Our "ER" campaign recognized with 2004 AAN Media Award

November 13, 2004 -- Tonight the American Academy of Nursing presented one of its 2004 Media Awards to us for our ongoing campaign to improve the portrayal of nursing on NBC's influential "ER." While we hope the campaign has had some impact on "ER," the show has a very long way to go. Join our "ER" campaign. The other three 2004 Media Award winners were: Johnson & Johnson's Campaign for Nursing's Future; University of Pennsylvania scholars Rogers, Hwang, Scott, Aiken and Dinges for their study of nurses' working hours and patient safety; and Penn's Barbara Bates Center for the nursing uniform exhibition "RN Past, Present and Future."

Our "ER" campaign received extensive worldwide television, radio and print media coverage in late 2003 and early 2004. Coverage appeared in more than 45 media organs in at least 12 nations, including CNN, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Sydney Morning Herald, Toronto's Globe and Mail, Scripps Howard News Service, Spain's El Mundo, Argentina's Clarín, Italy's TV Sorrisi e Canzoni, Agence France Presse and media in Portugal, Croatia and Slovakia. See the complete list of our press coverage and links to the original news items.

Johnson & Johnson's Campaign for Nursing's Future is an extensive multi-media campaign to attract more people to nursing. The Center for Nursing Advocacy made substantial contributions to the Campaign website, which were implemented in August 2004 at www.discovernursing.com. We largely created the exhaustive list of subspecialty categories inside and outside of the hospital, some profiles, and pages on the benefits of becoming a nurse.

University of Pennsylvania scholars Rogers, Hwang, Scott, Aiken and Dinges were recognized for their important study "The Working Hours of Hospital Staff Nurses & Patient Safety," which found that excessive nurse hours led to more mistakes. The Center covered a story about this study in the July 7, 2004 Boston Globe.

The Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, received a Media Award for its work in collaboration with artists Mark Dion and J. Morgan Puett in mounting the exhibition "RN Past, Present and Future" at Philadelphia's Fabric Workshop and Museum. In early 2004, the Center posted a review of the exhibit that gave it 4 out of 4 stars for nursing. One of Dion and Puett's most significant achievements in the exhibition was the distinctive "RN patch," which is now available through the Center.

See the AAN's press release on the awards in pdf format.