The Center for Nursing Advocacy has issued its list of the best and worst portrayals of nursing in 2004. Called the Golden Lamp Awards, the list covers international examples from both TV and print media. Here are the five best and worst portrayals identified this year. For more, visit the center's Web site at http://www.nursingadvocacy.org.

Five best portrayals of nursing

1. "Is There a Doctor in the House? Perhaps Not, as Nurse Practitioners Take on Many of the Roles Long Played by Physicians," Andrew Blackman, The Wall Street Journal, October 11, 2004.

2. "The Rookies" episode of Lifeline: The Nursing Diaries, Discovery Health Channel and CBS News Productions, November 2004. A documentary that followed the work of nurses at two prominent hospitals.

3. "Help Us," Elizabeth Ochs, RN, Salon, February 5, 2004. An article detailing the challenges of school nurses.

4. Overall coverage of nursing issues, The Guardian (U.K.) 2004.

5. "An Exodus of African Nurses Puts Infants and the Ill in Peril," Celia Dugger, The New York Times, July 12, 2004.

Five worst portrayals of nursing

1. Overall failure to cover nursing aspects of health care stories, The New York Times, 2004.

2. Five 2004 episodes of the TV show ER. Each episode continued the show's record of portraying nurses as physicians' handmaidens.

3. "Discovery Health Channel Medical Honors," Discovery Health Channel, July 8, 2004. A salute to 13 medical heroes-none of whom were nurses.

4. Series premiere of House MD, Fox, November 16, 2004. TV program featuring a team of physicians who provide all significant care to patients while nurses and other professionals watch from the background.

5. "The Unclean" episode of Medical Investigation, NBC, December 3, 2004. TV program featuring nurses as serial-killing angels of death.