MarySue Heilemann, associate professor at the UCLA School of Nursing, will present the 2015 National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) Lecture on June 24 at the National Institutes for Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. The lecture series is designed to bring the nation’s top nurse scientists to the NIH campus to share their work and interests with a trans-disciplinary audience.

In her talk, “From the Silver Screen to the Web: Portrayals of Nursing in Media,” Heilemann will discuss how nurses have been portrayed in print and visual media in the past, as well as issues related to future media representations of nursing.

Heilemann is an internationally recognized researcher and methodologist. Her NINR-funded research interventions combined multiple modalities to increase resilience among low-income, second-generation Latinas in the U.S. This work led her to consider the use of media in health research, and her move to the city of Los Angeles brought an unexpected role consulting with Hollywood filmmakers on the creation of nurse characters.

As an innovator on the use of media in nursing science, Heilemann initiated, organized and moderated two national symposia which were presented at UCLA in 2011 and brought together nearly 300 scholars, filmmakers, nurses, media experts, actors, producers and writers. The symposia examined historical portrayals of nurses in print and visual media in order to gain understanding and strategize efforts to influence media portrayals of nursing for the future. Together with her collaborators, Heilemann has deepened the dialogue about the effects of media stereotypes on the profession of nursing, health care and society at large. She continues to advocate for more accurate media portrayals of nursing through collaborative efforts with scholars, activists, and Hollywood professionals.

Immediately following Dr. Heilemann’s lecture, the U.S. National Library of Medicine will display a special selection from the Zwerdling Postcard Collection outside of Lipsett Amphitheater. The library recently acquired the extensive collection of postcards which depict nurses, the nursing profession and the myriad cultural perceptions that surround them. Dozens of postcards from the collection are currently on display in the library’s “Pictures of Nursing” exhibition.

Heilemann’s lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, please visit www.ninr.nih.gov/directorslecture.