Saving Lives: Why the Media's Portrayal of Nursing Puts Us All at Risk (Updated)

By Sandy Summers and Harry Jacobs Summers

Book Overview

For millions of people worldwide, nurses are the difference between life and death, self-sufficiency and dependency, hope and despair. But a lack of understanding of what nurses really do -- one perpetuated by popular media's portrayal of nurses as simplistic archetypes -- has devalued the profession and contributed to a global shortage that constitutes a public health crisis. Today, the thin ranks of the nursing workforce contribute to countless preventable deaths.

This fully updated and expanded edition of Saving Lives highlights the essential roles nurses play in contemporary health care and how this role is marginalized by contemporary culture. Through engaging prose and examples drawn from television, advertising, and news coverage, the authors detail the media's role in reinforcing stereotypes that fuel the nursing shortage and devalue a highly educated sector of the contemporary workforce. Perhaps most important, the authors provide a wealth of ideas to help reinvigorate the nursing field and correct this imbalance.

As American health care undergoes its greatest overhaul in decades, the practical role of nurses -- that as autonomous, highly skilled practitioners -- has never been more important. Accordingly, Saving Lives addresses both the sources of, and prescription for, misperceptions surrounding contemporary nursing.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0199337063
• ISBN13: 9780199337064
• Release Date: October 2014
• Publisher: OUP Us
• Length: 456 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.9" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

A must read for nursing professionals and nursing students

This book is great and Sandy and her husband have done a tremendous job!I speak on the topic of Nursing Image to nurses and this is a great resource. This book pulls the topic together well AND it is very well written. I read the book on the train and the time flew by!! I read a great deal and sometimes books written for the profession don't hold your attention but this keeps you wanting more. Kudos to the authors. you should be very proud. I'll be recommending the book at my presentations for professional nurses and in my classes for students as a "must read."

Must read for anyone who cares about healthcare for all

Recommend this book to anyone who is interested in and cares about the future of health care. Think is a must read for nurses to become aware of the issue of the inaccurate and damaging media portrayals which ultimately affects patient outcomes.

Excellent Information

As a long time nurse, I thought this book sounded interesting. It definitely was. I found their comments about the portrayals of nursing to be all too true and often coincided with many of my and my co-workers comments. Some of our surgeons couldn't pick out their patients in a line up let alone stoop to spending hours of their precious time comforting them and their families or providing actual personal care to them. Anyone who thinks what they see on tv is what nursing really is definitely needs to read this book.

Saving Lives, Changeing the public view of nursing.

First off, the book is well written and interesting to read. In addition it illuminates the inaccurate portrayal of nurses in the public media and how that image is impacting the future of nursing and nurses in real life. Ms. Summers does an exceptional job of presenting the evidence of how the image of the nurse in the media is affecting nurses everywhere. With the worst nursing shortage in history in full swing, it is important that nurses and non-nurses alike be aware of the information in this book.

Saving Lives tells the Truth about Nursing

As the United States braces for an enduring shortage of highly trained registered nurses that may negatively affect the quality of health care in our lifetime, the popular media continues to undermine the reality of nursing's contributions through inaccurate portrayals of the profession. Saving Lives not only tells us the truth about Nursing's impact on health, quality of care and the lives of real people, but it articulately demonstrates why Nursing is consistently ranked by consumers as the most respected profession in the US and remains the resiliant backbone of the health care system. This revealing book is a powerful call to action for all nurses, nursing students, policy makers, media and the general public.