Buzz Saw

News on Nursing in the Media

October 9, 2006 -- Today The Oregonian ran Janet Goetze's profile of Oregon nurse Teri Mills, RN, MS, ANP, and her campaign to create a federal Office of the National Nurse. The National Nurse would undertake public health media campaigns and try to attract more nurses to the profession. The piece, labeled a "Monday Profile," is mostly about Mills. But it also gives information about the progress of National Nurse legislation in Congress, and about the lack of support the initiative has received from the Oregon Nurses Association, whose executive director reportedly suggests the idea won't "produce results." When we first heard of the National Nurse in Ms. Mills's May 2005 op-ed in The New York Times, the idea seemed somewhat unformed. However, the draft legislation seems to present a concrete and realistic proposal that may prove useful to nursing and public health. The Oregonian piece might have included more specifics on the legislation. The bill would give the National Nurse authority to publicize nurses' "distinct role" in health care, and patient safety issues including nursing "staff levels" and "working conditions." On the whole, the article is a good portrait of a tenacious nursing advocate and an innovative idea to improve public health. more...and join the campaign to advocate for the National Nurse!

Center changes news alert practice

Today, the Center will begin a pilot program in which it sends shorter news alerts more often. We hope this will help busy alert recipients manage the information more easily than may have been possible with the longer alerts. Of course, because of our resource limitations, some of these news items will be more recent than others. Please do your part in supporting the Center so it will be able to respond to the media in a more timely way. And feel free to send us feedback on this or any other issue at info@nursingadvocacy.org. Thank you!

Nursing Diaries Part I now available for your nurse recruitment needs!

Get your DVD copies of "Lifeline: The Nursing Diaries--The Rookies" (Part I) by filmmaker Richard Kahn. When we reviewed Part I of the documentary in Dec. 2004, we gave it 4 out of 4 stars for its nursing portrayal. From our review: "Part I gives an unusually good sense of the value of highly skilled nursing. It shows nurses working in three intensive care units at Mass. General: the cardiac surgical intensive care unit (CSICU), the neonatal ICU (NICU), and the surgical ICU (SICU). The episode shows nurses doing so many critical health tasks that the media commonly has physicians doing that it almost seems like it must have been a conscious goal of the filmmakers. However, it may simply be the natural result of taking a comprehensive look at what nurses really do. We see nurses autonomously managing patient care, detecting critical problems, formulating key interventions, explaining things to patients, families, and the viewer, and generally managing recoveries with little physician involvement." Read the full review here. Order a copy of Nursing Diaries Part I for US $10, which includes shipping. We are selling these at cost in order to get the widest possible distribution of this video. To order, please make a $10 payment here.

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Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian physician sentenced to death in Libya

Doctors without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières

American Medical Association

Help Us!

Because of the lack of overall understanding worldwide, nurses must sustain a collective effort to shape media portrayals of their work. We must educate society in order to obtain more social, political and financial support. As Florence Nightingale once said:

In our imperfect state of conscience and enlightenment, publicity and the collision resulting from publicity are the best guardians of the interest of the sick.

The Center's global media monitoring, analysis and advocacy is a huge challenge. It takes extensive research, writing, communication, and Internet efforts. We must pay for office equipment, supplies, transportation, Internet products, insurance, postage and telephone costs. Our office is donated by our staff. And our staff can undertake only a small part of the work that needs to be done to improve nursing's image.

So we urge you to make a donation to help us continue and expand our work. Just click here to learn about the great gifts you can receive for joining or renewing your Center membership, including our cool t-shirts and the Archie McPhee nurse action figure! It's quick and easy! And because the Center is a 501(c)(3) charity, your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law.

Thank you for all of your support over the past year. You are the reason we've had a real impact on public understanding of nursing worldwide. Together, we can strengthen nursing, and give patients the kind of health care they deserve in 2007 and beyond!

Sandy Summers, RN, MSN, MPH
Executive Director
The Center for Nursing Advocacy
203 Churchwardens Rd.
Baltimore, Maryland, USA 21212-2937
office 1-410-323-1100
fax 1-443-705-0260
ssummers@nursingadvocacy.org

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