Image of Nursing Essay Example

1. Historical Image of Nursing

Historically, it starts from the theoretical assumption, verified empirically, from; nursing profession belongs to women. The idea has been perpetuated by the reasoning that women have maternal instincts and as a result, they have the necessary impulse and the motivation to take care of others especially the sick and the elderly. For this nature, women have been considered "born nurses" by the society for a quite a long time. For centuries, the role of nurses has been assumed by women who felt they wanted and had the ability to care. The knowledge they acquired was transmitted orally from generation to generation (Buresh, 2003). Although the nurses have achieved spectacular achievements, the image that is transmitted from them has not changed. The nurses' image is riddled with stereotypes. The current image of the nursing profession functions as a transparent infrastructure, apart from the system of medical care and the national health system. This transparency is magnified by lack of visible signs identifying the members of this profession (Mangum, 2014).

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2. Nursing image as portrayed by the media

The mass media act as agents that reinforce and disclose certain attitudes and beliefs, in addition to stereotypes and values. The social image of a profession is very conditioned by the way in which it is represented in the different media (Kalisch, 2010). This form is what shapes the concept that society has of such a profession.

2a. Film Media

For all these reasons, the tendency, increasingly growing in research, to use and interpret non-traditional databases, such as images, films, seems very accurate. These data, which go beyond the quantitative data, help the population not only to know but also to understand how the professions are socially perceived and why some develop and others stagnate. Without a doubt, the evolution of the coexistence of vocational nursing linked to gender, with a professional and scientific nursing has been, at the same time and paradoxically, a source of conflict and enrichment (Mangum, 2014). The media have been and are fundamental to the creation and dissemination of stereotypes. In regard to sexual stereotypes and the media, the X cinemas and advertising have presented the nurse as a frivolous woman; provocative with a low predominates or intellectual level, without decision-making capacity and subordinates of others in the same field.

2b. Television Media

Currently, the image complements the word; there are even messages that are transmitted exclusively through images. The image is constituted as a whole with the objective of producing an effect on the recipient, who will interpret the image according to its cultural pattern. The image that is transmitted to the public through the press is the image of someone not identified, who is diluted in the group or is associated with another profession. This image is perceived as that of professionals playing secondary roles. Not only does the professional identity, the individual role and the responsibility that each nurse has in their work not appear, but they do not even get to perceive the role that nurses play as a professional group (Buresh, 2003). The press presents the nurses as secondary companions, without social impact, and without autonomy. What is transmitted and perceived is a poor image, little recognized and little respected.

2c. Press media

The fact that nursing has gone from being a vocation to being an academic discipline, should have propitiated a quantitative and especially qualitative change in the image that nurses transmit to the print media, however, it seems that this image is resistant to such changes and there are very few times that nursing as a profession appears in the media as the protagonist of the news, which appears marginally and as a fill or decoration. Ignorance of the public about what nurses do has led to confusion generally on the differences between a nurse, a nurse's aide and a receptionist (Gordon, 2008). Even so, nurses are considered as people of principles, who care and they do the best for patients even though they have difficulties. An old-fashioned image of nursing still persists despite them having characteristics such as compassion, "human warmth", confidence. Many among the population still view the Nursing profession as a subordinate profession of the doctor (Institute of Medicine, 2011). The public follows thinking that the nurse does not make decisions, belief that everything dictates the doctor and the nurse is limited to perform the tasks that have been ordered.

3. Impacts of Nursing Leaders and Staff to Their Image

There are many consequences that can result from the current image that has been associated with the profession. For instance in the recruitment of new professionals, in motivation and satisfaction at work, are the major consequences of a negative image of the nurses and in turn, the population does not recur and benefits from their services. If the population is not actually aware of what nurses really do, know what our work really it becomes difficult to deposit trust and credibility in that profession. Several studies show that although everyday nursing becomes a more respected profession, quite a good number of the public would not recommend studying Nursing, which is from a study carried out in the USA that corroborates the statistics for 10 years - 20 years. Also, the number of people who want to study nursing as a career has decreased (Mangum, 2014). This can lead to many difficulties, if there are fewer and fewer people wanting to dedicate themselves to this profession, the number of those joining the universities will decrease. As a result, there will be no new professionals, and this would have an impact on the quality of care and it hence does not enhance the current image of nursing. Consequently, the professionals will be less ambitious and this will further diminish their social status. Apart from the above, another consequence is that the nurse will have more difficulty when it comes to developing a professional career.

4. How the Image of Nursing Can Be Improved

Practical experience shows that the nursing staff accuses their leaders of not having social and institutional recognition and admits that the population and their work peers (doctors), do not know their functions in their entirety. Therefore, nurses, the professionals themselves, are the best means of communication to make society see what their identity is (Gordon, 2008). In several cases, the image of the nurses has similar problems. According to the studies conducted in Greece, England, Hong Kong, Brazil, South Africa and the United States, by the Institute of Medicine, the projected image of nurses in their respective countries is a "poor" image, with little professional independence "," low academic level "and" subordinated to doctors "," identified with charity and religion "," with limited opportunities in their careers "," poorly paid "," with poor working conditions "," with little social value "," with a tendency to do secondary jobs ", and" very unattractive for adolescents and young people " (Gordon, 2008). In addition, the image nurses have for themselves is negative, this has led to frustration and hence the lack of autarchy they find in the professional verity (Kalisch, 2010). Therefore, if there is need to improve the performance of nursing work, as well as decrease the professional desertion of these professionals, it is essential to improve not only the image that the public has for nurses, but also, the image nurses have for themselves.

Concerned about the decrease in the number of nursing students in the United States, a survey was conducted with the objective of finding out the reason behind. Based on the perception of both young people and adults on nursing as a profession, The results indicated that; 17% of the young people and 15% of the adults were of the opinion that a nurse's fundamental role was to assist the doctors, only 39% of the young people and 50% of the adults thought that the nurses were critical, intelligent and able to solve problems, 40% thought that the nurse helped the doctor to make important decisions, 45% of adults considered that nurses felt tired, stressed and exploited at work, while the remaining 8% of the respondents argued that the daily work of the nurses consisted of cleaning the patients (Buresh, 2003). This image of the nurses is very influenced by the projection that, as we have seen, the media do. This assertion is confirmed by other studies. In an investigation carried out on a total of 200 nurses, the authors concluded that the image of the nurses was very influenced by the image transmitted by the media, and that their status was perceived differently from that of other health professionals, adding that There is a lack of knowledge of the role that nurses have in the healthcare of the population. As seen in various studies, at no time are nurses recognized as either individual professionals or as a group (Institute of Medicine, 2011). The image that is transmitted to us is that the members of this profession are imperceptible and not being appreciable, no matter what they do or how they do it. The mirror in which the media have turned brings back to society as well as to professionals an imprecise and diffuse image.

Nurses are only perceived as a group within the hospital or health centers, outside the workplace they do not seem to exist. The image that returns to each nurse, the representation displayed by the media is not a very desirable one. It has thus been agreed that in order to change the persisting perception it is important to improve, on one hand, the image that the public has of nurses, and on the other, the image that nurses have of themselves, and with those who urge initiatives to get the media to emphasize the skills that nurses have, in reality, with the objective of influencing public opinion at a national level. Recognizing the negative effects that can be caused by the continued dissemination of stereotypes should be an inescapable obligation of the media. Recognizing and avoiding discrimination and above all the invisibility in newspapers of nurses and nurses as independent professionals must be an objective to be achieved. If it is considered that the stimuli to which we are subjected during our life of social relations are the cause of everyday behaviors and that at the same time these behaviors are capable of modeling the social environment, we can understand that the media are a vehicle not only information through which the company is linked to certain professionals, but, at the same time, that information channeled in some way reflects what the community expects from them and marks the work of these professionals (Kalisch, 2010). Thus, the invisibility of nurses as independent professionals marks their work in their daily tasks.

5. Challenges and Projections for Future Image

In the world of the image, each person sees only what they know, therefore, in order to learn, they always start from what is already known. Change of image implies changing the systems that construct and reconstruct the interpretation of reality. Change only the forms, that is, the uniforms, the signs, the titles, the academic levels, without understanding and above all without explaining through the means the structure that determines these changes, does not condition the change of image that society perceives, because, for it, the image continues having the same nature. What nurses are and who they appear to be may not be the same. In these cases, without a great effort to explain and make known who nurses are and what they know, society chooses the image that appears or, rather, the stereotype that the media transmits of what nurses are. The projected image of nursin...