Nursing Voices

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Change of Shift: Volume 1, Number 24

Welcome to Change of Shift. This week’s theme is about TV Land and the nurses who inhabit the television airwaves, but before we get started, stand by for a commerical message. The new edition of "Following the Leaders," is posted at Nursing Jobs. Org. Come check it out.


Do you remember Nurse Dixie McCall from the 1972 television show, Emergency? She looks like she has too much time on her hands. Maybe it's a slow day in the emergency room because her hospital isn't offering free goodies to EMTs who bring patients to her hospital. She needs to read girlvet's post at madness: tales of an emergency room nurse about good customer service.

Forget free coffee and donuts, the one health care team member that keeps things rolling smoothly in the ER is our unsung hero, the security officer. The Forgotten Blue Line sent in this post about working with patients who are out of control. Sometimes you have to throw happy-smiling-face customer service out the window.



Good old Dr. Marcus Welby and his sidekick Dr. Steven Kiley were the doctors of choice back in 1969. They were great doctors, but it was their nurse, Consuelo Guadalupe Lopez, who kept the office running. She was the first Latina character that I ever remember seeing on television. Nurse Lopez was bilingual, and I'm sure the doctors were happy that she was in their office. Nurse M from Code Pink submitted a moving story about language barriers, and what happens when we are unable to communicate with our patients




Carol Hathaway from ER was the whole package: She was pretty, smart, and she married George Clooney. Oh yeah, George Clooney makes me drool. After Carol recovered from her bout of depression, she lived happily ever after with her hottie husband. Every girl should be so lucky. Carol took care of thousands of patients with all sorts of injuries before she married the man of her dreams. I wonder if she took care of many people who were involved in snowmobile accidents. ERnursey talks about taking care of a patient who had an unfortunate experience on a snowmobile in her post, Femur Fracture. Ouch!

Although Carol was a cracker jack nurse, she always dreamed of being a wife and mother. Kris from theChronicles of Kris gives us this post about motherhood and being a nurse.


St. Elsewhere first aired in 1982, and it featured doctors and nurses working at South Boston's St. Eligius Hospital. St. Eligius was a sanctuary for the underdog and the downtrodden. Nurse Helen Rosenthal, pictured standing between Dr. Daniel Craig and Dr. Donald Westphall, was a friend to everyone, and each week she worked hard to keep her unit from falling apart. Sounds familar doesn't it? I guess some things never change. St. Elsewhere was one of the first television shows to discuss AIDS. This was important because most people in the early 1980s didn't know anything about the disease. Nurse Rosenthal and her hospital collegues met the challenges of caring for AIDS patients head on, and delievered compassionate care to their dying patients. May from about a nurse wrotethis emotional post about one of her patients that was dying of AIDS.

One big reason why some medical shows like St. Elsewhere look so realistic is because they have medical consultants who help script the scenes. Monkey Girl said that more shows need to hire consultants. Read her post about teeth.

It's too bad that St. Eligius hospital was just the figment of someone’s imagination. We need more hospitals that are willing to care for the poor. Keith at Digital Doorway writes about a center that is doing great things. The center's program was developed Massachusetts General Hospital.


Who could forget daytime television nurse Jessie Brewer from General Hospital. She was caring, kind, and best friends with Dr. Steven Hardy. I watched General Hospital everyday during the summer when I was staying at my baby sitter's house. It first aired in 1963 when I was 8 years old, and it's been on ever since. Jessie always gave compassinate care to her patients. Raecatherine writes about the compassionate care she gives her patients , and how she deals with death.

Everyone at General Hospital had major problems they were trying to solve in their lives. Pixel RN sent in a post about a nurse who lost her nursing license because she was accused of diverting narcotics for her own use.


The Nurses first aired in 1962. The story takes place in a large hospital and revolves around Head Nurse Liz Thorpe and her student, Gail Lucas. Each week Liz and Gail wrestle with moral and ethical issues. In the real world, nursing isn't always so serious. We know how to laugh and have a good time at work. Soon-to-be student nurse, Faith Walker, from The Oracle submitted a story about how she handled a smelly situation at work.



I think my all time favorite television show was M*A*S*H. My favorite doctor was Hawkeye, and of course, there was good old Hot Lips Houlihan. I know a lot of nurses aren't really happy with Hot Lips, but if you can look past her blatant slutty behavior with Dr. Frank Burns and a whole list of other military officers, you will see a very good nurse. I think I liked the show so much because the entire camp was a little crazy. The show had a theme song about suicide. The song said that suicide is painless. Nurse William said it's not painless for the ones left behind. Read his post about a nurse's suicide. On a lighter note, check out this post sent in by Laura from Adventures in Juggling. The video looks like something the members of the 4077 would put together. You've got to see it to believe it.


Before signing off from today's broadcast, I want to thank Kim for allowing me to host Change of Shift. Kim is hosting the next edition of Change of Shift on May 31st at Emergiblog. See you then.

19 Comments:

Blogger Dr. A said...

Great job! Love the theme!

9:05 AM  
Blogger Beth Coll Anderson said...

I'm never one for the themes but this one ROCKS. Awesome job. Thx for including me!

Beth
pixelrn.com

10:06 AM  
Blogger ERnursey said...

Wow! That really took some work, great job.

10:55 AM  
Blogger MonkeyGirl said...

That was fantastic! Thanks for taking the time! And thanks for letting me play, too! ;-)

11:33 AM  
Blogger Clif Martin said...

Another old guy and I were looking at my collection of hot Julie London Album covers. That was before she was Nurse Dixie McCall. While you were drooling over George Clooney, we were panting for Julie and wishing we were 65 again.

2:28 PM  
Blogger Smalltown RN said...

WOW!!!! that was amazing....a lot of work you put into this post....I loved the walk down memory lane....I remember most of those shows....I wonder if watching all of those shows had any impact on my becoming a nurse....what do ya think?

3:37 PM  
Blogger Keith "Nurse Keith" Carlson, RN, BSN, NC-BC said...

Great job, and wonderful theme.

Does anyone remember a 1970's TV show portraying an African-American nurse named "Julia"?

3:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love the trip back to TV doc/nurse/hospital show. I loved the Interns too and Ben Casey. LOL. I hadn't thought of those programs in years. I still remember one Ben Casey (with Vince Edwards) episode in which a little girl had a brain tumor. She was dying. I was very impressionable and suggestible at that age( 11) and because I had headaches too, (from a closed head injury at age7) I assumed that was also my problem. I did not want to let my parents know I was dying. I wrote a will in my diary, and began to give away my books, even my Cherry Ames and Nancy Drew s. I laugh now but back then I was so SURE. Several weeks later, I came home to a laughing and sneering little brother and my older sister who had read my diary. I asked them why they were laughing and they said Mom told them it was not true. The monsters had shown HER my diary too. She came in from the garden and swept me up in her arms and did NOT laugh. She listened to the whole story and took me to the doctor so he could tell me that I did not have a tumor. Had she also laughed I think I would have been scarred for life.

4:07 PM  
Blogger MM said...

Excellent job on Change of shift. The theme was an original and fantastic idea!!! Thanks for including me :)

6:12 PM  
Blogger Forgotten Blue Line said...

Great Post and loved the theme even though it was before my time. Thanks for including my story.

9:37 PM  
Blogger Bo... said...

Very good job!!! You're a great writer and that is a totally original theme.

10:03 PM  
Blogger Janet said...

Great job, MJ! I remember all those TV shows and yes, Keith, I remember Julia.

10:18 PM  
Blogger Matt G said...

Dixie McCall was definitely where it's at. I was more of an Adam Twelve kid, but I caught my share of Emergency! episodes, too. She was beautiful, and I've been disappointed for the rest of my life that real nurses don't look or dress like her.

5:31 AM  
Blogger Runs With Scissors said...

Great theme, as usual, MJ!

I'm old enough to remember all of the shows you mentioned. One conspicuously absent nurse, though, is my favorite TV nurse - Colleen McMurphy of China Beach. Like the nurses you mention, that woman had it going on!
~RWS

8:21 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

MJ, as several have already mentioned, thanks for the fun trip down memory lane! I'm always impressed with how you manage to work the perfect photos into your posts... but this time you've really outdone yourself. You must have worked hours putting this together. Very impressive... and you even managed to make everyone's submission sound interesting.

I'm a newbie blogger myself -- but I have been reading them for awhile -- and I must say this may go down in history as one of the best carnival themes of all time. It's not often that these things are actually entertaining.

I wish I was half as creative as you are.

Now... off to read the many (new to me) bloggers.

Thanks,
Dean

3:56 PM  
Blogger may said...

you always deliver:) thanks

7:29 PM  
Blogger Nurse Sandra May said...

Brilliant! I really enjoyed this weeks!

Faith

7:49 AM  
Blogger vent-L-8 said...

This is excellent, well researched and creative.

6:56 AM  
Blogger RX850 said...

I loved your theme and appreciate the work it took to make it another awesome read!

10:15 AM  

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