Quinta Goines
Contributor
“I hope you now realize what nurses do and how many of us there are.”
Sarah Barnhill, a senior nursing major from Loxley, shared her thoughts about morning talk show hosts Michelle Collins and Joy Behar from “The View.”
“We will continue to care for your loved ones and one day even you when you are at your weakest,” Barnhill said. “We will help you maintain your dignity while giving you a bed bath; we will wake your doctor up at 2 a.m. to make sure you get the medicine you need, and we will give you our best even after you’ve shown us your worst.”
Collins and Behar made comments about Miss Colorado’s talent of choice during the Miss America pageant that was held on Sunday, Sept. 13. Kelley Johnson, Miss Colorado, recited a monologue for the talent portion of the competition about the responsibilities she has and the role she plays as a hospital nurse.
This prompted the hosts of “The View” to poke fun at her monologue, for wearing scrubs and what Behar called a “doctor’s stethoscope.”
“Why does she have a doctor’s stethoscope around her neck?” Behar said.
“She basically read her emails out loud and shockingly did not win,” Collins said.
Social media users took to the Internet to express their ill feelings toward the comments and to take a stand with Johnson about the duties nurses fulfill. Troy University nursing students also shared their reactions.
Brandey Fulmer, a senior nursing major from Wetumpka, said she did not originally watch “The View,” but hearing about what was said made her upset. She now realizes that people do not understand all of the seriousness that comes along with being a nurse.
“I don’t think they intended to make fun of nurses,” she said. “They just wanted something to talk about, and they were uneducated about the subject they decided to gossip about.”
“Being a student nurse and ER tech, I work with nurses that, if they didn’t have the stethoscope, they wouldn’t be able to properly assess their patients,” said Courtney France, a senior nursing major from Auburn, and an employee at the Jackson Hospital Emergency Room in Montgomery. “If a blood pressure monitor goes out, nurses use their stethoscope to take a client’s blood pressure.”
The comments made by the hosts of “The View” became costly when Johnson & Johnson and Eggland’s Best Eggs announced they would no longer advertise on the show. Viewers in support of Miss Colorado and nurses also vowed not to watch the show.
Nicole Curlee, a senior nursing major from Prattville, said she will no longer watch “The View” because of their disparaging remarks.
“I watched the episode of ‘The View’ where they had the nurses on to apologize for the remarks, but I feel like they were just obligated to do it to make up for the backlash they received,” Curlee said. “I still will not be watching the show anymore.”
The hosts rendered a public apology after the fact, bringing nursing instructors from New York University to the show.
Aside from comments made about Miss Colorado being a nurse, nursing majors agree that it was disheartening to see women down the talents of other women.
“I was kind of shocked to hear them putting down another woman that was brave enough to get on stage and perform a very different talent than Miss America is used to seeing,” Barnhill said.
