These studies and interviews conducted by a team from George Washington University reveal that health journalists still do not understand the range of nursing roles and that they are not sufficiently interested in the profession. Conclusions presented in two journals, the Journal of Nursing Scholarship and the American Journal of Nursing, which emphasize that the media could become more involved in providing the public and healthcare users with a more accurate assessment of knowledge and actions than nurses can offer. Finally, this image of the profession in the media seems to have evolved only slightly, according to these studies, during the last 20 years.
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Initially, in 1997, an original study, the Woodhull Study, provided an initial documented assessment of the way journalists specializing in health care looked at the profession, nurses and their expertise.
This new wave, or the Woodhull study, on nursing and the media reveals an ever-reductive representation of nurses who are globally under-represented as sources of legitimate information in health news, despite increasing levels of education and skills. A related study even reveals prejudices related to the high proportion of women in the profession, a factor which seems to contribute to hindering journalists from approaching nurses as sources of information in the field of health, and in spite of their unique experience and added value likely to enrich a health report.
Nurses are identified as a source in only 2% of health stories: The original Woodhull study found that nurses were featured in less than 4% of health stories in major print newspapers, weeklies and newsweeklies. specialized health care publications. Based on the same panel of publications as the original study, the team examined a sample of 365 health articles published in September 2017 and took into account the type and subject of the article, the profession and the gender. sources interviewed and the number of times nurses were referenced without being quoted. The analysis reveals that nurses are only identified as a source in 2% of the articles and mentioned in 13%.
“If journalists don't interview nurses, they risk missing the best part of the story” : One-to-one telephone interviews with health journalists to better understand barriers and facilitators reveal a general pattern of bias, not only among journalists, but also editors, public relations teams and healthcare organizations. Thus, doctors remain the "stars" at the top of the sources used by the media. Here it appears as part of the culture of news outlets and media. A real problem, underline the authors, given the key role of journalists and the media in raising public awareness of issues relating to health and care.
Other themes emerge such as poor knowledge and/or understanding by health journalists of the ever-expanding range of roles for nurses.
The researchers point out that journalists and nurses could do more, together, to ensure that the public benefits from this knowledge and the unique perspectives that bedside nurses can provide.
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