This question baffled me
This question baffled me, I have never considered that the media and Hollywood had any influence in nursing directly. After researching this phenomenon. It poses the question are nurses the respected professionals I believed. There are several examples of nurses in Hollywood that definitely don’t depict nurses as hardworking professional that have an impact on the lives of others every single day. On the contrary nurses are portrayed as sex symbols, drug addicts, cruel and crazy, or simply trying to bag a doctor. I guess it’s more appealing for your nurse to be a sexy vixen like “Hot Lips” Houlihan from the 1970 TV show Mash. The Focker franchise belittling of the main male character for being a nurse furthers the illusion and ideals that’s nursing is woman’s work.
The bottom line is that writers of TV shows and movies feel the need to take artistic license to create compelling, provocative stories filled with conflict and sexual scenes meant to entertain a mass audience. Fictional nurse characters tend to remain mostly insulting and unrealistic, diminishing the nursing profession. In reality, nurses are underappreciated, working long hours under stressful situations and not receiving the respect they deserve. Unfortunately the daily nursing grind without sex, drugs, and drama wouldn’t make for good TV. Media driven messages are powerful, influencing the cultural and collective mindset. It’s up to individuals to decipher reality from fiction. In a study of primary and secondary school students, most participants mistakenly described nursing as a girl’s job, a technical job “like shop,” and an inappropriate career for private school students. (JWT Communications)
If nurses want to change the image that has come from Hollywood and the media
JWT Communications, Memo to Nurses for a Healthier Tomorrow on focus group studies of 1,800 school children in 10 U.S. cities, 2000)
https://www.truthaboutnursing.org/news/2001andprior/2001_silence_to_voice.html
