Nurse Jackie Farce

This week marked the premier of the half hour dramedy Nurse Jackie. Several of my colleagues blogged about this early prior to the premier, begging all readers to write in and ban this horrific stereotype of a nurse. I did my part. Did I hear anything back? No.

This show carries a big name star, Edie Falco, of the sopranos. According to Edie, she loves and revels in playing her flawed character; a tough talking woman with issues. But this show does nothing to promote or advance nursing. In the first episode, she advocates for her patient. However in the next scenes, she is popping narcotics and is assaulted with a titty tweak by a physician.

I am sorry, but this is just more of the perpetual stereotype of nurses in general. Kalische and Kalische devoted their entire research lives on evaluating the image of the nurse. It is sad to say that in the year 2009, not much has changed.

There have been some strong nurse characters: Dana Delaney in China Beach, Loretta Swift in MASH, Julianna Marguilies in ER - but there are just not enough. And there is another show on the horizon, Hawthorne RN with a black character. Anyone remember Diane Carroll? Or Dixie from Emergency?

Not only was there stereotyping. It irks the crap outta me when they can't get the medical stuff right on a medical show. For F$%K sake! A trauma with a bleed doesn't die of a subdural. If it happens that rapidly, it is almost always a subarachnoid hemorrhage, SAH. Subdurals take hours to show up. Then, she is calling organ transplant and telling them they have four hours? What? He was already dead. About the only thing salvageable after that time is the schlera. Geesh! And it only continued to spiral down from there. She bangs a pharmacist to get drugs for her back. Makes an IV med error from not paying attention. Goood GAWD!!!!

Please don't watch this show. If you do, then please write Showtime and let them know there are plenty of non-stereotypical nurses ready to lend their stories of real drama.