Will New TV Nursing Dramas Portray Nurses Accurately?

When it comes to medical dramas on TV, nurses haven’t been getting a lot of respect recently. Popular series such as House and Grey’s Anatomy mainly portray physicians. More often than not, nurses serve as secondary characters in these television series, and are seen lurking about on the fringes of the action. Small wonder, then, that despite the fact that nurses are highly skilled and saving lives every day, the general viewing public simply doesn’t get it. How could they, when they are being fed the wrong information?

But, hold onto your stethoscopes, nurses—hope may be on the horizon. The Center for Nursing Advocacy and, more recently, The Truth About Nursing, have long railed against the entertainment industry’s penchant for characterizing nurses inappropriately. The highly educated, highly skilled, life saving leader who is the real face of nursing has been nowhere in sight on TV—until now.

Two nurse-centric TV programs will begin airing in June. One, Nurse Jackie, debuts on June 8 on the pay cable channel, Showtime. It stars Edie Falco, of Carmela Soprano fame, as Nurse Jackie. She is an assertive, straightforward, plain talking, stand-up-for-her-staff kind of ER nurse who also is addicted to prescription painkillers. Showtime labels the show a comedy but the trailer I watched online was more drama than comedy. If I had my druthers I’d rather Jackie weren't wrestling with a drug problem, but television seems to feel that without a moral conundrum of some sort—in this case, having Jackie walk the line between saint and sinner—viewers won’t tune in. Whatever, let’s hope Nurse Jackie presents nurses in a more realistic light and focuses on the formidable clinical expertise that is the hallmark of the nursing profession. Showtime will make available to non-subscribers an online full-length episode of Nurse Jackie in early June, prior to its season premier on the for-pay network.

Then, on June 16, along comes Jada Pinkett Smith in TNT’s nod to nursing, HawthoRNe. Christina Hawthorne is the recently widowed Chief Nursing Officer at a busy Charlotte, North Carolina hospital. She is all about the patient and doesn’t mind overstepping her bounds to get whatever is needed, leaving doctors, administration and sometimes her own apathetic staff in her wake. Her cross to bear, for the sake of the aforementioned ongoing moral conundrum, is a rebellious teenaged daughter. Hawthorne suffers no fools and takes no prisoners—she is a formidable crusader for the cause.

NBC has also jumped into the fray with Mercy, a one-hour medical drama that focuses on three nurses and their lives inside the hospital and out. I liked the clips I watched. I couldn’t find a date for a season premier for Mercy so keep your antennae up. It will likely be in the fall lineup.

Hollywood has been solid in its stand that the public isn’t interested in shows about nurses, only doctors. That these shows have been developed at all is a huge step forward in the entertainment industry. Strong viewership is required for these programs to continue, so nurses need to tune in and we need to encourage others to do so. Do you plan to watch? I would be interested to hear what you think of these shows.