Publications

Public Relations and Image Management

Among the strategies that most strain credulity is the suggestion that the nursing shortage can be significantly improved simply by developing better public relations materials. In the spring of 2001, for instance, three separate bills were pending in Congress aimed at polishing the public image of nursing and thereby increasing nursing school enrollments.224 The American Hospital Association encouraged hospitals across the country to "turn National Hospital Week into a high-visibility event that celebrates hospital workers"225 as a means of improving recruitment efforts. Even such an astute analyst as Buerhaus seems to have fallen into this trap, arguing, "It is especially important to obtain the help of movie stars, musicians, entertainers and sports figures who have enormous influence in shaping images of desirable careers. Currently nursing is not among the careers that these industries recognize, let alone promote to the American public, and this needs to change."226

But the evidence presented by Buerhaus and others shows that the nursing shortage was not caused by any change in the image or status of nursing as a profession — nor even by changes in the breadth of career opportunities open to women — and even the most ambitious public relations campaign will not solve the shortage if the underlying conditions are left unchanged.

Print Version