| A couple of years ago, Baltimore's Center for Nursing | | | | working 26 weekends and five holidays a year. |
| Advocacy started a letter-writing campaign against | | | | Nurses also face serious on-the-job risks, such as |
| NBC and the producers of ER. This group was | | | | bloodborne pathogens, latex allergies and back injuries |
| protesting the episode where a central character, | | | | from those long shifts pounding hospital floors and |
| nurse Abby Lockhart (actress Maura Tierney), | | | | doing more lifting with less help. Isn't it ironic that the |
| chucked her nursing career to go to medical school. | | | | injured and disabled are treating the sick? No wonder |
| The Baltimore group claims the TV show "is | | | | nursing numbers are shrinking. |
| perpetuating long-standing misrepresentations that are | | | | Speaking of disabilities, just look around at how many |
| contributing to the nursing shortage." | | | | nurses smoke, drink and are overweight. Such |
| Never mind the fact that ER - watched by 20 million | | | | symptoms of intense stress occur when people have |
| viewers - is far from reality television. The notion that | | | | too little time to properly care even for themselves. |
| the show is contributing to the nursing shortage is | | | | Nurses are finding their own answers to these |
| simply untrue. This TV program could depict nursing as | | | | dilemmas. According to an American Nursing |
| the most glamorous career on the planet and real | | | | Association (ANA) poll, almost 19% of nurses do not |
| nurses would still be leaving their hospital jobs in | | | | work in clinical nursing. A study by the Center for |
| droves. | | | | Health Outcomes and Policy Research reveals more |
| Nurses are quitting because they are understaffed, | | | | than 20% of hospital registered nurses plan to leave |
| underappreciated, underinsured, underpaid and | | | | their jobs in the next year. |
| under-you-name-it. Most nurses complain about the | | | | The significant development is not the fact that nurses |
| lack of respect from doctors. Sure you hear about | | | | are leaving or even why they're leaving - that's |
| record-breaking salaries and bonuses, but compared to | | | | obvious. The news is where they are going. When |
| whose record? At an average pay of $22 an hour, | | | | nurses aren't valued in one arena, they take their |
| nurses are still among the lowest-paid professionals in | | | | nursing education and expertise and go elsewhere. |
| this country. | | | | They develop new careers outside traditional |
| Managed care is another reason nurses are leaving | | | | healthcare settings. |
| the bedside. It goes against everything our profession | | | | Maybe the Center for Nursing Advocacy should |
| stands for. Under managed care, nurses are frequently | | | | contemplate that fact. They might even suggest that |
| denied the opportunity to deliver the quality of care | | | | ER present an episode about a nurse who quits her |
| they expect to deliver. Some patients die unnecessarily | | | | hospital job to become a Certified Legal Nurse |
| because nurses have too little time to spend with | | | | Consultant. |
| them. Yet when everything turns sour, nurses face | | | | Then those 20 million ER fans would really be |
| more responsibility and liability than ever. | | | | watching "reality TV. |
| Many nurses I know endure nightmarish schedules, | | | | |