Nurses take on MTV’s Scrubbing In
Archive 2013 Oct 24, 2013 Kedean Smith
Ontario nurses are in uproar over a new MTV reality show. Scrubbing In documents the hard partying ways of nine travel nurses in Orange County.
Photo take by MTV
The show has not aired yet but has already met resistance from many nurses of the Ontario Nurses Association. The ONA believes that the show makes a mockery of the profession in its depiction of the nine cast members. In true reality TV form the nine nurses are shown in many compromising situations. Think Jersey Shore, but instead of going to the Shore Shack as a day job, these cast members work at a reputable hospital taking care of the sick.
First-year George Brown nursing student Katherine Azucena, 21, says “this show will have people looking at nurses in a negative light, and we don’t need that, we already have so many negative connotations associated with us.”
Most nurses work a 12 hour back-to-back shift and like any other human on the planet they are tired and sleep deprived.
After watching this show Azucena believes that people will start thinking the tiredness is on account of the partying nurses are doing on their down time.
The ONA feels that the show is diminishing the image of nurses as reputable professionals in the healthcare system. The cast members on Scrubbing In are seen partying and the ONA even attacks the way some of them are dressed. Alcohol plus young females plus California nights equals exactly what you think: scantily clad females.
“Personally I have my own beliefs and values, that’s not me” says registered nurse and business owner Tashana Gordon.
She believes because the cast members of Scrubbing In are nurses society will come down harder on them.
Gordon does agree with the ONA that the show will shed a bad light on the profession of nursing but she also stresses this show is not a representation of all nurses and we should take it for what it is – a reality TV show meant to entertain not inform.
Photo taken by MTV
Like any reality show, the audience doesn’t get both sides of the story. Just whatever is considered sexy enough to make the production cut. And this is what the ONA has a problem with, all of the sexy after hours scenes of the cast members partying and drinking.
MTV was contacted for interviews but declined, however it released an email statement saying “MTV Canada holds the nursing profession in the highest regard.”
The ONA says it will continue its campaign against the show and encourages nurses and others to sign the online petition to cancel it.
