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Improving the Image of Nursing

1983; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Volume: 83; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/3470127

1538-7488

Beatrice J. Kalisch, Philip A. Kalisch,

Nursing Education, Practice, and Leadership

Unfortunately, in contrast with past characterizations of nurses in the mass media, nurses today are usually portrayed in a derogatory light (l3). Such negative public images affect nursing in several important ways. First, since public opinion is vital to the success of social, political, and professional groups in attaining their goals, these images distort the public's concept of nursing and reinforce an outmoded legacy of beliefs, expectations, and myths about nursing. Second, such images affect the quality and number of persons who choose nursing as an occupation, particularly troublesome in a time when young women (and nurses are mostly women) are increasingly choosing to enter traditional men's fields of work. Third, these images affect the decisions of policymakers relative to the allocations of scarce recourses for the profession. Fourth, consumers, too, are affected as these portrayals deprive the public of knowledge of the many vital services that nurses provide. Physicians continue to receive credit for virtually all positive health care outcomes-a discrepancy reinforced by the print and electronic media. And finally, these portrayals affect nurses' self -images and undermine nurses' self-confidence, beliefs, and values. Many nurses, therefore, do not watch or listen to media presentations because they find them too painful. Their response is similar to that of blacks in the 1930s and '40s who disliked hearing the program Amos 'n' Andy on radio, because it offered a