Responsible science communication can literally be the difference between life and death. Mass media, especially the news, as well as social media sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter, have a significant influence on people’s health beliefs and actions. As nurses we have a critical role to play in how the media reports on health issues and public health policy and on what messages the public and policy makers receive.
As clinicians, researchers, educators, public health practitioners, policy makers, and more, nurses need to use our expertise and voices to bring about change. At no other time in our recent history has this been truer than during the current pandemics of COVID-19, racial injustice, and health inequity.
But nursing is a field often misunderstood by the public and the media. Most people think of nurses solely as clinicians at the bedside who do nothing more than take orders from physicians. But nurses are highly trained subject matter experts who work in a wide range of specialty areas including public health, social justice, law, history, research, education, school nursing, and more.
Nurses rarely recognized or ‘verified’ as experts.
Yet, the field of nursing is rarely recognized by the public, journalists, or even social media sites for this expertise. Open up any news article, or turn on any news program, and the vast majority of subject matter experts quoted or interviewed are our physician counterparts. As was reported in “The Woodhull Study Revisited: Nurses’ Representation in Health News Media 20 Years Later,” published in 2018, just two percent of health-related stories over the previous 20 years included an expert source who was a nurse.
Scroll through Twitter to examine verified Twitter accounts of health care “experts” and the vast majority are physicians. During the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Twitter “hustled” to verify more physicians, but for the good of the public and public health, we need more nurses verified — and recognized — as well. Additionally, LinkedIn recently released its Top Voices in Healthcare for 2020 and not one top voice on that list was a nurse—even though 2020 is being celebrated by multiple international organizations as the Year of the Nurse and Midwife.
Currently, the Twitter verified account program is on hold and Twitter has not announced when its new, more transparent verification process will go live. But when it does, we need to be sure that nurses apply and get verified.
We need nurses to be verified and recognized for a number of reasons:
- To amplify the influence and relevance of the field of nursing science
- To control the health and health care narrative from a nursing perspective
- To grow our voice as health and health care experts
- And most importantly, to debunk the fake news, misinformation, and conspiracy theories that circulate on social media (recently it was reported that of the top influencers on Twitter, a large portion of those discussing COVID-19 topics were not even people but bots!)
Nurses are uniquely equipped to tell compelling stories about individuals, families, and the communities they serve. They understand the need for individual interventions and treatment to broader landscape stories about policy solutions. They can address structural racism and health inequities. They can connect the dots to bigger social issues, like housing, jobs, education, and food insecurity.
How do we get nurses ready to be nurse media influencers?
First, nurses need to own their expertise, then commit to gaining media competencies.
Gaining media skills teaches you how to frame a clear, concise message for the audience you are trying to reach (policy makers or others); it also builds confidence. Build the skills you need to make the case for policies that improve public health.
Media skills prepare you to successfully pitch a story idea to a reporter. What do reporters want? News they can use. What’s the news hook? How will you capture the attention and interest of the journalist and their audience? These skills are an important factor in pitching relevant, newsworthy, brief, structured, and timely stories.
The “Woodhull Study Revisited,” as well as a companion paper published in AJN (“Original Research: Journalists’ Experiences with Using Nurses as Sources in Health News Stories“), found that journalists are stuck in old stereotypes of nursing and do not have a clear understanding of the range of a nurse’s knowledge, skills, areas of research, and policy expertise. We must educate reporters on the breadth, depth, knowledge, and experience of different nursing roles both within health care settings and outside of the typical health care space.
Second, make yourself known!
The Woodhull Study Revisited also found that journalists are unsure how to find nurses for interviews and that they often have little time to track them down. How will a journalist find you, and what will they find when they do locate you on a Google search? Are you easy to contact by email or mobile phone? If not, fix that. One quick way is to create a LinkedIn or Twitter profile. Additionally, creating a personal website is easy to do for free on “drop and drag” platforms such as Wix.com. Journalists are on deadline and if it’s too hard to reach you they move on to the next source.
Third, cultivate relationships with journalists who cover health stories.
Start by reaching out to local health reporters. Local reporting gets you traction. Be on top of the news cycle so you can comment on what a reporter usually follows and pitch them your idea. Move quickly. When a story in your area of expertise breaks nationally, pitch that local reporter and tell them you’re a nurse from their local community who is available to be interviewed on this issue.
If you are interviewed, at the end of the interview, talk to the journalist about suggestions for other stories that may be useful to them. If they are not going to cover the nationally reported story, tell them you are available for future stories. Reporters are always on the search for a good health news story. Journalists use Twitter to find stories and sources for their health news reporting. Follow health reporters—tag them in response to a story, and they may follow you back. Thank them on Twitter when they use nurses as sources in their reporting.
Finally, be your own nurse media maker.
Write an op-ed, commentary, editorial, or letter to the editor in response to a published article. These media opportunities get your name and expertise out there. Create a plan to achieve media goals that are meaningful to you. That could include pitching a story to a journalist, starting a blog, producing a podcast, or writing an op-ed.
Communicating science starts upstream—once it reaches the pages of a newspaper, the nightly news screens, or the Twitterverse, it’s too late. We can’t wait for Twitter to verify us, and we can’t wait for journalists to invite us to be interviewed or to contribute op-eds. During these confusing and concerning times, the public needs to hear from nurses, the “most trusted profession” for reliable, science-based information. Let’s work towards changing the health narrative in the media landscape to reflect more diverse voices in health news. It’s time for nursing as a profession to verify ourselves! #nurseverified
By Marion Leary, MSN, MPH, RN, is the director of innovation at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, and Barbara Glickstein, MS, MPH, RN, is the Founder of Barbara Glickstein Strategies, a training company providing media training, leadership development and media advocacy skills.
Unions are a powerful voice that is on media’s radar. However, they have not been able to capture more than twenty percent of nursing for representation. Hospitals have their number because they have used the same playbook for decades. Unions are very entrenched and territorial. Not very open to new ideas from the outside. I have tried to penetrate this barrier. When I reach out. No response, or as soon as they see I’m not a nurse trying to bring them into a hospital, cut me off. Only one member acknowledged my idea but there has been no other sign of interest or encouragement. In the meantime, this safety net sits on the shelf but for me blogging or commenting, one link at a time.
As a bedside nurse I had no idea how to bring nursing issues to the press. Once a union member I joined other nurses and was encouraged to follow the good practices in the article to bring nursing issues to the public. The union agenda? Safe staffing, quality work environment, safe patient lifting, workplace violence, education, safe needle standards, healthcare access and how to be an effective activist to move nursing and healthcare issues. Now we are fighting for PPE and the right to have a voice in how COVID-19 patients impact the healthcare system and how its caregivers practice.
Since the press woke up about nurses and healthcare workers, our Union Nurse Leaders have been weekly in the local and national press and continue to make a huge difference in how they are respected and practice.The more nurses are organized, the better the opportunity to speak out, backed by all, not risking all.
I have spent years cultivating media relationships. There are some places they will not go. Sometimes it’s individual journalist that don’t respond. Sometimes it’s editors. In general, these organizations have become dependent on ANA or the unions. Both have agendas. You see the same type chum thrown in the water. Then a feeding frenzy. This detracts from uncovered, unique stories. I have had journalists tell me they can’t get nurses to go on the record. It is a catch 22. I am retired so less fear of reprisal. Nurses need to unify and take risks speaking to journalists. I think a topic that the pandemic has raised is the need for nursing regulatory reform. ICN, Amnesty International and TAANA called for this and now this recent article. Lets hope mainstream press will pick up on this.