VOA标准英语2010-Nurse, I Need a Reality Check

Hollywood shapes many perceptions of medical professionals but that's a problem for real-life nurses

Faiza Elmasry | Baltimore, Maryland 14 April 2010

Showtime's 'Nurse Jackie' is one TV drama that a nurse advocacy group feels presents an accurate image of the profession.

Many people get a lot of information about various professions from watching television and the movies. That's a big concern for nurses who mostly don't like how they are portrayed² by Hollywood.

That's where The Truth about Nursing comes in. The advocacy group works to improve the media's depiction³ of nurses to make them as close to reality as possible.

Getting real

Nikkie Raleigh, a nurse at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland recalls taking her niece to a movie in which one of the characters was a nurse.

 

Nurse Nikkie Raleigh says watching a thoughtless nurse in a movie was upsetting and not true to life.

"In the movie, the little girl is dying. It's a very sad situation and the nurse comes in and says to the family quite abruptly⁴, 'You all need to go home, visiting hours are over.' And she walks out of the room," says Raleigh.

"I was thinking to myself, 'Gosh, does my niece think this is what really happens? All nurses are like this or this is how we act towards patients?' It just made me sad. It just embarrassed me in front of my niece."

Raleigh's co-worker at the hospital, Neysa Ernst, says nurse portrayals⁶ on television are not much better.

Good and bad

"There are 2.9 million nurses in the United States. There are 790,000 physicians. And yet when you watch the TV programs, you see the physicians doing all of the work that nurses normally do," says Ernst.

"Nurses are the ones that are doing the EKGs. Nurses are the people who are taking the patient back and forth⁷ to the tests, making sure that procedures are administered appropriately. I don't see that on television."

Registered Nurse Neysa Ernst of Johns Hopkins says nurse depictions on TV don't reflect reality.

A group of nursing students founded The Truth about Nursing nine years ago to encourage the media to present a more realistic portrayal⁵ of their profession. This year, the group released its 'Decade Awards' - a list of the best and worst media portrayals of nursing since 2000.

Co-founder and executive director of The Truth About Nursing, Sandy Summers, says NBC's new hospital drama, "Mercy," comes in at the top of the list.

"That's an excellent show for nursing. [Nurses] are the center of the care. They are fearsome advocates for their patients. They are tenacious," Summers says. "They go the extra mile to make sure that [their patients] get what they need to stay alive or to die a peaceful death."

The truth about nursing

Coleen McGuinness is a story editor for the television series. She says the writers make sure the characters on the show have real lives.

"We've had nurses talk to us about how they have these really extremely difficult cases - you know, patients who die, seeing awful things all day - but then they have to be able to sort of put it aside and go on with their lives. It's something that we've tried to incorporate into the show," says McGuinness.

"The other thing we're trying to do, of course, is to have a number of consultants⁸, both on the set and in the writers' room - doctors, nurses who can give us real stories and tell us exactly what would happen, so we can be as realistic as possible."

Showtime's "Nurse Jackie" is another TV drama that the group feels presents an accurate image of nurses.

"Nurse Jackie is an excellent nurse, even though she has some personal flaws, a drug addiction¹⁰. There are drug addict⁹ nurses, which is something that we have to face and do something about. So we cannot say it's not reality, but of course, not all nurses are drug addicts," says Summers. "There is not so much emphasis on her drug addiction, [there is] more on the life-saving skills that she has and her interventions¹¹. She is a fearsome advocate for patients and protects them and does everything she can to get them the best care, no matter who she has to take on."

The Truth About Nursing gives Showtime's 'Nurse Jackie' a thumbs up, but TV shows like 'Grey's Anatomy¹²' and 'House' do not fare as well.

Richie Jackson is the show's executive producer. He's pleased The Truth About Nursing recognized the truth about "Nurse Jackie."

"Our goal was to be as authentic¹³ as possible when we portray¹ nurses. We started with the idea that this show should be about nurses, that nurses wouldn't be the supporting players to the doctors," says Jackson. "What we're trying to portray is how Jackie and the other nurses are ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. It's hard to imagine having a job where every day is life or death."

Bad medicine

Some of the most popular hospital dramas - ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" and "Private Practice," and Fox's "House" - made the Worst of the Decade list. Summers says the problem is that the basic concept of those shows is backwards¹⁴.

"They set it up where there will be about 10 physician characters and zero nurse characters," she says. "But if you're going to portray a hospital and the health care that goes on in it, you can't possibly tell the whole story of what happens to patients if you do not include nurses delivering nursing care."

And when that care is shown, Summers says, it often does not reflect the education and specialization of today's nurses. She says unless that changes, nursing will not be able to attract talented students who want to make it their career.
 

1 portray   

v.描写，描述；画(人物、景象等)

参考例句：

• It is difficult to portray feelings in words.感情很难用言语来描写。
• Can you portray the best and worst aspects of this job?您能描述一下这份工作最好与最坏的方面吗？

2 portrayed   

v.画像( portray的过去式和过去分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• Throughout the trial, he portrayed himself as the victim. 在审讯过程中，他始终把自己说成是受害者。
• The author portrayed his father as a vicious drunkard. 作者把他父亲描绘成一个可恶的酒鬼。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 depiction   

n.描述

参考例句：

• Double rhythms, resounding through the lyric depiction and connecting with each other, indicate the thespian place of mankind and the cognition of the writer to this thespian place. 这双重旋律互为表里，表明了人类的某种悲剧性处境以及作家对这种悲剧性处境的感受和认识。
• A realistic depiction of scenes from everyday domestic life. 日常家居生活的写实画。

4 abruptly   

adv.突然地，出其不意地

参考例句：

• He gestured abruptly for Virginia to get in the car.他粗鲁地示意弗吉尼亚上车。
• I was abruptly notified that a half-hour speech was expected of me.我突然被通知要讲半个小时的话。

5 portrayal   

n.饰演；描画

参考例句：

• His novel is a vivid portrayal of life in a mining community.他的小说生动地描绘了矿区的生活。
• The portrayal of the characters in the novel is lifelike.该书中的人物写得有血有肉。

6 portrayals   

n.画像( portrayal的名词复数 )；描述；描写；描摹

参考例句：

• And painters alluded to her eroticism in their bare breasted portrayals of the dying queen. 画家们把她描绘为裸胸垂死的贪欲的女王。 来自互联网

7 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

8 consultants   

顾问( consultant的名词复数 )； 高级顾问医生，会诊医生

参考例句：

• a firm of management consultants 管理咨询公司
• There're many consultants in hospital. 医院里有很多会诊医生。

9 addict   

v.使沉溺；使上瘾；n.沉溺于不良嗜好的人

参考例句：

• He became gambling addict,and lost all his possessions.他习染上了赌博，最终输掉了全部家产。
• He assisted a drug addict to escape from drug but failed firstly.一开始他帮助一个吸毒者戒毒但失败了。

10 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

11 interventions   

n.介入，干涉，干预( intervention的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Economic analysis of government interventions deserves detailed discussion. 政府对经济的干预应该给予充分的论述。 来自辞典例句
• The judge's frequent interventions made a mockery of justice. 法官的屡屡干预是对正义的践踏。 来自互联网

12 anatomy   

n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织

参考例句：

• He found out a great deal about the anatomy of animals.在动物解剖学方面，他有过许多发现。
• The hurricane's anatomy was powerful and complex.对飓风的剖析是一项庞大而复杂的工作。

13 authentic   

a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的

参考例句：

• This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
• Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。

14 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。