Making a Difference: Standing Together for Nurses Everywhere

On Dec. 20, 2005, I received an email from the Illinois Nurses Association about a disturbing new toy manufactured by Mattel, Inc. The toy, a plush duck, is dressed in nursing attire and named “Nurse Quacktitioner.” The association asked nurse practitioners to write to Mattel, voicing their concerns about the image of nursing and nurse practitioners that the toy portrayed. Historically, nurses have had to contend with negative stereotypes about their abilities, and the “Quacktitioner” doll served only to reinforce them.

Because I believe in the Walden mission, vision and social policy statements, and the importance of all nurses standing together, I thought about what this meant for my students in the M.S. program in Nursing, many of whom had just finished a course called The Nurse Leader: New Perspectives on the Profession.

The course, which I teach, examines what being a nurse leader means and explores strategies for empowering nurses. Writing to Mattel was an important chance for my nursing students and me to stand together and demonstrate leadership in our field. With this in mind, I sent an email on Dec. 21 to Walden’s nursing student, faculty and staff listservs regarding the “Nurse Quacktitioner” and asked everyone to write to Mattel.

Because of the holidays and school being on break, I truly did not expect any response. However, the response I received was overwhelming. One after another, students began sending me copies of the emails they had written to Mattel, voicing their outrage over the image of nursing the toy portrayed. I received copies of emails sent from across the United States and Canada.

Nursing student Gloria Corbin passionately wrote about how appalled she was at the idea of naming a toy “Quacktitioner”: “I have been a nurse for 34 years and am very proud of my profession. … We are the eyes and ears of physicians and often make the difference between [the] life and death of a patient due to our assessment skills.”

Other nursing students emphasized how disappointed they were that Mattel would produce such a toy, saying, as Carol Griffiths did, “It is in poor taste to ridicule a profession that has contributed so much to society.”

Mattel heard the protests raised by nurses across the country and sent a reply. Valerie Rodgers, a Mattel consumer relations representative, wrote that the company did not intend for the doll to cause offense or depict a negative stereotype of the profession. She said that the doll had a limited production run and that production had ceased and would not be renewed.

As I read the messages our students wrote, and Mattel’s reply, I began to see that my students and I were all living the Walden University mission: being part of “a diverse community of career professionals with the opportunity to transform themselves as scholar-practitioners so that they may transform society.” 

Our students are the future of nursing. Walden is providing them with the knowledge they need to be leaders in an important profession.

Dr. Deborah S. Adelman is a faculty member in Walden’s Master of Science program in Nursing.