Nov 16, 2006

Naughty nurses and red meat

The Heart Attack Grill in Tempe, Arizona gets flak from a nurse's advocacy group for dressing waitresses in naughty nurse uniforms.
The waitresses wear stethoscopes around their necks and crosses on their nurse hats. They also wear fishnet stockings and tight, cleavage-baring tops. On occasion, they jump into the arms of their customers.

Sexually available is not exactly the image that Sandy Summers believes should be projected for those in the caring profession.

A former trauma center nurse, Summers is founder and executive director of the Center for Nursing Advocacy, which polices the portrayal of nurses around the world. The biggest violators, in the center's view, are those who connect nursing with titillation.

That's where the Heart Attack Grill comes in. Summers is pressuring the restaurant to drop its sexy nurse motif and has begun a letter-writing campaign against it.

"The endless association of sex and nurses leads people to believe that maybe nurses really are available to provide for the sexual needs of patients and physicians," Summers says. "It degrades the professional image, it demoralizes practicing nurses and drives any self-respecting person away from considering the profession."

The restaurant, "home of the double bypass burger," is reveling in the controversy.

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