Nursing Profession- Portrayal of Nurses in Indian Cinema and its Impact on Public Opinion about the Nursing Profession

Abstract

Background:

Nursing is an independent health care profession, nurses possess a high level of intellectual knowledge and skills which enable them to take care of sick people in community. However, competencies of nurses are not well recognized by public. Nevertheless, media plays an imperative role to create in buildingan image of the nurses in public. 

Objective: The main objective is to discuss regarding actual portrayal of nurses in Indian cinema and to identify this impact on public opinion about nursing profession

Design: Discussion paper.

Data sources: The movies were searched and evaluated from different video channels such as YouTube Videos, Twitch, The Internet Archive, Netflix and Prime amazon.

Discussion: Majority of movies portrayed the nurses in an unlike and incongruous image. This image was partly created by movie makers, it might be due to a lack of awareness about nursing profession. In this study, 34 movies were evaluated by considering to study certain parameters include nurse’s dedication, nurses behavior, dress code of nurses, the approach of the nurses, delivery of dialogues on nursing characters, and depiction of personal habits of nurses.  About 64.71 % of movies depicted the nurses with slack behavior, 76.47 % of movies delivered discourteous dialogues about nursing scenes and 73.53 % of movies have presented the nurses in a vulgar dress. Surprisingly only a few movies have depicted the nursing profession as an independent profession.  

Conclusion: Media plays an important role to improve the image of nurses in public. Movies makers need to consult various nursing organizations before they present the characters of the nurses in their movies for a better understanding of the nursing profession.