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Alumni & Friends
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 News Stories
“Nurses in Cinema,” Free Lecture on September 29th
From the fearsome Nurse Ratchet in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest to the winsome Hot Lips Houlihan in M*A*S*H, nurses have played memorable parts in classic American films. On Saturday, September 29, at 10 a.m., two members of the College nursing faculty will present “Handmaidens, Heroes and Heartbreakers: Nurses in Cinema,” an examination of how Hollywood has portrayed nurses through the years.
The presentation, created by professors Wendy Ostendorf and Nancy Laplante, examines the image of nurses in film from 1920 to the present. “What we found,” explains Laplante, “were stereotypes that revolve around gender and power.”
Ostendorf sums up the title succinctly. “Heartbreakers are sexy. Heroes battle for their patients. Handmaidens are passive doormats.”
In addition to Cuckoo’s Nest and M*A*S*H, the pair cite on-screen examples of nurses from A Farewell to Arms (1932), Rear Window (1954), South Pacific (1958), The English Patient (1996), Wit (2001), Angels in America (2004) and many other movies. They hope to expand their research to include television and literature in the near future.
Ostendorf and Laplante teach a course of the same name at the College and have presented their findings at a Professional Nurse Educator Group Conference in 2006. They will also be the closing presentation at the April 2008 Horizons Critical Care Nurses Conference. Ostendorf holds an EdD, and Laplante is a DNSc candidate. Both are RNs.
The lecture is the second annual presentation in the Alumni Association of the Training School for Nurses – Philadelphia General Hospital Nursing Lecture Series.
Admission to the lecture is free, and continental breakfast is available from 9 a.m. To reserve seats for the event, call 610-558-5513.
9/6/07 
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