TORONTO — Nurses in Ontario are calling for U.S. cable channel MTV to cancel the series Scrubbing In because they believe it demeans their profession.
The reality show, which is scheduled to premiere Oct. 24, follows nine attractive young travel nurses at work in two California hospitals and at play in their down time.
The outrage over the show seems based on a minute-long trailer for the series.
“They are shown in an inappropriate, inaccurate and offensive fashion,” said Linda Haslam-Stroud, president of the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA), in an open letter posted last week.
“I am outraged that these select people of dubious moral character are chosen as representatives of the nursing workforce.”
Haslam-Stroud said it’s important for nurses to voice their outrage at depictions of nurses like the ones in Scrubbing In.
“It is insulting and simply unacceptable to those of us who use our skills every day to provide quality patient care,” she said. “The nurses portrayed in the show present as sexual objects, exploit negative stereotypes and diminish the fact that we are knowledgeable health-care professionals who make the difference between life and death for patients every day.”
The ONA is urging its members to add their names to a petition by Milka Stojanovic of Wisconsin calling for Scrubbing In to be scrapped. As of Tuesday morning, the petition had fewer than 10,000 names.
Breanne Denise, a nursing student in Thunder Bay, Ont. wrote on the petition site that the show “sets us back 50 years” and called it “disgusting.”
Windsor, Ont. nursing student Ashley Hopkins conceded nurses are entitled to active social lives but said “as professionals we are expected and obligated to act high minded and moralistic.”
She wrote: “Blatantly displaying behaviours of binge drinking, dramatic arguments/fights and overtly sexual behaviour is not professional conduct and is completely inappropriate.”
The ONA’s position paper The Image of Nurses reads: “We will never attract women into our profession if they believe the public thinks of them as little more than mindless showpieces. The relentless stereotyping of nurses as sexy women will stop men from choosing nursing as a serious career choice as well.”
The nurses featured on the series work for Aya Healthcare, which said in a release it believes Scrubbing In will “inspire the generation of young people watching MTV to consider nursing as a possible career choice.”
Haslam-Stroud’s letter to nurses includes contact information for the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council and MTV Canada’s parent company Bell Media.
“This relentless stereotyping of nurses as sexy and promiscuous women and, in this case, sexy and promiscuous male nurses as well,” she wrote, “diminishes and disrespects the nursing profession to the extent that, at a time of severe nursing shortages the world over, it could have the damaging effect of discouraging potential nurses from entering the profession.”
Comments