The Nurses Image Library, an attempt to reclaim the profession’s image

The project to create and publicise a Nurses Image Library (NIL), led by the Col·legi Oficial d’Infermeres i Infermers de Barcelona (COIB), is taking shape. The project started in 2016 and is expected to be completed in 2020 with a photo library containing some 3,000 images. The photographs, taken by Ariadna Creus and Àngel García, reflect a personal, honest look at the profession which is far-removed from the objectified image usually presented of these individuals. It is a photographic study with a documentary approach. It offers photographic solutions that address the titanic job of deconstructing the social convention within the collective imagination in which nurses are represented as subordinate to other figures in healthcare; devoid of a decision-making capacity, at best in the background. The intention was to overcome the erroneous stereotype which all too often sees nurses as absent from frontline work in representations of the healthcare system. Àngel García declared that “nurses deserve a project like this one. To take bring them to the forefront and showcase their work”. Ariadna Creus added that everyone was eager to participate, “at a time of weakness and fragility, they have given the best of themselves as they recognise the project’s importance”.

“We want to be proactive in changing society’s perception of nurses, the NIL is the first step”.

The following organisations are involved in the project: the Institut Català de la Salut (ICS), the Hospital Universitari Clínic de Barcelona, ​​the Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Hospital de Mollet, Hospital de Sabadell-Parc Taulí, the Servei d’Emergències Mèdiques (SEM), the Centre d’Atenció Primària CIS Cotxeres and the Consorci Castelldefels Agents de Salut (CASAP). During the upcoming phases of the project, the plan is to involve the main facilities and institutions in the healthcare field in the Barcelona area.

During the official presentation, Albert Tort, president of the COIB, announced that the image bank is a free and open to all under the Creative Commons licence. “We want to be proactive in changing society’s perception of nurses, the NIL is the first step.”

Núria Cuxart, COIB’s program director also participated in the event. She began by examining the  historical roots of this false perception of the profession. “Female labour is seen to be of little value and is often associated with a submissive role”. Cuxart went on to declare that, “the history of nursing is the history of women. Their caring role has developed in parallel to the history of women”. Unfortunately, at the same time, the banalization of women and the profession has occurred, “a colonization by the concepts associated with gender”. In this way, the NIL represents a further step for nurses in the recovery their real position and in reclaiming their importance.

“Caring is a real revolution since it brings people awareness of their health. It is an ethical framework for a more just, democratic society, one which is more pleasant to live in and more coherent with diversity”.

Cuxart explored the idea of ​​providing care, arguing that “providing care means taking responsibility for health […], there is no care without the individualization of care”. In this sense, nurses not only offer healthcare but also cater to people’s emotional needs, helping people feel better in both sickness and in health. Therefore, not only is it about caring but helping people to be healthy and feel well. In this sense, nurses fulfil a purpose that goes beyond the mere fact of curing illnesses. They are concerned with everything that prevents and limits, from those things which prevent everyday life from carrying on as normal. Thing which prevent someone from walking, which reduce an individual’s autonomy. These concerns become the requirement and argument of nurses’ daily activities which occupy them. They work in an intimate sphere, and it is in this area where such professionals have a greater impact and where they suffer most from exclusion and a lack of visibility.

A third topic addressed by the COIB’s program director was the lack of coherence within health systems. We must not weaken in our resolve to tackle the problems which are identified from the perspective of care. Thus, sexism and the excessive medicalization of society are some of the problems which have been detected, but we must have the will to solve them. As a result of her analysis, Cuxart went on to say that, “caring is a real revolution since it brings people awareness of their health. It is an ethical framework for a more just, democratic society, one which is more pleasant to live in and more coherent with diversity “.

In conclusion, all the biases and misuses of this group of health professionals have led to the image of them as an object, as opposed to what they really are: subjects who can be understood as individuals,  with a capacity for critical and competent reflection in decision-making processes. Therefore, they have been systemically and systematically disqualified, meaning the whole of society must come together in order to work to dismantle the stereotypes. The NIL is trying to spearhead these efforts. Words are important since the nuances and intentions they conceal can have serious consequences. In this respect it has been pointed out that 85% of nurses are women, and according to Cuxart, “using the feminine form [of the word] in a generic way is not a problem. In fact, male nurses are often proactive in this respect. Nevertheless, patients often get confused and male nurses have to point out that they’re not doctors but nurses”.

Cuxart concluded that, “as a society we are facing an enormous, on-going battle: to fight against stereotypes, to dismantle the sexism and terrible misogyny of androcentrism. These prejudices have a negative impact on the sensitive product we offer. We wish to counteract this conception, enhancing the human side of nursing. The is non-malicious reality”. For this reason, Galo Quintanilla, COIB’s head of marketing, reinforces this idea by stating that raising awareness among society as a whole, requires involving every communication, marketing, art and healthcare professional. “Nurses take care of everyone, we all ought to take care of them”.