Nurses say NBC's 'ER' contributes to nursing shortage.(Current Affairs)

The Center for Nursing Advocacy has kicked off a campaign to convince NBC's popular television drama ER to portray the nursing profession accurately, in response to long-standing misrepresentations that the Center believes are contributing to the nursing shortage, one of the nation's most critical public health problems.

The Center began its campaign with an October 12, 2003, letter to ER producers, along with top executives at NBC and AOL-Time-Warner, parent of Warner Bros. Television, which produces the show. The Center has also encouraged nurses to write their own letters of protest. Already, scores of nurses in the United States and abroad, including many nursing leaders, have written powerful and unique letters explaining how the show's presentation of nursing does a disservice to their profession. Excerpts from many of these letters are available on the Center's Web site (www.nursingadvocacy.org).

During its highly successful 9-year run, "ER" has shaped Americans' perceptions of nurses and physicians engaged in some of the most highly stressful, heroic work their professions have to offer. "Unfortunately, ER has sent the profoundly misleading message that nurses are peripheral workers who report to physicians," said Sandy Summers, MSN, MPH, RN, the Center's executive director. "The show has worked hard to portray medical diagnosis and treatment accurately. Why does it misrepresent nursing year after year? It focuses on every stage of physicians' education and training. Why has it ignored nursing education and training?"

Apparently in response to the Center's current campaign, Warner Bros. has changed language on its Web site stating that the show's one major nurse character had been "demoted to nurse" after being forced to abandon medical school for financial reasons--2 years after the Center first let the producers know how inaccurate and harmful that description was. "We appreciate that small, belated step," Summers noted, "but obviously, much remains to be done."

"ER often depicts physicians performing critical tasks that nurses generally do ...