Silver Spring, Maryland–(ENEWSPF)–September 17, 2015. National Nurses United (NNU), the largest organization of nurses in the U.S., would like to express disappointment regarding ABC show The View’s disparaging, patronizing and misinformed comments on nursing.
This week, in discussing the talent portion of the Miss America pageant, hosts of The View mocked Miss Colorado Kelly Johnson’s (pictured to the right) monologue on her profession as a nurse, including host Joy Behar asking why she was holding “a doctor’s stethoscope.” Behar later excused her comments as “inattentive,” saying she thought Johnson’s uniform was “a costume,” and co-host Whoopi Goldberg encouraged viewers to see the initial segment as “a joke.”
NNU’s registered nurse members would like to be clear that trivializing the role of nurses is not only unfunny—but also part of a consistent media misrepresentation of nurses playing a supporting, background role, in the shadow of doctors. In reality, nurses are trained, college-educated professionals, with their own independent, complex, life-saving scope of practice. Nurses spend the most time with patients, observing signs and symptoms of illness, reactions to treatment, and changes in condition, to which they must respond promptly and effectively. They mobilize the healthcare team, manage complex technology, oversee the care and responses to therapies, and endlessly advocate in support of a patient’s best interest and recovery. To do this, they use tools such as their own stethoscopes. Given the amount of time nurses spend with patients, it would be fair to say nurses use them more often than doctors.
