Ken Burns Misses The (Nursing) Boat

Most people have probably heard of Ken Burns, the famous filmmaker; and many people who know about Ken Burns have heard of his four-part cancer series, "Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies."Having just finished watching this six-hour cinematic expose on the history, research, treatment, diagnosis, and future of cancer, I found myself feeling let down; and why was I feeling let down? Because, in six hours of "edutainment," Burns failed to feature or pay attention to a single nurse throughout the entire program. Once again, the mainstream media gives nurses the cold shoulder, pushing them summarily into a dark, quiet corner where their opinions, actions, and life-saving skills and knowledge are basically ignored.When nurses are ignored by the media, the ignorance of the consumers of that media is strengthened. In this case, Burns' admittedly informative, well-made film series leads the viewer to believe that doctors and scientists are the only individuals doing anything of significance with cancer patients. In the film, doctors administer chemotherapy, assess patients at the bedside, and otherwise play medical heroes. (The vast majority of physicians and scientists featured in the film are white males, but that's another conversation entirely.)When I see such an egregious demonstration of how nurses are marginalized and ignored, my (nurse's) blood boils and the hair on my neck stands on end. In the case of cancer treatment, we know that there are nurses who dedicate their lives...
Source: Digital Doorway - Category: Nursing Tags: nurse nurses nursing the media Source Type: blogs