Nurses urge opposition to proposed Playboy pictorial

Nurses urge opposition to proposed Playboy pictorial On February 13, an ad from Playboy magazine appeared in the Chicago Reader, a free, weekly newspaper. The ad, decorated by a caduceus with a bunny head, read “Nurses, Playboy magazine is planning a pictorial feature on female registered nurses and dental hygienists.” As professionals, ‘over 98% of whom are women, we are struggling to expand practice, upgrade patient care, and improve our professional standards. This depends upon developing relationships of equality and respect with other health professions,especiallythe powerful, male-dominated medical profession. Our task is made immeasurably more difficult because we must continually overcome such stereotypes of women and nurses as objects of convenient pleasure. The West Side District (#21) of the Illinois Nurses’ Association formed a committee to address this issue. Inquiries to Playboy suggest publication of this feature is still several months away. We are circulating protest letters at various work places. We are also alerting nurses nationally, suggesting letters to Playboy and pressure on its health industry advertisers. Join us in voicing your concerns to Playboy (Don Gold, managingeditor, Playboy Building, 919 N MichiganAve, Chicago, 111 6061 1) and to its health industry advertisers (A H Robins, 1407 Cummings Dr; Richmond,Va 23220, and Miles Laboratories, Elkhart, Ind 46514). To allow Playboy’s actions to go unchallenged can only adversely ,,affect entry into nursing

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practice, retention of nurses, and ultimately, the quality of health care. Cheryl A Robinson, RN Linda Gibbs Rorig, RN Leonard H Cizewski, RN Donna Van Lier, RN Ad hoc committee on Playboy West Side District (#21) Illinois Nurses’ Association Editor’s note: AORN Executive Director Jerry G Peers, RN, has written a letter of concern to Playboy about its planned pictorial.

Scandinavian nurses share concerns for OR nursing Recently, I was invited to speak to a group of Scandinavian nurses at a workshop in the Canary Islands. I spoke to the group on “Total Hip Replacement-a Team Approach,” using perioperative practice and outlining guidelines that could be used for any procedure. I found the group to be warm and receptive. Despite some differences, such as socialized medicine in their countries, we discovered we shared many problems and many goals for the future of nursing. I found that all of us were concerned about the lack of student rotation time in the operating room. Apparently, nurses everywhere share the desire for their professional standing to be upgraded. Although nurses in some countries belong to unions, they also have the same problems of unity and participation that are found in the United States. The nurses asked many of the routine ques-

AORN Journal, July 1981, Vol34, No 1