Should nurses be role models for healthy living and are you watching Nurse Jackie?

By , Tuesday, 16 February 2010, 10 Comments
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Healthcare Republic reports that the prime minister’s commission on the future of nursing and midwifery is expected to recommend that nurses should be role models for healthy living.

 

The commission’s members probably aren’t watching Nurse Jackie at 10pm on BBC2 on Mondays but I am and I wondered what you thought about it?

 

It’s a dark comedy starring Edie Falco from The Sopranos who plays a New York hospital nurse who is a drugs misuser, forges documents, challenges doctors, has an inappropriate sexual relationship with a pharmacist and even flushes the severed ear of a sex attacker down the lavatory.

 

Nurse Jackie also cares for her patients and has a believable professional relationship with a first-year student.

 

On airing in America, the New York State Nurses Association decried the unethical behavior of the title character, and the detrimental impression regarding nurses that such a portrayal could have on the public.

 

It’s a far cry from the leaked commission’s recommendations about nurses being role models but also makes for sharp and riveting TV. I’m not expecting Nurse Jackie is in any way representative of the average nurse but I would imagine there is at least one nurse in the history of medicine who has fallen victim to each of her flaws at some point.

 

My question is whether it is fair to expect nurses, and indeed GPs, to be role models for healthy living for their patients?

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  • ANDREA PARKIN

    Perhaps if we admit we are human and not super human it would stand us all in good stead !! My patients who come to my clinics are given advice & not dictated to they appear to respond more to that. I think we should aim to set a good example – But come on is anyone perfect ?? I doubt it, & probably not politicians !!! We are already being constantly bombarded with what we should do – What happened to choice ??

  • Neil Durham

    I agree, Andrea, that nurses must be human and approachable. As a patient this is far more important to me than a nurse appearing as some sort of role model. Equally, I want to able to trust my healthcare professional’s advice, without necessarily wanting to adopt their lifestyle. I think it’s refreshing to see programmes like Nurse Jackie and not at all detrimental.

  • Cat

    I’d like to vote for being human too, I’d also like to vote for taxing the alcohol and tobacco companies for non-compliance and irresponsibility in going about their business. I would say setting a good example is down to the religions and parents whilst also voting for humanity. I’d vote for less finger wagging and more constructive UPR and support mechanisms too.

  • Liam Stephens

    Lecturing people doesn’t work.I aim to help people make healthy choices. Nurses cannot be reasonably be exepected to paragons of health, conversely I do see how a nurse that smokes could not credibly give stop smoking advice.Nurse Jacky is fine with me.Reminds of some colleagues I worked / trained with back in the day.I was quite innocent until I moved into the nurses halls of residence 20 years ago (obviously I have moved out since).

  • Neil Durham

    One of my favourite Nurse Jackie scenes is where the ER administrator berates the nurses for smoking outside the hospital. They point to the cluster of consultants who are doing exactly the same. Reminds me of my time covering health at Portsmouth’s Queen Alexandra Hospital! Except it was me having a cigarette with the staff outside. Liam your point about a nurse who smokes being unable to give credible smoking cessation advice was a debate we were having in the office yesterday.

  • Gary Williams

    I used to do smoking cessation in a satellite clinic setting when I was smoking regularly. I was employed for my knowledge of health promotion, counselling appropriate prescribing of NRT and behaviour change methodologies not as a role model. Of course you can help people change a behaviour that you engage in yourself. They’ll change with the right help given at the time that’s appropriate for them.

    As for Nurse Jackie, she’s a television character, and comedy drama is often about extremes, but I’d like to think she’d take care of me, not go through my pockets. Even if she did it’d be for a good cause.

  • Neil Durham

    As an ex-smoker, I actually think I could make a more convincing case for the benefits of giving up smoking than someone who has never smoked could. I might also be able to appreciate more why people might want to start. Gary, I liked the line about Nurse Jackie giving anything she might find in a patient’s pockets to charity!

  • kate foster

    I am really not sure about being able to offer someone advice about behaviour change (smoking) if the person giving the advice/support does not believe in it enough themselves to stop or change that very same behaviour. We are all probably very used to offering advice to our friends all the while thinking,that I don’t seem to be able to do the same myself! it is far more easy to give the advice than to practice it ourselves when it involves friends/family. Of course we can do the same with our patients. We are only human. The trouble is, if we put ourselves on the other side of the fence I wonder how we would feel if advice that was being given to us wasn’t something the advice giver believed in enough to change their habit/behaviour, such as smoking? It is possible to shell out information that we have regurgitated from textbooks, journals and study days, but the ‘support’ I like to think comes from the particular skills of the individual giving it, not just what they have learnt as the don’t do that, do this, but often more personal angle they can bring to the consultation. Perhaps it’s me, but I relate far better to someone I feel believes in what they’re doing. I am more likely to feel confident in someone’s ability to impart information and/or provide support if I get a sense of their belief in it. I recently had my youngest (under 5), invited for their swine flu vaccination. Having had it myself, I had researched as much information as I possibly could so that I was able to give advice to patients and also reassure myself that it was ok for me to have it! However, having decided that my own child should have the vaccination, it came to my attention that the very person that would give it, had not had it themself (their perogative I know), but didn’t believe it was safe! So despite feeling reassured by the research I had done, I was suddenly left feeling incredibly let down by this healthcare professional. It raised doubt in my mind and a sudden lack of confidence. It involved one of my children, I needed to feel it was ok. How can someone be giving a vaccine when they feel that way about it? how can they answer a parent’s questions if they don’t believe what they are doing to be safe?!

    This may seem very different to the subject of smoking cessation advice, but to me it rings alarm bells that we need to be very mindful and self aware about the messages we may be giving to a patient if we are not entirely sure ourselves… I am telling you the benefits of stopping smoking, why it is important for your health…. that’s the easy part, and what the patient will hear, it’s the unspoken messages that can speak volumes….. So on the question of nurses as role models..we are only human. We can bring our own experiences to our practice, but if patients are to believe and have confidence in us we need to consider how far we can expect them to follow?

  • Neil Durham

    Interesting points Liam and it would be useful to know what other health professionals think. Should nurses give health advice even if they do not follow it themselves? And what should you do if your patients ask whether you follow that advice? In a similar vein, GPs in Wales voted at the weekend that every GP in Wales should have the swine flu jab. I’ll post a link when the story’s written.

  • Neil Durham

    Here’s the link to the story I mentioned yesterday which is featured on Healthcare Republic today: http://www.healthcarerepublic.com/news/985492/Swine-flu-jabs-compulsory-health-professionals/

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