LAUSR

This Editorial began with conversations among co-authors regarding media representations of nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Annamaria Bagnasco and Gianluca Catania are working with other colleagues (see acknowledgements) to lead an international research project on the theme of media representations and experiences of nurses during the pandemic. For now, we agreed to conduct a cursory overview of media representations in Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States. So how is the media representing the contributions and costs to nurses, and for nursing, in other countries? What message should the media be prioritising at this time? And why? Is it helpful for nurses to be represented as heroes? As victims? As valuable members of multi-professional teams? As people just doing their job? In Italy, many nurses are being interviewed by the media and often portrayed as heroes fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic. Italian nurses keep reminding everyone that this is what they have always done: caring for patients and their families, day and night, in hospitals and at home, both in good and poor health conditions. One nurse said, ‘when my friends thank me for what I am doing and they tell me that I am a hero I always answer that it is only my job’. It seems that the Italian public is gaining a new awareness of the role played by nurses, for example, there appears to be surprise and appreciation regarding the range of activities nurses perform. One Facebook post read, ‘Having a nurse in your family is a gift’. The Italian media are reporting the new daily challenges nurses are facing, for example, the stress and fear experienced from caring for patients due to the high risk of infection. Daily, the media report the number of newly infected patients. Every day, the Italian Civil Protection Department receives data from the Italian Ministry of Health, analyses data and updates the database. This includes data about nurses who have lost their lives. At the time of writing, the media reported that 28 nurses had died in Italy from COVID-19. There has also been a media focus on nurses’ need for protection to respond to patients’ needs and on the shortage of nurses with critical care competencies assigned to these intensive care units. Generally, nurses in Italy are positively represented in the media and this may result, in the longer term, in the awakening of a widespread consciousness on behalf of the public, institutions and media. Nurses play as important a role in the healthcare system as physicians. The public’s gratitude is reported in examples