The Portrayal of Nurses and Physicians in Hospital Administration Journals

Purpose: The current study was done to describe how nurses are portrayed in hospital administration journals as compared with physicians. Methods: A content analysis of the pictures was conducted using the framework of Goffman. The data were collected from all issues of four hospital administration journals published in 2005, 2006, and 2007 (n=465). Results: Overall, the analysis indicates that nurses were portrayed from the perspective of femininity and mothering. In group scenes, nurses were pictured as peripheral, compared with physicians. Sometimes the photos did not focus on nurses at all. Nurses were also placed standing in the periphery not like physicians at the center of the scene. In terms of professional portrayal, the photos in general present positive image of nurses similar to that of physicians. However, the number of photos including nurses was relatively small. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that nurses appear less frequently in mass media and when they do it is at the periphery of the scene. It is, then, necessary to make greater effort to call upon mass media to cover more nurses showing a positive images of the profession. All stake holders such as individual nurses, hospitals and related associations should make a combined effort toward that end.

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