Adverse Image Of Nursing

Society’s Adverse Image of Nursing
W0062731
St. Clair College
November 2, 2015

In many modern forms of media, nurses are portrayed as doctors’ servants who do not participate in any form of pertinent life saving care. TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Scrubs and House all portray nurses as secondary characters to doctors rather than being colleagues who collaborate to benefit the patient’s well being. They depict doctors providing the majority of care while only using nurses for rudimentary tasks that do not require expertise. However, it does not stop with secondary characters; even when nurses are given a main role on a television show, they are portrayed committing illegal acts, being unprofessional and stepping outside their

She had stolen them from the hospital she is employed by in a previous episode. If Nurse Jackie, or any nurse for that matter, were to be observed, by the public, committing this act, there would be a diminished sense of respect, trust and confidence in the nurse’s ability to care for their patient regardless of how competent he/she is. This image has the ability to foster an altered perception of reality in which some people may be deterred from entering the profession solely based on what they saw in a TV show. It is clear that if a nurse were to be found taking illicit drugs or diverting they would suffer serious repercussions like license suspension, indefinite forced leave of absence or even criminal charges. According to McHugh, Papastrat & Ashton (2011), the number of drug addicted nurses fall below ten percent when compared directly to the general population which consists of 9.4% admitting to being addicted to some form of substance (p. 4). Thus proving that there is a significant difference between the two populations due to

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