AANP Response to August 5 "Lab Rats" episode on Disney XD

Shortly after the August 5th episode of "Lab Rats" aired on Disney, AANP contacted the network. We expressed our displeasure with the derogatory and erroneous references to nurse practitioners. Following is our message to Disney.

One of our members contacted us about your August 5 Lab Rats show where erroneous and disparaging remarks were made when referring to nurse practitioners (NPs). As the largest national organization for NPs, representing the interests of the 171,000 NPs in the country, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) wants the general public to have the most accurate information available so that informed decisions can be made about healthcare providers. We would like to offer our resources to you in correcting the misrepresentation that was made on your August 5 show. For more information about the vital role that NPs play in the healthcare arena visit AANP. Please let me know how we can work together to bring the correct information to your viewing audience.. Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you in the future.

Disney has responded and their message follows:

Dear Ms McMurrey,

Thank you for contacting us regarding an episode of our series "Lab Rats" that aired on Disney XD.

It was in no way the intention of the episode to disparage the nursing profession and in order to avoid further misunderstandings, we will be editing the line in question for future airings. We have also shared your concerns with our programming team in order to raise awareness about portrayals of the nursing profession.

We are very sorry that you and your members were offended by the episode. We hope you will accept our apologies as it is never our intention to offend anyone.

We appreciate you sharing your concerns, as viewer feedback is very important to us. Thank you again for contacting us.

Sincerely,

Kelly DeLap Evans
VP Standards & Practices
Disney ABC Networks Group