ANA Responds to Leno Remark

May 02, 2001

Dear Mr. Leno,

The American Nurses Association is appalled and surprised that once again you have chosen to denigrate the nearly 2.7 million nurses in this country by comparing them to porno stars. When you chose to make such a tasteless joke during National Nurses Week (May 6-12) last year, many of our members contacted the Tonight Show to protest. Yet you have still chosen to make a similar tasteless joke again, a year later on your April 20, 2001, show.

Mr. Leno, let me assure you that the vast majority of the nation’s nurses are highly educated, highly motivated and extremely professional. And we take that our profession seriously. Nurses are on the front lines of health care making sure that medicines are dispensed properly, that patients are comfortable, that their families are informed and that the most vulnerable among us are comforted when undergoing medical treatment and recovery, which often can be a totally overwhelming experience.

Unfortunately, all too often nurses are asked to work unreasonable hours, under short-staffing conditions and heavy patient loads. And most of these patients require intense nursing because insurance companies now insist that only the sickest among us be hospitalized. In addition, nurses face workplace violence, the risk of contracting a deadly disease such as HIV or hepatitis C through a needlestick injury, and back injuries from lifting heavy patients.

You obviously have heard about the emerging nursing shortage because you referred to it in your joke. But ER diversions and patient overloads are not a laughing matter. In some hospitals and clinics and in many nursing homes, there are not enough nurses to allow for safe, adequate care. This means that the nurses who are working in these settings have to pick up the slack by working 16 or even 20 hours at a stretch, with no break. Surely you would not want any of your loved ones to undergo medical treatment in such a situation – or to have to work under these conditions. And surely you are capable of understanding the ramifications of these situations for patients and their families.

With conditions such as these, it is no wonder so many of America’s nurses are leaving acute-care settings without adequate numbers of new nursing graduates to replace them. They are turning their backs on the ER and opting for jobs that don’t require them to work up to 12 hours beyond their regular shift, that allow them to pick up their children from day care on time and that don’t impose unsafe working conditions.

Partially as a result of these problems, the nursing profession is suffering from a tarnished image. And, wisecracks such as yours only make matters worse because those words send a message: that women and men who become nurses are not intelligent, valued and respected health care professionals.

Yet, nursing is among the most respected professions in the nation. Countless surveys indicate that the American public appreciates and respects the women and men who care for the sick and injured among us, even when the pay is not great, and the conditions are dismal. And a recent Gallup poll found nursing to be the most trusted profession there is.

So, given these overwhelming facts, we hope that you will offer the nurses of America an on-air apology during an upcoming monologue. (Sometime during National Nurses Week, May 6-12, would be greatly appreciated.) And perhaps you can even go one step further by seriously saying something nice about nurses, and showing the nursing profession the respect and appreciation it deserves.

Sincerely,

Mary Foley, MS, RN
President
American Nurses Association
Washington, D.C.

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The American Nurses Association is the only full-service professional organization representing the nation's 2.7 million Registered Nurses through its constituent member state nurses associations. The ANA advances the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Congress and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.

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