News Release

Cartoonist Ask: Are Nurses in NY Hot?

Saratoga Springs, NY  (12/19/2006)  Are nurses in Saratoga Springs, NY, hotter than nurses elsewhere?

One cartoonist thinks so. According to an article in today’s Glens Falls, NY The Post-Star, Dec. 18’s "Close to Home" cartoon spread through Saratoga Hospital at an epidemic pace Monday.

“The nationally syndicated cartoon, appearing in roughly 700 daily publications, including The Post-Star, was faxed and e-mailed to the hospital staff by colleagues across the country. Monday's cartoon referenced the hospital on Church Street, and the drawing spread among co-workers and was taped to doors from the ER to the OR.

By mid-morning, local television and newspaper reporters stopped by to ask, "Are the nurses at Saratoga Hospital really that hot?" the newspaper article read.

The article quoted Sharman Lisieski, a hospital registered nurse as saying, "They are very hot. That is how we get our patients to come to Saratoga." The article then read:

“Lisieski, a stylish brunette sporting scrubs and a bright smile, then added, "We also provide great care."

The nurses at the hospital are said to have loved Monday's cartoon authored by John McPherson, who lives in Saratoga Springs. But a national nursing organization didn't share in the enthusiasm.

The comic featured an emergency medical technician loading a patient into an ambulance. The EMT tells the patient: "You've got two options, bud. Mercy Hospital is 20 minutes closer, but the nurses at Saratoga Hospital are really hot."

The Post-Star’s article reported that the Center for Nursing Advocacy Executive Director Sandy Summers did not find Monday's cartoon funny.

“Summers decried the cartoon. The group in Baltimore, Md., has tried to raise awareness about the nursing profession and fight the stereotypes and portrayals in the media of nurses being sex objects,” the article read.

McPherson said the cartoon was based on experience. A couple of years ago he went to Saratoga Hospital for kidney stones. He was treated a year later at the hospital for gallstones.

Actually, this might be McPherson’s way of just getting a date.

The newspaper quoted him as saying, "I'm a single guy, and I figured if I put this plug in, I might actually be contacted by some of the hot nurses at Saratoga Hospital," McPherson said. "So if they want to reach me, they can e-mail me through the cartoon, and I can take them out to dinner."

McPherson frequently makes the health care profession the subject of his cartoons, which he draws in his office on Broadway. A hospital urology staff cartoon -- with a woman answering the telephone, "Urology Department, can you hold?" -- is featured on the cover of his 2007 daily calendar.

"Where there is stress, there is humor," McPherson said in the newspaper article.

Creator(s): John McPherson

Contact(s): Kathie Kerr

Search News Releases