This paper examines the persistent negative stereotypes of nurses portrayed in television and film, drawing on Carol J. Huston's Professional Issues in Nursing and the advocacy website The Truth about Nursing. It identifies six recurring stereotypes — including the "angel of mercy," the sexual object, the doctor's handmaiden, and the effeminate or predatory male nurse — and traces their presence in popular shows such as ER, Grey's Anatomy, and Scrubs. The paper then outlines concrete actions that nurses, students, and the public can take to counter these portrayals and promote an accurate, professional image of nursing in the media.
Author Carol J. Huston writes in a boldly honest narrative that the nursing industry must seek to be populated with "smart, bright, highly motivated" nurses who "want to make a difference" in the lives of the patients they tend to (Huston, 2013, p. 319). Nurses must "stop acting like victims" and instead use their best instincts and have a positive influence on public policy (Huston, p. 319). In order to do that, nurses must be able to break out of the stereotypes that seem to follow them, especially on television and in the movies, Huston explains.
The stereotypes on television that Huston presents to the reader include: a) a nurse is an "angel of mercy"; b) nurses have love interests in doctors; c) nurses are "sex bombshells" and "naughty"; d) a nurse is a "handmaiden to the physician"; e) nurses can be "battle-axes"; and f) male nurses are either gay, effeminate, or "sexually predatory" (Huston, p. 329).
Romantic relationships between nurses and doctors "abound on contemporary television shows," Huston continues (p. 330). On ER, Scrubs, House, and Grey's Anatomy, the stereotypes of romance actually come closer to "sexual liaisons," according to Huston. Over the past forty years, she asserts, nurses have been portrayed as "sex objects" on television and in film. Movies from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s were "filled with images of nurses garbed in miniskirts, sleazy, low-cut tops, and high heels," as characters spent considerable time "fulfilling sexual fantasies and virtually no time providing care to patients" (Huston, p. 330).
Some readers might conclude that Huston is exaggerating the negative image that television has created of nurses, but she provides numerous examples of these stereotypes to support her position. For example, a ten-week television series in the UK in 2004 depicted nurses as "sexed-up independent women" who smoked, drank, and after finishing work — including engaging in a "steam clinch in the linen cupboard" — enjoyed a "wild night of clubbing" (Huston, p. 331). This kind of television production is contemptible; it reflects a media industry pandering to the worst human impulses while presenting a false image of nursing professionals in the process.
"Advocacy resources for improving nursing's public image"
"Specific actions nurses can take in media advocacy"
It is unfair and unkind for television and other media outlets to use sleazy, inaccurate images of nurses in their programming. But unless nurses and others who are concerned about the profession become active and fight these stereotypes, the same tired and false images will likely prevail.
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