An Analysis of Richard Prince's “Lake Resort Nurse”: Using an Image to Expose and Critically Reflect on Stereotypes in Nursing

Our interactions with images, created and viewed within contexts, are a significant means through which we construct and interpret our values and beliefs. Nurses' efforts at monitoring images to encourage accurate portrayals of nurses' work have had little influence on the way nurses are represented or the inherent ability of images to shape perceptions of nurses' work. One explanation for this lack of influence is that viewers do not closely attend to the ways in which we make meaning of everyday images. This inattention creates passive viewers, vulnerable to and more likely to internalize messages (G. Dines & J. Humez, 2011). Misunderstandings about nursing leave nurses vulnerable to contexts and influence the outcomes of at least 2 issues, the nursing shortage and the provision of quality care. Prince, in his painting “Lake Resort Nurse,” utilizes the artistic strategies of expressionism, appropriation, and reflexivity to expose stereotypes and provides an opportunity for reflection on the potential impact these stereotypes have on the profession. He provides a means through which we can recognize that images are significant contributors to how understandings of nursing and nurses are shaped. New understandings of nursing, gained through reflection and dialog, subsequently influences perceptions of the value of nurses' work and their contribution to health care.