Image is Everything
Replace media's fictional images by promoting nursing's true value

By Carol Bradley, MSN, RN, California Editor
November 5, 2001

If there is a silver lining to the nursing shortage, it is that it has served to highlight the central role nurses play in almost every corner of our health care system. Regardless of the setting-hospitals, clinics, surgery centers, home health care or public health-no one can deny that health care is dependent on the presence of clinically competent RNs to deliver care.

Why is it, then, that nursing's contributions are so often transparent, so easily taken for granted, or generally ignored by the public, the media and even health care leadership? Although I am often disappointed and sometimes appalled at the images of nursing portrayed on television and through the mass media, more often I am saddened by the absence of nursing. For example, a recent community health fair in Southern California did not have one nurse included on the planning committee or speaking, despite a wide array of topics that would easily have been addressed by expert nurses I know.

I marvel at how the TV drama "ER" focuses single-mindedly on the physicians' roles, at the almost total exclusion of the nurses. Still, I am holding out hope that Steven Spielberg will do a movie based on the book We Band of Angels (1999, Random House) by Elizabeth Norman, which portrays the heroism of American nurses in the Philippines during World War II. I also am waiting to see the savvy hospital that makes its nurses the central theme of its expensive marketing effort vs. the latest, greatest specialist. Not only are great doctors only as good as the nurses provided to their patients, but many great nurses have been known to make up for lots of gaps and shortcomings in our health care system.

Even experts acknowledge that patients' opinions revolve around their experiences with nursing care. Given the growing concerns about nurse staffing, patients are wise to explore the nursing-related indicators of a hospital before admission.

Although our true talents may rest more in the care of patients vs. that of public relations, it is time for us to reconsider how we translate the value of nursing to the world. Some suggestions on how to showcase nurses and nursing contributions in your work environment:

• Make sure your patient distinguishes you as a registered nurse, then be sure to look and act the part.
  
• Invest time in translating your clinical knowledge and expertise to patients and their families.
  
• Create a list of content experts within your nursing staff for use by public relations staff and the local media.
  
• Work with public relations departments to develop press releases around important accomplishments of nurses in your workplace, and include photos.
  
• Contact your local newspaper and share your ideas for public interest stories that focus on nurse contributions.
  
• Offer clinical experts to write a column for a local paper, or to speak at civic events.
  
• Get to know the local school nurse, science teachers and guidance counselors. Offer yourself to them as a guest lecture/resource.
  
• Coordinate workplace tours, professional shadowing experiences and other forms of exposure to the work of nurses.
  
• Provide a brochure about nursing to all patients who come to your place of work. Include a summary of the nursing staff, their credentials and their expertise. Patients deserve to know about who will be caring for them.
  
• Always, always identify yourself as a nurse.

It is time to be bold and let others see the true measure of nursing's value to society.

©NurseWeek Publishing