Nursing against the odds: how health care cost cutting, media stereotypes, and medical hubris undermine nurses and patient care

"Gordon examines how health care cost cutting and hospital restructuring undermine the working conditions necesssary for quality care. She shows how the historically troubled workplace relationships between RNs and physicians have become even more dysfunctional in modern hospitals. In Gordon's view, the public images of nurses continues to suffer from negative media stereotyping in medical programs on television and from shoddy press coverage of the important role RNs play in the delivery of health care." "Gordon also identifies the class and status divisions within the profession that hinder a much-needed defense of bedside nursing. She explains why some would-be policy panaceas - hiring more temporary workers, importing RNs from less-developed countries - fail to address the forces that drive nurses out of their workplaces. To promote better care, Gordon calls for a broad agenda that includes safer staffing, improved scheduling, and other policy changes that would give nurses a greater voice at work. She explores how doctors and nurses can collaborate more effectively and what medical and nursing education must do to foster such cooperation. Finally, Gordon outlines the ways in which RNs can successfully take their case to the public while campaigning for health care system reform that actually funds necessary nursing care."--BOOK JACKET.