I'm a new zealander and I watched fox news for the first time. I was disgusted by how biased and uninformed their reporting was. Here's the scenario, it painted all nurses in a bad light.

14yr old girl rings up an abortion clinic and says she wants an abortion. She lets slip that her partner is 30yrs old. The girl says 'Will you tell my parents'. The nurse on the phone only has a few seconds to help this girl. She says 'no, we won't tell your parents if you don't want us to'. The 14yr old girl is then seen on fox news admitting it wasn't real and she happily joined in the news crew in bashing nurses who deal with sexual health.

It doesn't take a genuis to figure out public reaction. Shock, horror, outrage and disgust at this nurse and all abortion clinics.

Here's what really happens. I now work in a boarding school (male nurse) and deal with sexual health issues all the time.

A girl, (say 15yrs old) is worried she may be pregnant. The first thing she asks me is 'Will you tell my parents?' If I say I will tell her parents, she may not tell me what is wrong. In fact I've had one student who assumed we would tell her parents, and she climbed out of a forth floor window in the middle of the night and scaled down each floor using the balconies on each level. She was accompanied by three friends. If any of those friend had fallen, they would have been killed. They took themselves to a local hospital where it turns out she wasn't pregnant.

What's the point - People, students, kids, adults need to feel they have someone to turn to, someone safe, somewhere safe. They need to know that what they tell us is confidential. Your first concern is the immediate safety and health of the child.

What do I do when someone comes to me for help? I did have a patient who was 15yrs old and pregnant. I told her I wouldn't tell her parents. I did tell her I would talk to my colleagues and the school doctor.This encouraged her to tell me the whole story. After evaluating her situation, including family, boyfriend etc, and discussing with my even more experienced colleagues I encouraged her to tell her parents. She did this and the parents were so supportive. The girl was so relieved as well as surprised. Children are often surprised by how supportive parents can be when in true crisis.  The parents came and fealt with the issue. 

Back to Fox News Scenario - Fox news jumped on the anti-abortion band-wagon and highlighted how medical people keep parents ignorant.They inflamed the public. This issue isn't about abortion. This issue isn't about the parents (at first). It's about the immediate safety of the child. Hopefully family can and will become involved, although unfortunately not all kids have good parents they can turn to. And by providing a safe environment for the child she can be encouraged to deal with the fact her boyfriend is 30yrs old. Hopefully the guy can be thrown in jail for the rest of his natural life. (I'm a parent as well, I'm not a emotionally immune healtcare giver). Fox news didn't show what really goes on. They didn't show the thoughts behind the medical people dealing with these ethical issues.They showed a nurse in a bad light, trying to make a political point. We all know news is never unbiased.

I just love hearing from you two!  Ahhh.....always the voice of reason and sanity. 

I too have some major issues with FOX news.  Literally, every time I have turned it on, there has been nothing but negativity, snide underhanded condescending remarks directed toward (liberals, Democrats, Immigrants, etc).  It's amazing that people cannot see through their fearmongering bull.  But they certainly do have a following, and we see the products of such right here on NL who regurgitate their comments and propoganda verbatim.  Very scary that a station that spreads such hate and ignorance exists.  Time and time again they have been found to have reported falsely on a variety of subjects, yet we still have viewers worshipping the news casters like they were Jesus.

Hey Rusty!

How's it going?  You are correct.  ALL news stations have a tendency to embellish the truth, but I think what turns me off to FOX is how blatantly one sided and consistently negative they are.  Some will say that MSNBC is just as one-sided, but at least the so called "liberal" stations present other topics and have a variety of news.  All I see on FOX is Obama, Democrat, Liberal, immigrant, and poverty bashing.  Basically, a lot of hate.  Just a bog turn off!!!!

rusty97015 says ...

Amen!

 

FauxNews is awful.  Actually, I've stopped watching just about every news station because none of them seem to be doing a good job of actually educating the public.  It seems news is about sensationalizing stories to attract views.  It serves no useful purpose. 

Thanks for being an awesome nurse!