There are several articles covering
the representation of nurses and nursing through popular image and culture
which tend to feature examples of literature, TV shows and films. Historical
content is covered but media and online sharing has developed over the last few
years. One nurse researcher started to address images on YouTube, and now Gifs
and memes have been added the image of nurses / nursing – often shared by
nurses, colleagues of nurses and family and friends. Since the 1900’s,
postcards collections have contained images of nurses and nursing, and now collections
encompass Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter.
Darbyshire (2014) explains that
there is more literature on images of nurses than other professional groups.
Most of it is collated by nurses so he argues that nurses have the issue with the
way in which they are portrayed.
Images of a modern caring nurse
appeared in the 14th century which was a change from the Romano
Greek idea of the baby nurse. Religious orders had caring nuns who taught women
in communities how to care. But some were burnt as witches under religious
persecution orders. In the 15th century, Kampers (1988) identifies
the observation that “several features were common to the scenes of nursing
sisters help to define the nature of their role; they nurse patients who are
most often men lying in bed, they work in a distinctive location that does not
look like a house, they wear distinctive costumes, their activities are
domestic and religious rather than specifically medical and most importantly
they are never subordinated to patients and doctors.” (Kampen, 1988 cited by
Derbyshire, 2014).
The earliest referenced photographs
of nurses were a few taken of Florence Nightingale during her career as a nurse
which enhanced the stereotypical view of a nurse. Today nursing roles are many
and varied, from community nurses to acute medical nurses, operating theatre
nurses and including mental health and children’s specialisms. Nurses in the UK
have been recruited internationally since the 1960’s and in 2007, Mary Seacole
(Florence Nightingale’s Jamaican contemporary) was introduced to the National
Curriculum in a bid to embrace multiculturalism? By comparison there is only one known
photograph of Mary Seacole. This appears to show her place of work. She is cast
in a very similar pose to Florence Nightingale with her head not looking
towards the viewers.
Lizzie Cadwell Smith’s photograph (figure 6)showed the viewers a personal side of Nightingale. However, male
photographers were still capturing the formal portrait.
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Figure 7 Red Cross Nurse (1924)
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August Sander’s
photograph from People of the 20th Century was entitled “Occupation
– group: the woman This studio portrait gives no clues as to the working
conditions or location of the nurse.
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Figure 8 Nurse (1951)
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Irving Penn included the nurse
portrait in his “Small Trades” body of work in the early 1950’s; a series of
250 portraits of people initially recruited from New York, London and Paris.
Workers were photographed against a plain background wearing their uniform and
with their tools. The nurse appears with her hands as tools of trade. Penn
thought that “taking people away from their natural circumstances and putting
them into the studio in front of a camera did not simply isolate them – it
transformed them. (Penn, as cited by Elysée Lausanne, 2010). A press release
for the J Paul Getty Museum (2009) describes Penn’s work as “austere and
theatrical”. Lacoste (2009) explains that Penn conveys workers’ pride.
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Figure 9 Eight Student Nurses (1966)
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In I964, Gerhard Richter’s Eight
Student Nurses painted from individual photographs of student nurses murdered
by a serial killer, the nurses remain anonymous (although their names were
published in a newspaper at the time) and the nurses gain collective identity. The
typology paintings were the same size and Gerhard Richter blurred the images
slightly as if to remove some identity but kept distinguishing features such as
hairstyles.
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Figure 10 Surf safari Nurse (2002-3)
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Richard Prince’s nurse paintings
(2002-08) use popular novels as the source material. Prince scans and prints
onto canvas before painting, sometimes changing the book title. He retains the
characteristics of the nurse and constructs a stereotypical fantasy. Viewers
are asked to reconsider the American visual culture depicting the nurse.
Modern student nurses are taught to
critically review historical and contemporary representations of nursing so
that they have a public and professional voice when dealing with major health
care issues raised by the media and can challenge public perception.
“Even stereotypes are regarded as
dubious, may after a measure of exposure become internalised and naturalised,
they are thereby metamorphosed into categories of the normal, the real and the
healthy and desirable.” (Delacour, 1991, as cited by Darbyshire, 2014)
Academics have used different categorisations and the majority have been
depicted in popular culture.
“Muff (1982) suggests 6 major nursing
stereotypes: Angel of mercy, handmaiden of the physician, Omen in white, Sex
symbol / idiot, battle-axe, torturer.” (Darbyshire, 2014)
Dunn (1985) credits the average
tabloid newspaper [with] only 3 types of nurse; angel, battle-axe and
nymphomaniac. (Darbyshire, 2014)
Kelly’s (2011) YouTube study
identifies 3 stereotypes, 2 are similar such as sexual plaything and witless
incompetent although nurses are engaging with audiences through the skilled
knower and doer stereotype although there may be more as it was a fairly small
study and subjective interpretation by nurse researchers could equate
differently if different groups of researchers undertook the same study.
Hoeve (2014) suggests that Bridges
(1990) found 34 stereotypes. Kalisch and Kalisch (1981) categorised them into
time frames. Angel of Mercy 1854-1919, Girl Friday 1920-1929, Heroine
1930-1945, Sex Object 1960-1982, Careerist 1983-present.
Angels with pretty faces and
empty heads
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Figure 11 The White Angel (1936)
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Figure 12 Lady with a lamp (1951)
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Australian nurses in the 1800’s were
“redefining image of nurses as motivated primarily by self-sacrifice.”
(Bashford, 1997, as cited by Darbyshire, 2014) Nurses appeared in movies such
as The White Angel (1936) and Lady with the Lamp (1951) which was Nightingale
repackaged. Most cinema goers were women, so this was an ideal time to
advertise to boost recruitment. Culturally women had become used to going out
to work.
In Catholicism, the symbol of the angel is
used to obey, uncritical of what is written. Created by God – therefore women
don’t need to be educated because they are divine and virtuous which opens
arguments about pay, education and skills.
Doctor’s handmaidens
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Figure 13 Chicago Hope (1994-2000)
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This stereotype was based on
military and Christian origins (Nelson 2001 as cited by Darbyshire, 2014)
A 19th century idea was
that nurses helped the physician and not the patient. Skills were borrowed from
physicians and were not questioned. Popular TV series such as Chicago Hope were
developed.
This stereotype still exists among
some nurses.
Battle-axe
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Figure 14 Carry On Nurse (1959)
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A battle-axe is represented as an
asexual, large person who is usually cruel. These stereotypes have Feminist
ideas and challenge male power. They could be in a managerial role e.g. matron.
Hattie Jaques in Carry On Nurse (1959) and Carry on Matron (1972). There was
over a decade between the two films but the stereotype remained the same.
In looking to address this
stereotype, nurses removed the formality from their job titles – e.g. “Staff
Nurse ….” to first name. Patients were not sure who was the nurse. In a frightening theatre environment, first names
still apply although job roles or descriptions are stated in introductions to
patients because all staff wear scrubs.
Naughty nurse and nymphomaniac
“Translocated ideal” (Hunter 1988
as cited by Darbyshire, 2014)
In nursing, traditional social
power relations are reversed when a patient comes into hospital. The balance of
power is reversed, and men may sexualise the encounters with nurses and
fantasize. Nurses work without sexualising the encounter. The nurse becomes a
metaphor for sex and subservience to men and can be seen in pornographic films.
Skilled knower and doer
YouTube Nursing videos show
techniques and celebrations featuring multi-cultural staff and male nurses. In
Kelly’s YouTube presentation of her study, “The Image of You – constructing
nursing identities in YouTube” (2011) she explains that identity is
“contextually variable description that draws on cultural meanings and the kind
of person that one is can be bounded by the acceptable descriptions available
at a [particular historical – cultural juncture.” […] “It is socially
constructed through public discourses, is a linguistic construction, can be
constructed in written and spoken language and other texts such as photographs
and film.” (Kelly, 2011)
Kelly (2011) argues that nurses who
wanted “likes” on YouTube knew how to reach audiences in which they thought
they were promoting the nurse as a skilled doer but used objectification and
sometimes placed the nurse in the other 2 categories (witless incompetent and
sexual plaything) without realising. The main users of YouTube are young males
and YouTube sends a suggestion to the viewer based on what they have already
watched thereby not overcoming the stereotype if the watcher has previously
chosen to watch a sexual plaything video.
Other studies which have taken
place include Stanley’s (2008) study of 36,000 film synopses. Early films
showed self-sacrificial heroines, sex objects and romantics and later films
showed “strong, self-confident individuals.” (as cited by Hoeve, 2014) In a bid
to be more open about roles, a postcard collection collected by Nurse Michael
Zwerdling held digitally in the National Library of Medicine includes 600
images of nurses from 1893-2007. This includes images such as male nurses in
New Jersey (1910) and accurately represented theatre nurses in 1951 (USA).
Images copyright – see link https://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/zwerdling_postcard_collection.html
There are two schools of thought
around how nurses should respond to the stereotyping of nurses in the media. In
comedy, it should probably be left alone. In documentary, nurses should work
with the directors in ensuring there is accurate representation of their role.
If the stereotypes are changed, what will they become? There is a tendency for
nurses to avoid challenging the media as they do not handle negative criticism
and inaccurate portrayal well. Kelly (2011) reasons that responsibility should
lie with professional representatives to moderate YouTube content through
lobbyists and individual responsibility should be mindful of uploading user
generated content which can have a negative impact on stereotypical issues.
Recommendations from her study included a counter discourse. Student nurses are
taught about self-concept and public identity. “Negative public image has a
negative impact on nurses’ self-concept and the development of their
professional identity.” (Hoeve, 2014)
List of illustrations
References
Bibliography
