WHO: Sandy Summers, nurse advocate and founder of the Truth About Nursing

DATE: Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009, 4:30-6 p.m.; Public reception to follow

LOCATION: UNLV Greenspun Hall Auditorium

COST: Free and open to the public (Nursing CEUs available for participants)

Sandy Summers – founder and executive director of nursing advocacy group The Truth About Nursing – will offer insight into how media, politicians and health care professionals affect how the public views nursing. Summers will also describe the connection between nursing’s public image and the nurse shortage, sharing published research and examples from today’s media – including new primetime dramas HawthoRNe and Nurse Jackie – to show why the current portrayal of nurses puts us all at risk.

Summers is the co-author of Saving Lives: Why the Media's Portrayal of Nursing Puts Us All at Risk. Since 2001, she has led the effort to change how the world views nursing by challenging damaging media depictions of nurses. Summers has Masters Degrees in nursing and public health from Johns Hopkins University.

The event is co-sponsored by the UNLV School of Nursing, UNLV Greenspun College of Urban Affairs and the Nevada State Board of Nursing. Nursing CEUs are offered for event attendance. For more information, please call (702) 895-5752. Additional information on The Truth About Nursing can be found online at www.truthaboutnursing.org.

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UNLV is a doctoral-degree-granting institution of 28,000 students and 3,300 faculty and staff. Founded in 1957, the university offers more than 220 undergraduate, master's and doctoral degree programs. UNLV is located on a 332-acre campus in dynamic Southern Nevada and is classified in the category of Research Universities (high research activity) by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.