Portrayal of Nurses on TV

I was recently alerted about a new television show premiering this month on ShowTime with a nurse as the lead character. I'm usually 'in-the-know' about new shows especially medical ones but with the arrival of summer I have to admit that this one took me by surprise. By the time the snow melts, I've usually had enough of being a winter couch potato and am ready to engage in hobbies that include more than the mind-numbing tedium that winter on the prairies brings with it.

So I googled "Nurse Jackie" and learned that it is a new medical comedy starring Edie Falco. This intrigued me more. She is a respected and skilled actor, just the person to accurately show the world just how great it is to be a nurse. My opinion of this show in no way is a criticism of the actress. In fact, I haven't even seen it yet. Nurse Jackie is described as "a wife, mother, and highly competent ER nurse who knows more than the doctors. She talks tough, is quiet and mean but when no one is looking she's good with kids and the elderly. She's a rule breaker." Sounds good doesn't it? BUT she's also a highly functioning drug addict who gets her supply from her lover, a co-worker, a pharmacist in the hospital. Ugh! You just lost me. Maybe to non-nurses this sounds great but why oh why can't being an ER nurse, mother, and wife be enough of a storyline? We does the image of nursing have to be tarnished? I don't know about you but none of my friends and coworkers are addicted to drugs or having affairs with co-workers. Granted you hear rumors of 'hospital hookups' but they are the exception not the rule. TV portrayal of nurses and health care professionals sways the general public. If you think it doesn't then you are being naive. My best friend thinks thaT I work at "Grey's Anatomy" despite ongoing reassurance that I actually get my work done without a quickie in the clean supply closet!

Nurses are viewed as sex objects, or cold and heartless. Nursing may not be that glamorous, that is, sex, infidelity and drugs but most days I can go home and tell my boyfriend a good story or two about an interesting case, making a difference and helping someone or a ridiculous mishap that had us in stitches (pun intended). If the people who decide what to put on TV can put 10 'famous for simply being pretty celebrities' on a desert island for the summer so we can watch them do nothing, why can't Nurse Jackie just be Nurse Jackie? I know nurses and I'd tune in. What do you think?

Comments

[Anne Katz]

I have watched three episodes now and while I am pleased to see some aspects of 'real' nurses I am horrified that Nurse Jackie is also portrayed as a pill popping sex addict. Who on earth has sex with a colleague every day at noon? Once again nurses are sexualized and shown in an unrealistic sensationalized way. What a shame.

[Mark Vrabel, MLS, AHIP]

July 9, 2009: "Prime Time Nurse" by Suzanne Gordon at http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200907u/tv-nurse-shows

"A pair of new TV shows—HawthorNRe and Nurse Jackie—finally puts nurses front and center. One contributes to longstanding misconceptions about the profession, the other nails real-life nursing like never before"

[Mark Vrabel, MLS, AHIP]

ANA poll asked nurses if Nurse Jackie and HawthoRNe significantly hurt the profession: 53% of the respondents agreed that the shows hurt the nursing profession while 47% responded that the shows have no impact (1,026 total votes):

http://www.nursingworld.org/HomepageCategory/NursingInsider/Nurse-Jackie-HawthoRNe-Poll.aspx

[KarenKrepich]

I don't think recaping needles is accurate as I saw on HawthoRNe when insulin was given to a patient.

[Karen Allman RN,BSN,BC]

I have watched 2 episodes of Hawthorne, I feel it does not portray nursing accurately at all. It hurts the image of nursing. Her daughter going around the hospital taking pictures of patients is truly a HIPPA violation (Hawthorne views it at the end and approves). A nurse getting lost and away from her patients for two hours is ridiculous. Also the way they are trying to be patient advocates is not accurate. They do it unethicaly.

[Vivian Cullaro]

Neither one of the new "nurse" programs are factual. Nurse Jackie is disgusting, pill popping, having sex with the pharmacist for pills, speaking and treating MDs in the way done in the show. In the real world her actions would not be tolerated. In my hospital no nurse has the time or authority to carry out the things Hawthorne does. Hawthorne could be a show that maybe nursing needs to accomplish but will never be allowed to. Both of the shows put nursing back 50 years. We have gained respect and trust with all our hard work and these two shows just ruin that.

[Stephanie Y]

While I do agree that many of Nurse Jackie's actions are unrealistic (time to go out to lunch with friends and sex during breaks). However, I love that the show portrays nurses as something other than angels of mercy. It shows nurses must be tough and smart and have vast responsibilities. Nurses are humans who at the end of the day don't always make the best choice but certainly doing right by their patients is their top priority. I think most adults are aware that stories must be sensationalized for television to attract viewers. Nursing organizations attacking this show are wasting their time.

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