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Pretend nurses in skimpy outfits raise ire
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Waitresses who dress like nurses in skimpy outfits at Tempe's Heart Attack Grill have raised the blood pressure of nursing advocates who say the costumes degrade the health care profession.
According to the Center for Nursing Advocacy, how the waitresses dress contributes to the sexual abuse of nurses who work at hospitals, clinics and doctor's offices.
"That makes people believe that on some level that maybe nurses do provide sexual services," said Sandy Summers, executive director of the Center for Nursing Advocacy. "Every day nurses write to me how they're groped and they're grabbed in the workplace."
The argument has been voiced to the restaurant's owner, Jon Busso, who calls himself "Doctor Jon." He said he has received 500 to 600 e-mails on the topic, and complaints range from how waitresses dress to how they interact with customers.
The pretend nurses wear short skirts and low-cut shirts that sometimes show their mid-driff area, along with costume headpieces. Almost every wall inside the Heart Attack Grill is covered in mirrors.
The servers not only deliver the food, they sit at the table with customers while they eat. Somtimes, they role play.
"If they're like, ‘Oh, I'm having a heart attack,’ then, I'm like, ‘Oh, I'm a nurse,’ ” said Caterina Andorfer, an 18-year-old employee.
If customers have too much to eat, servers will push them in wheelchairs out to their cars.
"They certainly aren't jiggly sex objects," Busso said. "To say there is any misogamy here is absolutely ridiculous."
The Center for Nursing Advocacy thinks it's a much bigger issue because the restaurant perpetuates a link between nurses and sex objects. Summers said that's why some people choose not to go into the nursing profession.
"No self-respecting man or woman would want to become a nurse in this environment where nurses are constantly depicted as these bimbos," Summers said.
An employee at the Heart Attack Grill disagrees.
"I'm a nursing student and I don't care," said 21-year-old, Lindzy Talbot.
Busso said he has no hard feelings toward real nurses, and offered free French fries to any nurse who visits his restaurant.
"I feel sad in my heart for those that can't laugh and have a good time with us," he said, "because we do every day."
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