Social Image of Nursing. An Integrative Review about a Yet Unknown Profession

Abstract

Background: Nursing is a discipline on which stereotypes have persisted throughout its history, considering itself a feminine profession and subordinated to the medical figure, without its own field of competence. All this leads to an image of the Nursing Profession that moves away from reality, constituting a real, relevant and high-impact problem that prevents professional expansion, and that has a direct impact on social trust, the allocation of resources and quality of care, as well as wages and professional satisfaction. The aim of this review was to identify and publicize the published material on the social image of Nursing, providing updated information about the different approaches to the subject. Methods: An integrative review of the literature has been made from primary sources of information published from 2010 to 2020. For this, the databases CINAHL, Scopus, SciELO, Dialnet and Cuiden have been consulted. Results: In total, 17 articles have been included in the review, with qualitative, quantitative, and even bibliographic reviews performed in countries such as Spain, Egypt, Argentina, Iran, Venezuela, Turkey, United Kingdom, and Australia. The results of those papers mostly showed that society has misinformation about the functions performed by nursing professionals, which is based on myths and stereotypes. Conclusions: Nursing is a profoundly unknown and invisible profession, as society continues without recognizing its competence, autonomy and independence.

Current Stereotypes Associated with Nursing and Nursing Professionals: An Integrative Review

“…Male nurses are not only judged for working in a so-called 'female' profession, they are also questioned within the nursing discipline for working in areas such as paediatrics, maternity, and gynaecology [17], in which they are believed to diverge from their natural male role and pose a potential sexual threat to the patients in their care. This sexual threat, viewed as innate to men in the articles analysed [27,33,42], reflects the current social debate on the nature of the male sexual impulse and men's predisposition to sexually abuse women [61].…”

“…Previous studies have focused on the social image of the nursing profession [14][15][16], its representation in the media [17,18], the situation of male nurses within the profession [11,19,20] and the social perception of nurses [13]. According to these studies, at the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st century, the public image of nurses was diverse and incongruous [14].…”

“…According to these studies, at the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st century, the public image of nurses was diverse and incongruous [14]. The nursing profession was perceived as a profession little valued and understood by society [15,16], maybe because people had incorrect information about the functions performed by nursing professionals [17]. Therefore, this public image was predominantly based on misconceptions and stereotypes [13,14].…”

Current Social Perception of and Value Attached to Nursing Professionals’ Competences: An Integrative Review

“…This lack of knowledge is even present among nursing students themselves, who, before starting the nursing degree, were not able to describe what nursing is or what nurses do [8][9][10]. As a result, nursing professionals are frequently mistaken for other healthcare workers [11][12][13] or defined by comparing healthcare workers with one other [14]. Therefore, it seems that the general public is unaware of the current academic, scientific, and professional situation of the profession, resulting in the profession often being misrepresented [4,15].…”

Perception of the image of the nursing profession and its relationship with quality of care

“…It has been shown that the decision to become a nurse, and remain in the profession over time, is significantly related to the profession’s image, from both the nurse’s and the public’s perspective [ 11 , 13 ]. The image of the NP affects the health system.…”