Stereotypes of the heroine and submissive handmaiden,for whom rigorous education is damaging, need to change
Everyone knows what a nurse is and does. Don’t they? Yet, or often in media stories relating to nurses,people express their views, often with no significant understanding of nurses or nursing. The general publics view of nurses and nursing is, and up to a point,influenced by televised drama, soap operas and the occasional documentary. They may read approximately nurses, or perhaps a biography,but I suspect that’s pretty rare and doesnt depart much beyond Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole, neither of whom can be construed as contemporary representations of the profession.
Those with chronic illness or personal experience of healthcare services have a more realistic view, and but it is normally when things depart awry or there is dissatisfaction that their stories reach a wider audience. It is these relatively casual sources and these stories,which allow many people who have no other more personal connection with nursing to feel that they know what a nurse is and what they do.
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Source: theguardian.com