The Role Of Nurses

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Nurses are sex objects, incompetent and subservient to physicians. Any nurse or individual who truly understands the work of a nurse can say that the previous statement is not true. Nurses are defined as compassionate and knowledgeable, and are correlated with saving lives and instilling hope (Varaei, 2012). These traits will always be the foundation of nursing, however, society has been more attentive to the stereotypical view of nurses and their duty in the health care (Varaei, 2012). Over time, the false nursing image has been constructed by tradition, education, society, relationship between doctors and nurses, historical views, and media (Varaei, 2012). However, today, media is one of the biggest factors contributing and sustaining nurses’ …show more content…

Tv shows such as Grey’s Anatomy and House, “put white male physicians in leading roles on medical shows that by default left nursing as marginal, secondary if not tertiary, and even unnecessary” (Heilemann, 2012). Since nurses are not centralized in medical shows, the viewers do not know the real role of nurses in the healthcare team. The role of the nurse in medical shows are taken over by doctors. On Grey’s Anatomy, the doctor quickly calls for a nurse when he drops something, showing that nurses do anything the doctors tells them to do and perform tasks that doctors do not want to do. Also, nurses not only cure patients but they also care for patients. This concept is completely absent from medical shows or taken over by physicians. Thus, people are not informed on the qualifications and disciplines of nursing. A research study on 106, 16 year old students show that 13.2% of them perceive nurses to be doctors’ assistants and 4.7% think no qualifications are required for nursing (Whitehead, 2007). Those students may perceive nurses as doctor’s assistants due to the media portrayal of nurses under the doctor’s orders. Also, the absence of nurses in medical shows contributes to the lack of knowledge the viewer has about nursing qualifications. This can be a result from medical shows not properly displaying the role and qualifications of

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