In 1997, “The Woodhull Study on Nursing and the Media” found that nurses were quoted as expert sources in just about 4% of health news stories in leading newspapers. Twenty years later, a replication of that study found almost no improvement in the numbers. During the pandemic, Kiersten Henry, an AACN board member and critical care nurse practitioner, shared her extensive front-line COVID-19 experiences with several media outlets. In an interview with the Associated Press for a story about nurses, Henry was the only nurse and female interviewed, and her quote was buried at the end of the article. Yanick Rice Lamb, professor and former chair of the Department of Media, Journalism and Film at Howard University, was among the panelists to present the new Woodhull study to the press in 2018. Lamb says, “You're telling an incomplete story if you're not including nurses.” In this interview, Henry and Lamb discuss how nurses can become valued media sources, establish their voices and be effective storytellers.
Kiersten Henry:
Hello. My name is Kiersten Henry. I am a board member with the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, as well as the AACN Certification Corporation, and also a critical care nurse practitioner practicing in a community ICU.
Yanick Rice Lamb:
Good morning, I'm Yanick Rice Lamb. I'm a professor of journalism at Howard University, an independent journalist specializing in health and co-founder of fierceforblackwomen.com. I'm also a member of the National Advisory Council of the Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement at the George Washington School of Nursing.
Kiersten Henry:
Yanick, thank you so much for being with us.
Yanick Rice Lamb:
Thanks for having me.
Kiersten Henry:
The original Woodhull Study on Nursing and the Media was published in 1997 and was replicated and updated in 2018. What was your role in communicating the results of the study?
Yanick Rice Lamb:
Initially, I heard about the plans for this study as a member of the National Advisory Council, as I mentioned earlier, but I also participated in the release of the study at the National Press Club. I was one of the journalists who spoke about the study and added some media context to that. I've also helped to organize and participate on panels at the National Conference of the Association of Healthcare Journalists.
Kiersten Henry:
Twenty years apart, the findings were similar. Nurses were identified as sources in about 2% to 4% of health news articles. What do you make of this lack of progress and how do we change that?
Yanick Rice Lamb:
I think the lack of progress is unfortunate, and I think it reflects what's going on in the larger society in terms of women and in terms of coverage of women and including their voices in stories. Then, also the lack of representation of nurses when people are looking for medical experts to include in stories. It's changing a little bit with the pandemic coverage, and hopefully that continues beyond the pandemic, but we'll have to wait and see.
Kiersten Henry:
You've started to answer my next question, which is, with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, nurses have been on the front lines and in the headlines. How has the media changed its view of nurses and the demand for seeking their experiences and their voices for health news in feature articles?
Yanick Rice Lamb:
Well, the story of the pandemic is a story of people, so in order to tell that story fully, journalists had no choice but to include nurses because nurses are on the front line and you would be missing a significant part of the story if you didn't include their perspective. Nurses help to tell that story because they're dealing with the patients, they're dealing with the families, but they're also dealing with a lot of other medical issues that affect hospitals and that affect the healthcare system. Sometimes that part of the story has been skewed in terms of not including nurses more broadly in covering medical issues, but I think particularly when you're talking about people seeking care, people seeking testing, people seeking vaccines, you had to include nurses. Then also the lack of PPE at different points in the process.
Kiersten Henry:
For the 19th straight year, nurses have been ranked number one as the most trusted profession in the 2020 “Gallup Poll on Honesty and Ethics.” What do you tell established journalists and your aspiring journalism students about seeking nurses and interviewing them as sources for health news?
Yanick Rice Lamb:
Well, I tell people to look at their own experiences. When we interact with the healthcare system, who are we dealing with the most? We're dealing with nurses most often. They spend more time with us than physicians actually do, and a lot of times that's where we get the most complete information. You're telling an incomplete story if you're not including nurses. Just as you need to have everyday voices of everyday people like patients, you also need a diversity of voices in terms of the experts you need in your stories.
Also, learn more about the nursing profession too, because it's not just bedside care. Nurses are in the hospital room, but they're also in the boardroom and they're in a number of different other roles, and I don't think the public hears about that enough as well and that maybe journalists aren't as well-versed on that themselves.
Kiersten Henry:
Social media seems to be a platform that has a presence of nurses who speak for nursing issues, who blog, who video blog, who share experiences. Is there an interplay between that and people that are tapped as sources for news articles, or do you see those as really two separate venues?
Yanick Rice Lamb:
No, I think that is a good point too. A lot of times nurses and nurse organizations and nursing schools can also follow journalists and follow journalism organizations, so that they're kind of in their stream and they're commenting on the coverage.
Kiersten Henry:
Your mother and sister were nurses. During the panel discussion when the new Woodhull study results were presented to the press, you told a story about how, as a journalist, if you're not listening to nurses, you're missing the story. Tell me more about that please.
Yanick Rice Lamb:
Yes, I think that's really important. One of the stories I shared was listening to nurses and listening to your mother. I've gotten story ideas from my sister and my mother. My mother passed in 2014, so it tells you how long she's been gone, but I remember her talking about drug usage and pain medication and things like that. If I had paid a little more attention, I would have been on the front end of covering the opioid crisis, particularly because I grew up in Ohio. Ohio, West Virginia and some other states were at the center of the opioid crisis, particularly in the beginning.
Kiersten Henry:
Well, as a nurse I have to say, I truly thank you for helping our bold voice be heard and helping us continue to figure out how to do that more. What advice do you have for nurses on how to be valued media sources, establish their voices and be effective storytellers?
Yanick Rice Lamb:
I think nurses can also tell their own stories; maybe even try to do some writing. A lot of times you see people telling stories, say on Medium, writing stories there, or just even sharing stories on social media. I know sometimes they have to be careful about what they release, sharing those stories and making themselves available too, because sometimes people don't think about, as we talked about, referring to nurses to be experts. Sometimes you have to reach out to the people who interact with the media to let them know, "I'd be interested in doing interviews." Or leverage whatever media exists within your organization, in addition to any kind of medical journal writing that you're doing, or even nursing websites and publications or things that are dealing with the public, or blogging. Take advantage of those things, build your own communication skills. A lot of programs are doing more narrative storytelling that is connected to health education in different forms, whether it's for physicians or nurses. Some of it is not always journalistic, some of it's fictional as well, but there are so many stories that nurses see all the time. Just share those stories. It helps people understand different things.
Kiersten Henry:
Yanick, you spoke about storytelling and one of our challenges in this year-plus of the pandemic is focusing on the well-being of our nurses and supporting them and the entire healthcare team through this unforeseen healthcare crisis and the fairly constant stress for healthcare workers. The storytelling piece has become a way that American Association of Critical-Care Nurses has supported our nurses through their work with StoryCorps and with Dear World, which has developed a documentary about the story of nurses in the pandemic. How else do you see storytelling being a piece that we can use, not only for the external facing community and public, but also as a way to build well-being and resilience in nurses who are experiencing this?
Yanick Rice Lamb:
I think it's really important to do that and it's good that you're involved with StoryCorps as well, but even if you're just writing it for yourself and no one else sees it, I think that's really important. I've found it cathartic for me, whether I've written about deaths in my family or when my mother had dementia. More recently, I've been working on a series that's about the impact of the rubber industry on health in Akron, Ohio, in Northeast Ohio where I grew up. Those are things that I've experienced and people in my community have experienced and had a lot of questions about. The response has been phenomenal. I didn't realize how much it was a release for me in terms of doing those stories over the years. I think particularly with nurses dealing so much with this pandemic and seeing so much illness and seeing so much death, it's really important to have a release for those kinds of things. Also, to capture those stories because it's a historic moment. I think it fuels you to keep going to share those stories or just write them for yourself.
Kiersten Henry:
For people watching this who would like to walk away with what's most important for them to focus on if they'd like to expand their relationship with the media or become involved in this realm, what would you say are the most important things?
Yanick Rice Lamb:
I would say, again, remember that it's a relationship and start trying to build it. Reach out to journalists. Journalists love to hear from members of the public. We like talking to people; that's one reason we went into this profession, and we like getting feedback about our work so we can improve it, or so we can do more of it if you think it's wonderful. Reaching out through social media or through emails or phone calls or whatever and sharing story ideas, what worked, what didn't work in a story that people are working on. Also, sharing your own experiences, making yourselves available, offering assistance, being a resource. That's really important, making sure that your voices are heard. Last, making suggestions about other things, other people, other topics and trends that are emerging in healthcare, because a lot of times nurses see things that are emerging as problems or they see solutions to things, or they fix something themselves that can be spread that people may not be aware of.
Kiersten Henry:
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your perspective and your expertise with our community. We greatly appreciate your work and all the insight that you've shared with us today.
Yanick Rice Lamb:
Thanks for inviting me.