MarySue Heilemann, associate professor of nursing at UCLA, addressed a United Nations commission last spring to say how inaccurate media portrayals of registered nurses have helped foster a global shortage.
Heilemann noted that the depiction of nurses in movies and on TV as sex objects or as hardened battle axes – including the infamous Nurse Ratched in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” – has demeaned the profession.
Worse, she noted, was the absence of any significant roles depicting nurses on any popular TV medical series, such as “Grey’s Anatomy.”
Heilemann’s concerns about the profession’s portrayal underscore a study released this month that projects a global nursing shortage within the next 12 years.
The World Health Organization estimates the world will need 9 million nurses and midwives to enter the profession by 2030 in order to avoid a labor shortage, according to UCLA.
In a separate study, RegisteredNursing.org, a trade group based in Carlsbad, announced last week that the number of full-time registered nurses needed in the United States during the same period was expected to increase 28.4 percent to 3.6 million.
A RegisteredNursing study based on federal labor statistics found that by 2030, the demand for nurses in California would outpace the supply by 11.5 percent. The group did not have any projections for nursing jobs in Los Angeles County.
“California will be adding the most new positions by 2030 – more than 110,000,” the report said. “But (that) is still estimated to be more than 40,000 nurses short.”
The state is projected to employ 343,400 nurses in 2030 but needs an additional 44,500 nurses to meet expected demand. That number is nearly three times the deficit of the state with the next largest projected nurse shortage.
Perhaps some Oscar- and Emmy-quality nursing performances could help fill some of the projected bedside vacancies.
Award Season
Yang Chai, associate dean of research at the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC, has been elected to the prestigious National Academy of Medicine.
Chai, who also serves as director of USC’s Center for Craniofacial and Molecular Biology, received one of the highest honors in the field of health and medicine Oct. 15. He was the only dental professional among 85 physician-scientists named to the academy this year.
“We are so proud of Yang for this distinction,” said Ostrow Dean Avishai Sadan, in a statement. “The contributions he has made to the research community here at Ostrow, across the university and for the dental profession, are legion.”
Chai, a native of China, completed his doctoral degree in craniofacial biology and doctor of dental surgery at USC and joined the university’s faculty in 1987.
He is internationally renowned for his scientific investigation into the genetics, cellular signaling and development of craniofacial structures, including understanding the causes of and finding potential preventive measures for craniofacial deformities including cleft lip, cleft palate and craniosynostosis.
The Ostrow professor was elected in 2013 as chairman of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research Board of Scientific Counselors. He has also earned numerous national and international awards. He holds the George and Mary Lou Boone Chair in Craniofacial Biology at USC.
Bio Leader
Ahmed Enany, founder and long-time chief executive of the Los Angeles-based Southern California Biomedical Council, has received official recognition for 20 years of service to the local biosciences industry.
The board of the region’s oldest biomedical trade group presented Enany with a 20th-anniversary award during a CEO dinner late last month at the 20th Annual SoCalBio Conference in Long Beach.
“He is the first one to have ever started an industry organization focused on biotechnology in the Los Angeles Area,” said Robert “Bud” Bishop, president of the Pasadena Bio Collaborative Incubator, and a SoCalBio board member. “He has done an absolutely wonderful job of building a strong organization that provides a wide range of services and assistance to its member companies.”
A representative for Mayor Eric Garcetti also presented Enany with an official certificate of appreciation from the City of Los Angeles.
Staff reporter Dana Bartholomew can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 556-8333.
