Martha Stewart: She's a Good Thing

I am not a regular viewer of Martha Stewart’s daily hour-long TV show. I have nothing against Martha or her show; rather, at the time it airs I’m usually running hither and yon or at the computer writing. But, last week a promotional blurb caught my ear. In observance of National Nurses’ Week, Martha would be devoting an hour to honoring nurses. So, I set Tivo to record the program.

I must say, her producers put together quite a good show. The entire audience was made up of nurses, all dressed in scrubs of every hue and pattern, and Martha chatted with a few of them about the rewards of their jobs. There was an array of mannequins dressed in uniforms of ‘the day,’ beginning in the early 1900s and going to the 1960s.

A museum curator displayed antiquated instruments, utensils and equipment and described their use. In some cases, I was elated that those things were before my time. In other cases, it was downright depressing that so many of the items I used early in my career now fall into the ‘antiquated’ category. I guess we all know what category that puts me in?

Best of all, five nurses, all from the same Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), were honored on the show. A viewer’s letter, lauding the nurses for all they had done for her and her husband when their very preemie twins spent 100 days in the NICU, was read. It was a tug-at-your-heartstrings story with a successful outcome.

As a nurse, I most appreciated that the story was accompanied by photos of the nurses doing the very things the grateful first-time parents found so meaningful and comforting during an extremely stressful time in their lives. There is currently a push to publicize nurses and their clinical expertise. This segment certainly did that in the most favorable of lights. Nurses were caring for the fragile infants, monitoring every nuance of change and managing the complicated technical equipment that was keeping them alive—and there wasn’t a doctor in sight to steal any of the credit, as is common on TV medical dramas. Viewers who will never see inside a NICU now have an idea of the level of skill required of nurses who work in such a highly specialized critical care area.

I heard, but did not see, that Ellen DeGeneres also devoted a show to nurses. Kudos to Ellen and Martha for honoring the nursing profession and for promoting the fact that nurses are highly trained professionals who make lifesaving decisions—on their own—every day. It’s a good thing.