#NursesUnite In Social Media Firestorm After 2 Hosts Of 'The View' Poke Fun At Miss Colorado
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Thousands of nurses have united on social media after controversial comments were made about Miss Colorado, a registered nurse, by two co-hosts on "The View."
As part of the talent portion of the Miss America pageant, Kelley Johnson performed a monologue about her care of a patient with Alzheimer's disease, a speech some say fell on deaf ears.
Fellow nurse Lizabeth Baker-Wade says the issue goes beyond stethoscopes and explains that she's been fighting stereotypes within her profession throughout her career, which has spanned 25 years.
"We take care of the sick. Of the dying. Of the birthing. Of babies. And everyone is going to be touched by a nurse at some point in their lives," she said.
It's no surprise then that thousands have taken to social media to defend nurses after two co-hosts on ABC's "The View" made controversial comments about Johnson.
"Every nurse has a patient that reminds them of why they became a nurse in the first place," Johnson had said.
The next morning, the ladies of "The View," poked fun at her performance.
"She came out in her nurse's uniform and basically read her emails out loud," co-host Michelle Collins said, while fellow co-host Joy Behar asked, "Why does she have a doctor's stethoscope on?"
"This is a stethoscope, by the way. It's not doctor's stethoscope," Baker-Wade said.
Using the hashtag #NursesUnite, nurses from all over the country are posting photos of themselves with their stethoscopes.
One nurse wrote to "The View" on Instagram:
On Wednesday, the co-hosts issued an on-air apology.
"It's not like I was trying to be funny. It was just stupid and inattentive on my part," Behar said, while Collins said: "You all deserve raises. I want that. This is how much I love nurses."
"If any of those women were our patients, we would be there with them for whatever they needed," Lindsay Mann, a registered nurse, said. "It's so much more than a costume, so much more than just a prop."
Miss Colorado hasn't weighed in on the controversy, but she has retweeted photographs of nurses and their stethoscopes on her official Twitter account.
