Essay - Nursing in the Media not Missing in Action Nursing and...

Nursing in the Media

NOT MISSING IN ACTION

Nursing and the Media

Introduction

Harris survey of 1,000 respondents in July 1999 revealed that 92% trusted the health care provided by registered nurses (Ulmer 2000). Eighty-five percent also said that ********** would be pleased if their son or daughter would *****come a registered nurse or RN. Positive feedbacks ***** positive st*****ies about ***** have a pr*****ound imp*****ct on how they feel about their profession and about themselves. A positive image within the profession is essential in order to assure the public that the traditional view of nurses is true and deserved. There is also a need for the ***** to know *****bout the contributions ***** make in achiev*****g desirable patient outcomes. Nurses have become more and more a cornerstone in health ***** delivery. Hence, they must be sufficiently and correctly represented in the media. The ***** reflection and reporting of nurses' contributions would gain ********** power and establ*****h a stronger link with the public, which ***** serve. ***** public w*****nts and deserves to be in*****med even about little or seemingly insignificant details in ***** w*****k of nurses. These details, such as practices ***** preventing errors in sharp instrument, sponge and needle counts, can matter to the public. Inaccurate counts ***** adversely affect the lives of patients and deliver a de*****dly blow on ***** image ***** the profession. Practitioners content, on the other h*****, that despite millions of surgical procedures performed yearly, there is virtual possibility of foreign objects being left inside patients' bodies. But they have to come ***** terms with the need to announce and exhibit their professional and ethical involvement and role in patient care ***** consumer *****. It cannot be avoided or overstated. As it is, the news media engage ***** in a dialogue only when events like threats of a strike over working conditions happen. Nurses must have ***** frequent and more positive media exposure. They have to let the media and the public know ***** the pr*****ession has changed. They must inform everyone on how ********** skills ***** evolved, especially in critical nursing delivery. ***** have to make public how ***** have remained up-to-date ***** medical and technological innovations. They have to project how and what nursing will ***** in the future. They must also call the public's and *****'s attention to their congressional battles, ***** those ***** the national level. Nurses are the health practitioners involved with ***** patient throughout the latter's care. Their day-*****-day faithful performance must be known far and wide. Th***** performance is the key reflection of ********** *****st possible image and the media is the best instrument for that ***** (Ulmer).

Literature Re*****

Gonzales, Lillian. A Mission for ***** Center for Nursing Advocacy. Nevada RN Foundation: Nevada Nurses **********, 2005

***** author notes ***** the ***** has hardly pictured ***** profession in a really positive light. Television shows present the nurses as female sex objects, subordinates to physicians or as negligent and vain creatures. Practitioners themselves bewailed the faults of some