By Laura Good
Cavalier Daily Associate Editor
Medical doctors are known for their reception of fame, glory and of course, money. As respected members of the medical community, they are the heroes who save lives and help combat illness.
But often overlooked and disregarded in this field are the many nurses who consistently work on a more intimate level with hospital and clinic patients.
Tonight, Madge Kaplan, a veteran National Public Radio reporter who specializes in health policy, will address that issue in a speech entitled, "Why isn't Nursing more Newsworthy?"
Sponsored by the University Women's Center, the event will take place at 7 p.m. in Room 5044 of McLeod Hall
Working out of WGBH Radio, Kaplan currently is the Boston Bureau Chief of public radio's "Marketplace," in which she analyzes the people, institutions and forces reshaping the nation's health care system. Kaplan has won several coveted journalism awards for her work.
Kaplan's speech tonight targets University Nursing students and lay people, not medical professionals.
One of Kaplan's major focal points is the unwillingness of the news media to talk about nurses and doctors with equal amounts of interest and value.
Kaplan's speech also will address the "disparate levels of respect for nurses, doctors and other health professionals," said Sarah Whitney, director of programming at the Women's Center. "When you turn on 'ER,' you see all these wonderful spectacles about doctors. But nurses, who deal with patients most of the time, are not celebrated."
Kaplan will discuss society's uncertainty about illness and the need for nurses, as well as the lack of respect that permeates major news media treatment of nursing.
In one of Kaplan's previous speeches, she said, "Our society is ambivalent about being sick and needing a nurse. I've always thought nurses were some of the smartest people in the health care system. They knew of what they spoke and had the experiences to prove it."
Because nursing primarily is perceived as a female profession, gender issues also will be addressed.
"Nurses are the largest segment of health care professionals, but they are just invisible," Whitney said.
Kaplan's speech is intended to portray nurses in a more reputable manner and give credit to the hard-working health care practitioners, where credit is due.
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