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Smash the stereotypes
Nurse Jackie poster. Photo: Showtime
Images of nurses in popular culture and society are often negative and may be affecting recruitment, argues one academic.
Anthony Tuckett interviewed by Dallas Bastian
Sex object, battle-axe, doctor’ s right-hand maiden – these are some of the historical stereotypes of nurses that researchers say must be challenged to encourage more school leavers to consider the profession.
Published online in Nurse Education Today, a study led by University of Queensland researcher Dr Anthony Tuckett put forward suggestions of images and messages to describe the profession.
He said there is a misconception among some school leavers that can be attributed to historical clichés as well as negative media, such as the nurse who set fire to an aged care facility in 2011.
Tuckett said long-held and misinformed perceptions about the nursing profession needed to be challenged, so his research team turned to early-career nursing professionals to find out what keywords, phrases and images they would use in a recruitment poster to encourage school leavers to study the profession.
The nurses who took part recommended highlighting the opportunities, rewarding aspects and travel prospects that a nursing career provides.
Nursing Review sat down with Tuckett to discuss the images of nursing in popular culture, the importance of unravelling stereotypes and the role nurse leaders have to play.
NR: You say contemporary portrayals of nurses are mixed, what are some of the images or messages that students may be exposed to at the moment? AT: There’ s a program called Call the Midwife, and if we compare that to another program that’ s currently on called Nurse Jackie – and not confusing midwives with registered nurses – but you see very strong, independent and capable practitioners versus Jackie, who has an issue with medication and pain relief drug addiction.
There are some strong messages that are positive. I’ m thinking, for example, of 24 Hours in ER, and also a British production called One Born Every
Minute. So, there are positive portrayals, but there are still some modern, strange portrayals, as in Nurse Jackie.
What impact do the negative portrayals or stereotypes have on the way school leavers or students view nursing as a profession? It’ s people tapping into the negative images. We know that image will inform the quality of the people that we get. So, consequently if we portray, or if the media picks up on negative images, or images that are in any way scandalous, then students are simply not going to be swayed into a nursing career. But if the image is positive, we will attract positive, powerful and engaged potential students.
You asked nurses what they think should be communicated about the profession. What would an ideal recruitment campaign look like? We would be looking at phrases like opportunity, the profession is rewarding, and that there’ s an opportunity to travel, and so typically I would like to see at least a text message that speaks of endless opportunity, that no two days are the same, that there’ s a lot of variety, that it’ s fulfilling, that you can make a difference, but it’ s life-changing. And in terms of travel, this is a profession that can take you where you want to go. It can take you
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