Nurses take charge of their image in the media

Nursing is the most trusted profession in the country. Really? Click on your TV and you see drug addled nurses making out with doctors in the linen closets. And every Halloween you’ll encounter at least one “sexy nurse” at the neighborhood party. Leaves you wondering how nurses are trusted, let alone respected, at all. But they are — because anyone who has spent time in a hospital or knows a real nurse has an idea of the kind of respect a nurse deserves and the type of character s/he truly possesses.
The UCLA School of Nursing addressed the issue of  how nurses are portrayed in the media in the annual symposium “Nurses and the Media: A Call to Action” on May 10, 2012.

“Over the past decade, the nation’s three million nursing professionals have been quietly redefining and expanding their roles through championing quality of care improvements, spearheading research innovation, advocating for patient rights and generally challenging the status quo in ways the majority of the public is unaware,” said Courtney H. Lyder, dean and professor of the UCLA School of Nursing. “Now it is time for journalists along with the television and film industries to recognize the growing, positive influence nurses have in every aspect of health.”  (newsroom.ucla.edu)

The UCLA School of Nursing, headed by Lyder, explores nursing images and the media in their curriculum.

Courtney H. Lyder is the dean and a professor at the UCLA School of Nursing.