Top YouTube videos portray nurses in a negative light

Research has found that many of the top hits on video-sharing website YouTube portray nurses in a derogatory way.

The study, published in the August issue of the Journal of Advanced Nursing, examined the YouTube database to find the most viewed videos for “nurses” and “nursing”. Ninety-six videos were included after preliminary analysis of the first 50 hits for each word, with the top ten hits were then analysed in greater detail.

“Our study found that nurses were depicted in three main ways – as a skilled knower and doer, a sexual plaything and a witless incompetent” says co-author Dr Gerard Fealy, from the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems at University College Dublin, Ireland.

The ten most viewed videos included promotional videos, advertising, excerpts from a TV situation comedy and a cartoon. Four of the ten clips were posted by nurses and presented images of them as educated, smart and technically skilled.

Nike Odyssey React