypes have you heard or seen about nurses?

Empowering the Nursing Image

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk29zK3dyoY

Theories
Nursing
Virginia Hendersons Needs Theory
The unique function of the nurse is to assist the individual sick or well, in the
performance of those activities contributing to health or its recovery (or to peaceful
death) that he would perform unaided if he had the necessary strength, will, or
knowledge. And to do this in such as way as to help him gain independence as rapidly as
possible (Maville & Huerta, 2013, p.32).
Rosemarie Parses Theory of Human Becoming
Nursing is a basic science whose practice is a performing of art (Maville & Huerta, 2013,
pm33).
Nursings responsibility to society is to guide individuals in choosing possibilities in
changing the health process (Maville & Huerta, 2013, p.33).
Motivational
Maslows Hierarchy of Needs Theory (Maville & Huerta, 2013, p.23)
Self-esteem: approval, maturity, respect, self-worth
Self-actualization: fulfillment, perception, peacefulness

Interdisciplinary Perspective

Interactions with coworkers

Portrayal of self to coworkers
A nurse is a nurse is a nurse

Uniforms
A doctor wears a lab coat while a nurse wears scrubs

Men in Nursing

Ignorance outside the profession and prejudice inside it

(Zamanzadeh et al., 2013, p. 49)
Stereotypes
Patient preferences of their providers gender

Health Care Environment

Policy
Hierarchy of medical professionals
ANA Scope and Standards

Resources
Access to continuing education
Staffing
Hospital equipment

Quality

Education level of staff/nurses

Providers trust of nursing competency

Safety

Misunderstanding of qualifications can

lead to treatment refusal
Misinterpreting non-nurse hospital staffs
role can lead to HIPPA violations and
asking the inappropriate person for
medical advice

Root Cause Analysis

A
nurse is
a nurse
is a
nurse

Poor
experienc
e with
nurses
during
interactio
ns
Observin
g other
healthcar
e
providers
interact
with
nurses

Stereotyp
es of
nurses
througho
ut history

Medias
depictio
n of
nurses

Naught
y Nurse
Hallowee
n
Costume

Society
s
obsessi
on with
media

Poor
image of
nurses
and
nursing as
a whole

Interpretations and Implications

There are many elements that have
an impact on how people view
nurses
The way that nurses are seen can
definitely impact patient care
Poor patient care can help to
contribute to a poor image of
nurses

There could be a decrease in

nursing school applicants
Healthcare facilities wont hire RNs
without BSNs or higher education
due to perceived lack of
competency
Continued or worse depictions of
nurses in media
More blame on nurses for perceived
inadequate care
Continued significantly lower
amounts of males in the nursing
field

Research Literatures
Recommendations
Teaching caring roles to male nursing students should be provided by male mentor
and role models in a scientific and rational manner (Zamanzadeh et al., 2013, p.55).
To become more visible inside and outside healthcare organizations, nurses should
present themselves more clearly to the publicby pursuing higher education and by
working in challenging work environment that offers nurses the opportunity to break
away from the daily routine and that challenges them to deepen and broaden their
knowledge and skills (ten Hoeve et al., 2013 ,p.306).
As clinicians, educators, academics and managers, we have the responsibility to get
out there and make the changes happen to our media image (Weaver et al., 2013, p.
2642).
Nurses should break out of this spiral of silence and develop communication skills to
improve their participation in public spaces (Cardoso et al., 2014, p.148).

Recommendations
My personal recommendations
Reach out to popular medial dramas to hire a nurse educator
Reach out to popular news stations to not only have a medical advocate but also a
nursing advocate
Have nurses give presentations to students through
Elementary School Career Days
High School Career Fairs
College Orientations
Create community forums each month to allow community members come and ask
questions of a nurse about what they have seen in the media or share stories of
interactions with nurses
Educate our own children on how stereotyping can be harmful

QSEN and ANA Standards

QSEN
Patient-Centered Care
Teamwork & Collaboration
Evidence Based Practice
Quality Improvement
Safety
Informatics

ANA Standards
Standard 5B: Health Teaching
and Health Promotion
Standard 10: Quality of Practice
Standard 11: Communication
Standard 12: Leadership

Class Recommendations

What can you think of to help develop a more appropriate image

of nursing?

Summary
Medias huge impact on image of the world
Observations of nurses in the healthcare setting can also be
harmful
Research is stating that it is the full responsibility of nurses to
change the way people see them
Using what we have seen in the media of the stereotypes of
nurses, it will be our responsibility to shape the way our patients
see us

References
American Nurses Association. (2010). Nursing: Scope and standards of practice (2nd ed.). Silver Spring,
MD: Author.
Cardoso, R., Graveto, J., & Queiroz, A. (2014). The exposure of the nursing profession in online and print
media. Revista Latino-Americana de Enfermagem, 22(1), 144-149. doi:10.1590/0104-1169.3144.2394
Competencies (2014). In QSEN Institute. Retrieved March 29, 2015, from http://qsen.org/competencies/
Empowering the Nursing Image. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk29zK3dyoY
Google Images. https://www.google.com/img
Hoeve, Y., Jansen, G., & Roodbol, P. (2014). The nursing profession: public image, self-concept and
professional identity. A discussion paper. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 70(2), 295-309.
doi:10.1111/jan.1217
Maville, J. A., & Huerta, C. G. (2013). Health Promotion in Nursing (3rd ed., pp. 23-33). Clifton Park, NY:
Delmar, Cengage Learning.
Weaver, R., Salamonson, Y., Koch, J., & Jackson, D. (2013). Nursing on television: student perceptions of
television's role in public image, recruitment and education. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 69(12), 26352643. doi:10.1111/jan.12148
van Bekkum, J. E., & Hilton, S. (2013). Primary care nurses' experiences of how the mass media influence
frontline healthcare in the UK. BMC Family Practice, 14(178), 1-9. doi:10.1186/1471-2296-14-178
Zamanzadeh, V., Valizadeh, L., Negarandeh, R., Monadi, M., & Azadi, A. (2013). Factors influencing men
entering the nursing profession, and understanding the challenges faced by them: iranian and developed
countries' perspectives. Nurs Midwifery Stud., 2(4), 49-56.