Nurses speak out: Grey's Anatomy sucks, Sonic Youth rules

July 14, 2007 4:25 PM

The Center for Nursing Advocacy seems like your typical professional advocacy group—the group's mandate is "to increase public understanding of the central, front-line role nurses play in modern health care." While often the group does its work by highlighting serious issues facing the nursing profession, the Center also keeps a watchful eye on portrayals of nurses in popular culture, both good and bad. And then there are the reviews that, frankly, seem to be stretching things just a bit.
posted by chrominance (17 comments total)

They also have a convenient list of images and advertising campaigns to check out avoid.
posted by b1tr0t at 4:34 PM on July 14, 2007

Previously on Metafilter: Center for Nursing Advocacy versus the Heart Attack Grill. Though given the prevalance of overtly sexual nurse stereotypes, maybe their stance is a bit more understandable.
posted by chrominance at 4:36 PM on July 14, 2007

... much of the band's prior work, which suggests what Led Zeppelin might have done had they spent their formative years at a Montessori school.

nice.
posted by RMD at 4:36 PM on July 14, 2007

What? No review of Animaniacs? Hel-l-lo-o-o-o Nurse!
posted by wendell at 4:37 PM on July 14, 2007

Obviously children are just clay to be shaped. If this trips, more power to you, but you can't bitch if other parents decide Bible school works for them. Children will discover their own mind and piss you off anyway.
posted by Mblue at 4:44 PM on July 14, 2007

The problem is Nursing is seen as a sort of blue collar jobs. To fix it, I suggest "rebranding" nursehood by creating a new job called like "associate doctor" or "patient care specialist" that would be more prestigious
posted by delmoi at 5:11 PM on July 14, 2007

delmoi

The need of child care is a blue collar need. The problem is not going to solved by making it expensive.l
posted by Mblue at 5:27 PM on July 14, 2007

You mean they didn't include reviews of nursing-themed films like Genital Hospital or Nurse Wetty?
(link is sfw, just imdb)
posted by miss lynnster at 5:52 PM on July 14, 2007

Mblue: huh? Are you thinking of nannies? Nurses work with doctors and do medical things for people of all ages.
posted by delmoi at 5:57 PM on July 14, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

I'm going to watch Genital Hospital because Jill Lillith acts.
posted by Mblue at 6:00 PM on July 14, 2007

From the review of Dawn of the Dead

Outside the mall, zombies begin to gather and seek ways in, driven by a need to kill humans, apparently because it sustains them and/or simply creates more of them. As it becomes clear that the zombies have overpowered all civil and military authority, the ragtag band undergoes the standard disaster movie conflicts and bonding. The only way to permanently kill the undead is to shoot them in the head or burn them, which is quite a boon to those with a taste for such cinematic delicacies.

The formal writing here is pretty funny.
posted by delmoi at 6:08 PM on July 14, 2007

delmoi, no. Nurses aren't nannies, they work for hospitals, unless you have free flowing cash, then they work for you, or your neighbor who has bigger pool.

Wow, that was bitter.

Sorry, delmoi. Sometimes it just happens.
posted by Mblue at 6:16 PM on July 14, 2007

Good post, chrominance. Kinda...wonky thread thus far, but I figure there's some DrinkyFilter happening, it being Saturday night and all.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 7:48 PM on July 14, 2007

They have a bad review of Scrubs. How much better do they really expect it to get. I can picture "Nurses the Real Heroes" getting like two and a half stars and "NURSES: Like Doctors but better and who really care" clocking in with stars. Women, you just can't please them!
posted by I Foody at 8:12 PM on July 14, 2007

I Foody: I am a Registered Nurse. I am a man. I dig Scrubs.

Delmoi: "Associate Doctor" or "Patient Care Advocate?" Sorry, bud. I am not and never will be an associate doctor. If that's what I wanted to do, I would've become a physician assistant. As for your second suggestion, one of the many roles a nurse plays is advocate for the patient. However, we do much more than that, and to think that renaming a nurse a "patient care advocate" would somehow bestow more prestige on the profession is a slap in the face to me and my colleagues. That title doesn't even come close to describing the job we do.

Sorry... don't think I have a lack of respect for physicians. By and large, I do. However, the holistic care of patients is a fundamental part of nursing, and (I think) the main reason most nurses chose this profession in the first place.
posted by thatweirdguy2 at 10:47 PM on July 14, 2007 [2 favorites has favorites]

Well said, thatweirdguy2. Another RN here. Say what you will about the writing style, but the Center for Nurse Advocacy has a point. There is a vast public misunderstanding of what nursing is about. This thread demonstrates some of that.

I might disagree with some of their reviews, but if pointing out misperceptions in popular culture gets their site some attention and makes any non-health worker think about this at all then that's a good start.
posted by dog food sugar at 6:15 AM on July 15, 2007

My girlfriend is a trainee nurse and the stories she (a bit too eagerly) shares has definitely shed some harsh light on what a nurse does, day to day. It's not glamorous, it's occasionally thankless and I know for a fact that I could not deal with it emotionally and psychologically on a daily basis. None of which makes it ideal for sit-com scenarios. My girlfriend likes Scrubs for the humour and intensely dislikes it for its schmaltz that trivialises the emotional reality of working a ward. I doubt she'd agree with the approach taken by the Centre, though the idea is correct.

Though like dog food sugar says, anything that rectifies misconceptions about the job and makes people appreciate (instead of patronise/sexualise) nurses is fine by me.
posted by slimepuppy at 7:21 AM on July 15, 2007