Famous TV Nurses
With the ever popular ER having run its course, NBC is trying to replace it with, not another show about doctors, but one focusing on nurses. Mercy (Wednesday’s at 8:00/7:00C on NBC) is a medical drama seen through the eyes of nurses Veronica Callahan (Taylor Schilling), Sonia Jimenez (Jamie Lee Kirchner) and Chloe Payne (Michelle Trachtenberg). With this in mind, let’s take a look at some of the more famous TV nurses, past and present. (Listed in alphabetical order.)
Abby Lockhart (Maura Tierney)
ER
Nurse Lockhart is in a constant struggle with her own personal demons – alcoholism, infidelity, and a bipolar mother to name a few. There are the personal struggles and then there is the stuff that life throws at you – chopper crashes, kidnappings, and bombings. But Abby survived them all and earned the coveted M.D. in the end.
Carol Hathaway (Julianna Margulies)
ER
Nurse Carol Hathaway is passionate about her work and a compassionate person. Her on-again, off-again love interest is fellow co-worker, Dr. Doug Ross (George Clooney.) Female viewers questioned her judgment when she did not immediately follow him to Seattle.
Christina Hawthorne (Jada Pinkett Smith)
HawthoRNe
Nurse Hawthorne is a fiercely dedicated head nurse in her 30s. She bonds with her patients, sees her nursing staff as real people and will stand up for them no matter what it takes.
Colleen McMurphy (Dana Delany)
China Beach
Having several older brothers makes it easy for tomboy Nurse Colleen McMurphy to hold her own with the boys. As a triage nurse in Vietnam this skill comes in handy in the mostly male medical field.
Dell Parker (Chris Lowell)
Private Practice
Being a male nurse is real life is not easy, nor is it easy to portray one on TV. Originally, Dell’s non-traditional career choice (a midwife in pink scrubs) was done for laughs. But after he quits and goes to work in a hospital his coworkers come to realize his value and begin to take him seriously.
Helen Rosenthal (Christina Pickles)
St. Elsewhere
Nurse Helen Rosenthal is the head nurse who battled faulty computer systems, had a record 4 divorces, and had the gall to call the doctors by their first names. She also had a mastectomy after learning that she had breast cancer.
Jackie Peyton (Edie Falco)
Nurse Jackie
Nurse Jackie is a 40-something nurse who almost revels in rule-breaking. (I wonder, is she friends with Nurse Hawthorne?) Underneath her prickly demeanor she really is just trying to help.
Julia Baker (Diahann Carroll)
Julia
Carroll made television history starring as the widowed Nurse Julia Baker in the first TV series to feature an African-American woman in a non-stereotypical role. The role of Nurse Julia won Carroll an Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe award.
Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan (Loretta Swit)
M*A*S*H
Major Houlihan is the by-the-books head nurse in a M*A*S*H unit during the Korean War. In or out of the operating room, this nurse is unafraid to speak her mind and takes a strong stance against chauvinism. The character of “Hot Lips” Houlihan is modeled after real-life Korean War head nurse Hotlips Hammerly.
Ray Stein (David Julian Hirsh)
HawthoRNe
A male nurse just does not get the same respect as a female nurse does. Being a male nurse in a female-dominated profession can lead a person to the wrong conclusion that any guy that is a nurse must be gay, right? Truth is, he can’t keep his eyes off his voluptuous co-worker Candy.
Sam Taggart (Linda Cardellini)
ER
Nurse Taggart is an independent, single mom that earned everyone’s respect when she became the main nurse in the show’s final years.
[Sources: NBC; TNT; Showtime; TV Land]
[Photo copyright/credit: Wikimedia Commons/Alan Light]
