In every storyline, casts consisting of protagonists, antagonists, extras, and other types of characters are included to carry the plot to the end of the journey. Medical television shows are no exception to this literary system, but more often than not, the spotlight was given to doctors who perform as many procedures as other staff members. Nurses, however, lack their own highlights and mostly served as the side characters. Being a shadow to the higher position on the screen, there is not much representation of their efforts in real life as well.
Nurses play an important role in the medical industry. Often stereotyped as an overly caring woman, they are just as crucial as your favorite sports athlete you nervously watch the matches on your IPL live streaming app – as you anticipate which team will win, viewers of these nurses show eagerly awaiting if the surgery is a success or if the patients are alive at the end, as well as the mental struggles they have to endure. Every day, nurses prioritize their patients above everything else. All the more to appreciate them more in both reality and broadcasting world, not through the negative stereotypes often interpreted in any media, but the blood, sweat, and tears they are fully dedicated to in their work.
Here are TV shows about nurses you should watch during the weekends:
ER
This show captivates every viewer of the series – even after 15 seasons aired since its first sensation in 1994, ER is one of the first shows that many people think of when they think of medical dramas, with episodes that are as surprising as they are engaging. One of the show’s core strengths is that it portrays the nursing community in one of the most realistic ways. Michael Crichton created a drama that portrays a typical day in a fictitious Chicago emergency room, complete with all of its ups and downs, from the thrilling to the mundane. The show follows a group of medical students on their path to becoming doctors. The characters in ER can make you fall in love with them and send you on an adrenaline-fueled emotional roller coaster. They nailed how difficult it is to be a nurse and how difficult it can be to be placed in difficult circumstances. This series had a significant impact on the general public’s perception of nursing and the lack of respect that nurses face. It happens much too often, but we all know how much effort nurses bring into their patients’ lives every day.
Call The Midwife
The series is as realistic as it is historically rich, and each episode is packed with suspense that focuses on serious subjects. Delve into the world of a nursing convent in London’s East End during the 1950s with this lauded BBC drama, which is based on the real-life memoirs of a midwife who worked in an impoverished community during the same time span, and follows the lives of the nurses as they strive to support a community that lacks the resources to care for all of the newborn babies. With a heck of a ride this show provides, it is no question why loyal viewers are eager to see what else the rest of the drama has in store, particularly after a series of emotionally charged episodes that featured surprising circumstances such as illegal abortions, the first smear tests, mixed-race marriages, and adoptions.
Florence Nightingale
The name of a historical figure herself carves the nursing industry. The ‘Lady of the Lamp’ has made more contributions than all other nurses combined, especially her approach to hygiene, sanitation, and patient care. Her ingenious influence remains in practice today, including her titles as a statistician, designer, pioneer, educator, and creator of modern nursing. The image of Florence Nightingale tending to the wounded with a lamp by her side remains vivid in our minds to this day, making it difficult to forget the famed ‘Lady of the Lamp’ captured in black and white images printed in our history textbooks.
However, this particular show takes a comedic twist than academic, and nurses sure do love some lighthearted stuff after a long day in the hospital. Beginning with the end of the Crimean War in 1856, Florence Nightingale returns home to her wealthy, Victorian lifestyle as a hero determined to do more than marry anyone. As a nurse practitioner, she had minimized the number of infected wounded soldiers by improving hygiene and sanitation. The biopic tells the tale of the woman who forged the profession through formalized education by drawing on letters and private journals. Musical theater and asides are interspersed between scenes of Nightingale with her family, the queen, physicians, and policymakers to recount how she became the mother of modern nursing.
