The positioning of nursing in Turkish mass media: Before and after the COVID‐19 outbreak

Abstract

Aim

To explore the way the nursing profession was portrayed in online news coverage before and after the COVID‐19 pandemic.

Background

The power of the media can be used as a tool to introduce nursing services to society, make nursing visible, and influence the public perception of nursing.

Introduction

Analyzing the image of nursing as portrayed in the news can be a guide for more effective management of the media as a tool for positioning nursing in the future and presenting the right message.

Methods

A qualitative design was applied. Three online newspapers published in the Turkish language—the most widely read newspapers in Turkey—were analyzed. The sample for this research consisted of 505 news articles containing the keywords “nurse” and “nursing” published before and after the COVID‐19 outbreak. The MAXQDA2022 software was used for data management.

Results

The articles selected were themed as news reflecting the nursing profession negatively, positively, and neutrally. When the negative and positive themes were compared, the two most repeated subthemes included (1) working conditions and being unprofessionalism; (2) impact on health, social recognition, and neutral included only subtheme that happens to you as a citizen/individual.

Conclusion

Compared with the pre‐COVID‐19 period, there was an increase in news coverage reflecting portrayed nursing positively on the nursing profession in the post‐COVID‐19 period. Mass media, which are indispensable in social communication, can be used as an effective tool to improve the image of nursing in society.

Implications for nursing

From nursing students to policymakers, all professionals must act in a planned and purposeful manner to present nursing professionals positively as leaders in public healthcare.

INTRODUCTION

Positioning is defined as the act of differentiating and designing the presentation and image of products and services in a way that points to their superiority in the minds of the target audience (Andreasen & Kotler, 2006), for the purpose of enhancing the preferability and sales of the product or service. In today's society, as in other sectors, the position and image of the nursing profession are influenced by mass media, such as TV, social networks, movies, and news outlets (Kress et al., 2018). The portrayals of nurses in the media provide an advantage or disadvantage in constructing the perception, preferability (Cleary et al., 2018), and professional identity of the profession by society (ten Hoeve et al., 2014). Some studies in the literature offered a positive image of the profession (Bagnasco et al., 2020), stating that nurses are recognized as hardworking, thoughtful, and understanding individuals who care (Sis Çelik et al., 2013), which forms the basis of the profession, plays a vital role, and is based on professional knowledge and skills (Emeghebo, 2012). In contrast, there are negative myths, stereotypes, and misunderstandings associated with the profession (Marcinowicz et al., 2016), to the extent that nurses are overlooked as autonomous healthcare providers, and their stature is often diminished by negative stereotypes in the media (Glerean et al., 2017; Godsey et al., 2020). Negative images and portrayals of nurses have had negative consequences for the profession in terms of employment and nursing shortage, interdisciplinary cooperation, allocation of resources, nurses' job performance and motivation, clients’ trust, nurses' workload, violence, and burnout (Rezaei‐Adaryani et al., 2012, p. 84).

Nurses have assumed important roles in historical events, such as epidemics and wars, that have affected the lives of a significant part of society in both the past and present (Cipriano, 2018). Nursing was performed by nuns in churches until the 16th century in important events that had a social impact such as war, disaster, and epidemic diseases, and mostly by female prisoners and some groups in the 18th and 19th centuries after the closure of religious sects (Taylor et al., 2018). It was carried out by teams formed under the leadership of Nightingale and Henderson, respectively, in the 20th century. These events have created an image of nursing in society and have made various contributions to the public perception of the profession (Cingel & Brouwer, 2021). For example, despite the difficulties experienced during Florence Nightingale's period, the inability of nursing to reach the desired status by society has been associated with the lack of a strong image of the profession and the lack of understanding of its importance (Pfettscher, 2021). The COVID‐19 pandemic is a major event in the history of humanity and nursing that affected the development of the nursing profession and brought to the agenda studies investigating the changing image of the profession (Myers et al., 2022). Due to COVID‐19, the public observed that nurses who provided service 24/7 on the front lines were at the forefront, and their work became more visible. For this reason, nurses were frequently featured in the news and other media worldwide and were portrayed as the real heroes of the pandemic (American College of Healthcare Executives, 2021; CBC, 2020). Their unique role was described as “the backbone of the health system” during COVID‐19 (Halberg et al., 2021). This interest brought up the idea that nurses may have the opportunity to represent nursing during the COVID‐19 process (Torres Contreras, 2020).

Nurses, who are aware that positioning requires deliberate action, should take advantage of the opportunities they can use the media to convey the desired representations of nursing by emphasizing its diverse and specific qualities (Godsey et al., 2020) and away from the stereotypes of the profession (Perna et al., 2019). They must promote themselves instead of waiting for someone else to do so (Choi et al., 2020; Torres Contreras, 2020). We believe that COVID‐19 could be an important event to create a positive image regarding the nursing profession being transmitted to society. This study aimed to examine the positioning of the nursing profession in online newspaper articles in one‐year period before and after the onset of the COVID‐19 outbreak. We believe that the findings of this study can help nurses to create messages that can be used in the media to develop a positive image. The results of this study will also constitute an important resource for future studies on the subject area. Within this context, this research addressed the following questions:

In online news articles in one‐year period before and after the onset of COVID‐19:

1. What was the frequency of coverage of the nursing profession?

2. How were nurses included in the news?

3. How is nursing positioned?

METHODS

Research design

A case study design—a qualitative research approach—was applied. A case study is used to investigate and compare the situation to be determined in the current context or environment (Creswell, 2013). In this research, the current approach and definition of the situation in the specified time periods were examined, and an in‐depth interpretation was carried out. The research was reported following the guidelines of the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ).

Sample and setting

The research consisted of 141 905 news articles, including 40 427 articles during the year before the onset of the COVID‐19 outbreak (March 10, 2019–March 10, 2020) and 101 478 articles during the first year following the onset of the COVID‐19 outbreak (March 11, 2020–March 11, 2021) in three online newspapers with the highest number of followers and the most visited/read online databases in Turkey, according to data from similarweb (2020). The selected research sample consisted of 505 news articles. As an inclusion criterion, news articles that contained the keywords “nurse” and “nursing” were included. However, articles duplicated in two newspapers or repeated within one newspaper's circulation, and news that was not associated with the positioning of nursing were excluded (Figure 1).

FIGURE 1.

Flowchart diagram.

Data collection

The three online newspapers selected for this research were scanned between July 2021 and January 2022 using the most commonly used keywords “nurse” and “nursing” in MeSH. News articles were downloaded via Web Collector for MAXQDA2022 and then transferred to the MAXQDA2022 software. After the news items collected with Web Collector were transferred to the document system, document and content analyses were conducted.

Ethical considerations

Approval was granted by the Hacettepe University Ethics Commission (No: 08‐2021/ 27) for conducting the research. The names of institutions or individuals mentioned in the news were anonymized during the reporting phase of the study.

Data analysis

Each news item was coded separately by two independent researchers. The codes created were submitted for evaluation by one more independent researcher, categories were created, and themes and subthemes were decided by consensus. The themes and subthemes of the document groups before and after the onset of COVID‐19 were compared using two case models from MAXQDA2022 Visual Tools. Finally, the findings were quantified, presented, and interpreted.

Trustworthiness

In this study, trustworthiness criteria were met by considering each component of qualitative rigor (Connelly, 2016): Credibility: Three independent researchers read the documents, and those documents were reread before coding. Direct quotations were used to express the research findings. Transferability: The themes were shaped by directly addressing the expressions that journalists, who are members of society, reflect the nursing profession.

Dependability

The research team held regular meetings to review the findings and confirm the themes. Confirmability: The documents related to the whole research process were examined separately by the responsible researcher and two senior researchers, and themes and subthemes were formed with the contributions of all researchers. The news was evaluated separately by two independent researchers in terms of compliance with the inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the opinion of the third researcher was accepted in case of disagreement.

FINDINGS

The majority (79.48%) of the news articles published before COVID‐19 and 84% published after COVID‐19 pertained to nursing in Turkey (see Supplementary Material S1 for demographic characteristics of the news).

Qualitative analysis of news items

The articles were classified into three themes as news reflecting the positioning of nursing negatively, positively, and neutrally (Table 1).

TABLE 1.

Distribution of news by themes.

	Before COVID‐19		After COVID‐19
Themes	n	%	n	%
News reflecting the positioning of nursing negatively	22	23.53	83	19.75
News reflecting the positioning of nursing positively	51	60	313	74.54
News reflecting the positioning of nursing neutrally	14	16.47	24	5.71
Total	87	100	420	100

Theme 1: News reflecting the positioning of nursing negatively

Twenty‐two (23.53%) of the articles published before COVID‐19 and 83 (19.76%) of those published after COVID‐19 reflected the positioning of nursing negatively (Table 1). In this theme, the subthemes of working conditions, unprofessionalism, punishments arising from the individual's preferences, lack of audit, and stigma were determined (Table 2; Supplementary Material S2).

TABLE 2.

Codes, subthemes, and main themes of the news articles reflecting the positioning of nursing.

Themes	Subthemes	Codes	Before COVID‐19 n	After COVID‐19 n
News reflecting the positioning of nursing negatively	Working conditions		10	68
		Violence	9	23
		Nurses who lost their lives in the pandemic	1	8
		Nurses infected with COVID‐19	–	26
		Negative working environments	–	11
	Unprofessionalism		5	10
		Malpractice	2	5
		Unprofessional behavior	3	5
	Punishments arising from the individual's preferences		5	2
	Lack of audit		2	–
	Stigma		–	3
News reflecting the positioning of nurses positively	Improvement of working conditions		15	30
		The employee rights of the nurse	13	15
		Nurses leaving their mark from the past to the present	2	5
		Nurses who have priority in vaccination	–	10
	Employment/encouragement		13	13
	Promotion		6	31
		Individual‐based promotion	2	3
		Institutional promotion	4	28
	Commitment to profession		3	53
		Dedication	1	28
		Vigor	1	16
		Perseverance	1	9
	Social recognition		4	54
	Impact on health		5	69
		Public awareness	–	36
		Improving community health	3	33
	Social responsibility		3	11
	Professionalism		2	51
		The presence of qualified nurses	1	20
		The educator role	1	15
		The advocator role	–	9
		The researcher role	–	4
		Professional development activity	–	4
News reflecting neutral positioning of nursing	Things that happen to you as a citizen/individual		14	24
		Nurses who lost their lives	7	8
		Personal topics	7	16

Working conditions

This subtheme was defined using the codes of violence, nurses who lost their lives in the pandemic, nurses infected with COVID‐19, and negative working environments. The news articles stated that there are violence in healthcare institutions, some nurses lost their life while they were working, infected nurses with COVID‐19, and inappropriate working conditions. The following are the news article statements about each code:

Before COVID‐19:

… XX, 30, a male nurse working in the intensive care unit of XX State Hospital in XX, was beaten by a patient's relatives … (F/2020/02/25)

After COVID‐19:

… Nurse XX, who died in the hospital in XX where she was being treated for coronavirus (Covid‐19), was sent off on her final path with a ceremony organized in tears … (P/2020/12/30)

After COVID‐19:

… Nurse XX, who has been working at XX for two years, contracted and recovered from coronavirus (Covid‐19) twice despite having asthma … (C/2021/01/10)

After COVID‐19:

… X nurse stated that she was called to 24 shifts every day and that her life was at risk because there was not enough equipment … (O/2021/01/17)

Unprofessionalism

This is defined as the thoughts, behaviors, and attitudes that nurses exhibit in violation of their roles and responsibilities, ethical and professional values, and philosophies integrated with the profession. There were two codes under this subtheme: malpractice and unprofessional behavior. The following are the news article statements about each code:

Before COVID‐19:

… XX, “At the hospital, the nurse gave me a shot in my right side. After an hour, my right foot became incapacitated…” (M/2019/07/10)

Before COVID‐19:

… In another hospital, a woman, allegedly a nurse, is seen waving incense with the words “This is the best remedy…” (D/2020/02/27)

Punishment arising from the individual's actions

The thoughts, behaviors, and attitudes of individuals in their personal lives result in penalties that affect their professional lives. The following is a news article statement about each code:

After COVID‐19:

… While a lawsuit was filed against the two arrested women demanding 10 years in prison, … (a governmental organization) suspended both of them. In her statement, the nurse said, “I took the captured photo of myself on a picnic in Lice …” (G/2021/01/14)

Lack of audit

Lack of audit means that there is a lack of scrutiny on whether the organization's activities and resources are carried out in accordance with predetermined objectives and rules. The following is a news article statement about each code:

Before COVID‐19:

… There were foreign secret service elements conducting espionage activities in Turkey under the masks of … a (non‐governmental organization) volunteer, archaeologist, nurse … (M/2019/11/24)

Stigma means that a loss of status or discrimination was experienced due to the effect of negative stereotypes. The following is a news article statement about each code:

After COVID‐19:

… nurse stated that she was not wanted in the building by her neighbors because she was likely to bring Covid‐19 virus from the hospital … (S/2021/02/19)

Theme 2: News reflecting the positioning of nursing positively

Fifty‐one (60%) of the news articles before COVID‐19 and 313 (74.54%) after COVID‐19 reflected the positioning of nursing positively. In this theme, the subthemes of improvement of working conditions, employment encouragement, promotion, commitment to the profession, social recognition, impact on health, social responsibility, and professionalism were determined (Table 2; Supplementary Material S2).

Improvement of working conditions

Initiatives were implemented to improve the factors evaluated in the working conditions of nurses. The subtheme of improvement of working conditions was listed as: the employee rights of the nurse, nurses leaving their mark from the past to the present, and nurses who have priority in vaccination. The following are the news article statements about each code:

Before COVID‐19:

… Some press organs published news that the additional indicators of…, nurses,…. those retired from these professions will be increased to 3600 … (Ö/2019/07/08)

After COVID‐19:

… History writes everything. But there were also things it forgot to write. The art of medicine has always been practiced together with nurses … (G/2020/05/12)

After COVID‐19:

… XX, who works as a nurse in the Covid‐19 Intensive Care Unit, stated that they were vaccinated first and asked everyone to get vaccinated … (A/2021/01/19)

Employment encouragement

This subtheme refers to recruitment and retention actions related to increasing the quality and quantity of professional members.

Before COVID‐19:

… There is a shortage of qualified labor in about 60 professions in Germany, with nurses … being among the most sought‐after professions … (P/2019/12/19)

Promotion

These news items dealt with activities carried out to promote the profession and to enhance its public position. This subtheme consists of Individual‐based promotion and Institutional promotion codes. The following are the news article statements about each code:

After COVID‐19:

… XX nurse said, “Patients who regained their health while receiving treatment made me very happy. I was very happy both as a patient and a nurse …” (B/2020/04/22)

After COVID‐19:

… the hardware deficiencies for the opening of operating rooms and inpatient wards have been corrected … a team of dentists, nurses … from the hospital was sent to XX Hospital for in‐service training … (T/2021/02/10)

Commitment to the profession

This subtheme collected articles regarding believing in the mission, vision, ethical values, and philosophy of the profession. This subtheme consists of dedication, vigor, and perseverance as subtitles of commitment. The following are the news article statements about each code:

After COVID‐19:

… They have been continuing their fight against the corona virus day and night for about a year, including my wife…. (A/2021/01/18)

After COVID‐19:

… There is a rush in the intensive care unit of the hospital. Hundreds of doctors, nurses, orderlies, cleaning, and security staff are working hard … (D/2020/05/06)

After COVID‐19:

… XX, who said that she was happy to complete the treatment process and return to duty, added, “I never thought of leaving my duty. I can never leave my friends alone. They knew that I would continue such a struggle with them. I recovered in a short time, and I am back with them. When I returned to the hospital, I felt like I was reborn …” (K/2020/04/20)

Social recognition

This subtheme was applied to articles on the value society places on the profession. The following is the news article statement about each code:

Before COVID‐19:

… Sweden's ‘Hero of the World’ award was given to 28‐year‐old XX, a nurse of YY origin … (T/2019/12/19)

Impact on health

This subtheme was applied to articles on the practices, strategies, and policies that nurses implement to protect, improve, and develop the health of the community. The two subthemes identified in this code were public awareness and improving community health. The following are the news article statements about each code:

After COVID‐19:

… The more importance people attach to this process, the sooner it will end. I hope this process will be completed as soon as possible, and everyone will go back to the old days … (T/2020/05/24)

Before COVID‐19:

… XX nurse XX's organs, which she had previously donated, were taken by the organ transplant team with the approval of her husband and family … (T/2019/08/07)

Social responsibility

This subtheme encompassed articles on nurses acting responsibly and carefully in the interest of social values. The following is one of the news article statements about each code:

After COVID‐19:

… When XX, a woman of Y origin who gave birth in the city hospital, did not claim her baby, the doctors and nurses of the neonatal unit of the hospital claimed the baby … (T/2021/02/17)

Professionalism

These were articles describing the requirements of the nursing profession using evidence‐based expert knowledge, skills, and behaviors. The subtheme of professionalism was stated as “The presence of qualified nurses, educator role, advocator role, researcher role and professional development activity.” The following are the news article statements about each code:

After COVID‐19:

… Nursing is a profession that requires a strong personality. This means a high observation ability. Every nurse is a master of communication … (T/2020/05/12)

Before COVID‐19:

… The name of the Faculty of Nursing changed to XX Faculty of Nursing … (T/2019/06/25)

After COVID‐19:

… claiming that the health officials stated that the hospital was not prepared to fight the pandemic, that there were no respirators, and that the health officials were not provided with the necessary protective clothing and supplies … (T/2020/03/19)

After COVID‐19:

… according to a news report published in the UK, the research was conducted by more than 55 thousand nurses … (T/2021/02/07)

After COVID‐19:

… Her book “Drops from IV to Pen” was published by YY Publishing. If you are aware of this book, it constitutes the diary of a nurse, creates awareness … (T/2021/03/09)

Theme 3: News reflecting the positioning of nursing neutrally

Fourteen news articles (16.47%) disseminated before COVID‐19 and 24 (5.71% after COVID‐19 reflected the positioning of nursing in a neutral way. News items were analyzed in two codes under the subtheme of what happens to you as a citizen/individual (independent of being a nurse): nurses who lost their lives and personal issues (Table 2; Supplementary Material S2).

Experiences as a citizen/individual

This subtheme is perceived as the transfer of the experiences of individuals on personal issues, depending on their living in that country. The following are the news article statements about each code:

Before COVID‐19:

… X, a nurse, lost her life from falling down the stairs in the shopping center … (K/2019/06/13)

After COVID‐19:

… One of the mothers who used PRP in IVF treatment is 40‐year‐old nurse XX … (K/2021/03/08)

DISCUSSION

This study examined the reflections of online newspaper items published within one‐year periods before and after the onset of COVID‐19 on the positioning of the nursing profession. Compared with the pre‐COVID‐19 period, there was an increase in news coverage reflecting positively on the nursing profession in the post‐COVID‐19 period. This supports the idea that mass media, which are indispensable in social communication, can offer an advantage in improving the positioning of the nursing profession in society when they are appropriately used (Choi et al., 2020; Kalkan et al., 2023).

Among news items that reflected the positioning of nursing negatively, “working conditions” was the subtheme with the greatest difference before and after COVID‐19. Under that heading, the most common codes were workplace violence, nurses infected with COVID‐19, nurses who lost their lives in the pandemic, and negative working environments. There are wide differences between countries regarding healthy working conditions (AACN, 2022). Standards for healthy working environments in Turkey relate to social rights, occupational health and safety, appropriate physical conditions, and the provision of adequate tools and equipment (Kocaman et al., 2018). These criteria for a healthy working environment are interpreted as standards that distinguish Turkey from other countries. A similar study examining nursing news in the media in South Africa concluded that difficult working conditions and managerial problems overshadow the roles and responsibilities of nursing—education, research, defense, etc.—that constitute the professional identity of nursing (Oosthuizen, 2012). Due to the unhealthy working environment during the pandemic, nurses expressed that they experienced mental and emotional exhaustion manifested by emotions such as anger, anxiety, and sadness (Koren et al., 2021). Moreover, during the pandemic, the lack of emergency response systems, insufficient development of an emergency medical equipment backup plan (Halcomb et al., 2020), and insufficient structuring of human resources of unfavorable news about employee and patient safety (Wang et al., 2020) run the risk of negatively affecting the image of nursing. Considering our study's results, the message transmitted to society is that nurses are not sufficiently safe in their working environment and that the health of nurses who provide healthcare services is at great risk. With this message, the image of a nurse who needs to be protected may be formed in the minds of society instead of the image of a nurse who is a competent patient advocate. The desirable image in the minds of the public is of a strong, autonomous, healthy nurse.

Among the news that reflected the positioning of nursing positively, impact on health, social recognition, and commitment to the profession and professionalism are the subthemes that create the greatest difference between pre‐ and post‐COVID‐19. Although nurses have always been involved in practices to improve public health, they became more visible in the media during the pandemic (Fawaz et al., 2020; Kalkan et al., 2023; Zhang & Zhou, 2019). From the past to the present, nurses have taken action to meet these needs in every situation when society needs care and have been honored in some news coverage. Such descriptions motivate nurses in three positive elements—necessary sacrifice, exemplary citizenship, and heroism—as a reward (Mohammed et al., 2021) or they negatively portray the professionalism of the nursing workforce and strengthen the sexist perspective on the profession (Stokes‐Parish et al., 2020). As a professional group aware of the potential risks, nurses should direct such discourses in a way that will create a positive image of professionalism.

Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, made nursing visible after a war that affected societies in similar ways as the COVID‐19 pandemic. Her commitment to the profession during the Crimean War gave momentum to the elimination of stereotypes about nursing and the professionalization of the profession (Hamilton, 2015). It was clear that news published after COVID‐19 also drew attention to nurses’ commitment to their profession. During the pandemic, nurses demonstrated their dedication to the health of society (Torres Contreras, 2020). Nurses who fell asleep in the corridor in their uniforms after a long shift, who did not go home for a month or longer, and who could not see their families were given as examples in the news.

In our research, it was observed in the news published after COVID‐19 that society realized that nurses have skills requiring expertise, and it was evaluated under the theme of professionalism. It has been reported that nurses mostly used their roles as consultants and trainers during COVID‐19 (Choi et al., 2020). ten Hoeve et al. (2014) stated that it is important for nurses to clearly present what they do and how they do it inside or outside healthcare organizations and that this reflects professionalism. Nurses are encouraged to use mass media to disseminate discourses emphasizing their professional identities to ensure a positive image (Natan & Becker, 2010). The continued development of the perception of professionalism, which plays a key role in the positioning of nursing, suggests that progress has been made in the adoption of our professional roles and responsibilities by society.

Among the news items that reflected the positioning of nursing neutrally, those that reflected the nurses as citizens were analyzed under the theme of what happens to you as a citizen. Öhlen and Segesten (1998) stated that in forming a professional identity, personal identity must first be formed, as it is an important subdimension of professional identity. They concluded that nurses develop their self‐concept from the influence of their image in society, working conditions, and ethical and professional values (ten Hoeve et al., 2014). Apart from our professional identity, every event we experience individually can reflect on nursing in general and affect the nursing image.

CONCLUSION

There were news articles reflecting the positioning of nursing negatively, positively, and neutrally. However, the number of articles reflecting the positioning of the nursing profession positively after COVID‐19 constituted more than half of all articles reviewed. The conscious orientation of this positive positioning by society may contribute to the development and improvement of the status of nursing within the framework of professionalism. Although our study results support that society emphasizes nurses' working conditions, professionalism, the importance of their professional roles, etc. during the pandemic period, it reminds us that nurses should restructure the media depictions that affect the positioning of the nursing profession. The media should be used consciously and deliberately by nursing students and academicians, nurses, nurse managers, nursing organizations, and policymakers, both in the country and around the world, to create positive professional positioning for the nursing profession. In addition, future studies are recommended that will conduct qualitative research evaluating in depth how the positioning of the nursing profession is perceived by society.

Limitations

The inclusion of only three online newspapers published in Turkish can be considered a limitation. It should also be taken into account that news is shaped by media writers at a newspaper and may not reflect the actual situation.

Implication for nursing

As nurses, we should consciously use various media such as mass or social media. Also, from nursing students to nurse policy makers or patients everywhere will continue to lobby governments and the media to influence societies’ perspectives about nurses as professionals. Nurses need to education how they will lobby, use media effectively, and use influencing tactics to improve nurses' position in society. Nurses still need efforts to make “nursing” a valuable and indispensable brand for health.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

Study design: HEY, SBA, SD. Data collection: HEY. Data analysis: HEY, SBA, SD. Study supervision: SBA, SD. Drafting the article: HEY, SBA, SD. Critical revisions for important intellectual content: SBA, SD. Review; editing and final approval: All authors.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT

No conflict of interest has been declared by the authors.

FUNDING INFORMATION

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not‐for‐profit sectors.

Supporting information

Supporting information

Supporting information

Ersan Yaman, H. , Basaran‐Acil, S. & Duygulu, S. (2024) The positioning of nursing in Turkish mass media: Before and after the COVID‐19 outbreak. International Nursing Review, 71, 747–757. 10.1111/inr.12909