DiagnosticsANA Responds To Recent Negative Portrayals Of TV Nurses Who Violate Nursing Code Of Ethics
At a time when the entertainment industry is perpetuating inaccurate portrayals of nursing in the new television shows "Nurse Jackie" and "HawthoRNe," ANA"s ethics books are especially relevant to all registered nurses (RNs). The fictional nurses are shown violating the nursing Code of Ethics by participating in activities ranging from on-the-job drug use to inappropriate nurse/patient contact in these shows. The very heart of nursing is mischaracterized as nurses are portrayed engaging in irresponsible and often criminal acts for entertainment purposes. ANA sets the ethical standards for nurses in the U.S. and internationally with its highly respected Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements, and is deeply concerned about the lasting impact these negative portrayals may have on the nursing profession.
"Ethics are integral to the foundation of nursing, and nurses are proud and passionate advocates for the delivery of dignified, humane health care. We have received many e-mails and letters from nurses expressing their outrage at these flawed TV depictions of nursing, the most trusted and ethical of professions," said ANA President Rebecca M. Patton, MSN, RN, CNOR. "Nurses take ANA"s Code of Ethics seriously. These harmful portrayals violate the basic, sacred trust that nurses have with their patients and may dissuade young people from choosing to become nurses, at a time when a national nursing shortage is looming and res are stretched thin."
As a result of the high standards set forth in ANA"s Code of Ethics, the nursing profession consistently ranks as the most trusted in the country today. The first nursing code of ethics was the "Florence Nightingale Pledge," which has served as the basis for numerous Hollywood portrayals of nurses, and continues to be administered at nursing school graduations to this day.
ANA has done extensive work in the area of health care ethics, recently publishing three books that will provide a framework for ethical decision making in all areas of nursing practice ( Guide to the Code of Ethics for Nurses: Interpretation and Application; Nursing and Health Care Ethics: A Legacy and A Vision ; and Genetics and Ethics in Healthcare: New Questions in the Age of Genomic Health).
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