Opinion Molders Appraise Nursing

Abstract

IN A DEMOCRACY every institution needs public sentiment behind it to grow and develop. This holds for the nursing profession. Professions, by their very nature, are fraught with public interest. Public sentiment is everything [said Abraham Lincoln]. .... He who moldspublic sentimentgoesdeeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possible to execute. What those who mold public opinion through the written or spoken word think or say about the nursing profession may be the most important single factor in its present and future status in society. The nursing profession through its every act must deserve public support. But those who mold the public and interpret the public must also understand and evaluate the profession at its real worth. What do these people-newspaper and magazine editors, radio commentators, news photographers, cartoonists, columnists, authors, radio script writers, book publishers, lecturers, artists and illustrators, outstanding opinion molders in other fields-think of the nursing profession today? How do they evaluate it? How do they regard it as a profession? How do they rate nurses in their varied fields of activity-hospital, private practice, military and civilian war effort, public health nursing? What do they criticize about the nursing profession and what recommendations do they offer that may help the profession develop better adjustment with society? To learn how the nurses of America stand with