The Effect of Media on Nursing Image in Societies: A Systematic Review

The image of nursing has a considerable impact on identity and professional self-esteem in nurses. In this regard, the media can be an effective important factor in drawing a positive or negative image of the nursing profession. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore the effect of media on nursing image in societies.

In this systematic review, national and international electronic databases including SID, Magiran, IranMedex, Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed were systematically searched in October 2020 to retrieve articles published up to 2020, using the keywords nursing profession, nursing image, nursing public image and Social/Mass media. According to the aim of study and inclusion criteria, 15 articles among all obtained articles were assessed to appraise their quality. Finally, the content of final selected articles was reported as extraction tables.

The search yielded 958 articles, but consideration of inclusion criteria led to final selection of 7 articles. The most important effects of media on the image of nursing included the effect of media on the academic and clinical image of the profession, nursing professional roles, as well as gender and media bias towards the nursing profession.

More attention to media productions should be considered in order to improve the image of nursing. Additionally, with greater presence, nurses can find in media programs to introduce the reality of their profession the greater help this will be for the voices of nurses to be heard.