Media welcome comments on nurses' image

Editorial elicits anguished outpouring I shudder to think, but if graduate nursing academia were in its grave, surely it would be engaged in a series of postmortem intracasket convolutions after reading your enlightening and trenchant November editorial, “A jargon junkie’s guide to current meeting word use and misuse.” But what am I saying! I just spent two years of my fading existence assimilating an expanded role and cultivating clinical expertise-two years of strenuous cerebral activity learning how to engage in meaningfuldialogue so I could share a conceptualmodel of nursing practice that will most certainly enhance the quality of patient care within the health care delivery system. Now you tell me that all I did was spend two grueling years in graduate school picking up a few extra skills that could improvepatient care. Woe is me! How can I ever look a conceptual model in the diagram again? Mark L Phippen, RN Captain, Army Nurse Corps Ft Ord. Calif

Media welcome comments on nurses’ image It was with great interest that I read Leslie Grosser’s education column, “Let’s take the bedpan out of the public’s image of nursing,” in the October issue. As the technical advisor for the six “Nurse” programs shown last spring on CBS-TV, I agree with her suggestion that

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nurses communicate about the portrayal of nursing in the media. Prior to my involvement with the television series, I was not aware of the impact of a call or a letter. I am sure nurses would be interested to know that all comments, whether negative or positive, are reviewed by CBS, as well as the series productioncompany. So lest nurses think their efforts are in vain, they should know that the media will listen. My only disappointment was the small amount of nurse correspondence received. 1 hope, as a result of your article, that AORN nurses will indeed write. Elizabeth A Ayello, RN Clinical nurse specialist-surgery Booth Memorial Medical Center New York City

Labor leader says purpose of union misunderstood “Independence or the transfer of control,” by Joan S Guy (“Speak out,” AORN Journal, Oct 1981, 618) caught my eye as i was paging through my Journal. It is an excellent article, but one gets the impression the author is unaware of trends in the health industry and in the law as it applies to the health care sector. While Ican only speak from my experiences, Ifeel that my viewpoint is as valid and worthy of publication as Ms Guy’s. We happen to agree on many philosophical points, but the continuous and flagrant misrepresentationof the function and purpose of the traditional labor union only serves to create further division among the ranks of the profession. While continuing to dwell on the nega-

AORN Journal, January 1982, Val 35, No 1