Nurse Jackie on Showtime

[Robert F]

2200 cst

[suebird3]

I thought you all would like this: Did Showtime hope nurses would hate Jackie? - Yahoo! News

Edie Falco's star character in Showtime's "Nurse Jackie" snorts drugs, steals money, forges an organ donor's card, has sex on the job with a pharmacist and flushes a severed body part down the toilet — and that's just in the first episode.

Little wonder, then, that some real-life nurses are distressed by the new series.

But if you're an executive at Showtime, trying to grab attention in a crowded television world where you're usually overshadowed by pay cable competitor HBO, is it better to have nurses love your series or hate it?

Early returns suggest the latter. "Nurse Jackie" had the biggest audience of any series premiere in Showtime's history. As soon as those ratings were in, Showtime ordered production of a second season to follow its current 12-episode run.

When the lights went up after one of three screenings of the show that Showtime held for some nurses before the debut, the first thing Barbara Crane said was how appalled she was.

"I don't know what they wanted from us," said Crane, a nurse in the intensive care unit at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown, N.Y., and president of the National Federation of Nurses.

"I have no clue what the screening was supposed to be about," she said. "They couldn't think that those of us in the most ethical profession — and we are the most ethical profession — that we could possibly find that entertaining."

The series' entire first season had already been completed. Crane suspected Showtime held the screening to foment buzz, maybe a few headlines of rage, to distinguish "Nurse Jackie" from "Hawthorne," a TNT series premiering Tuesday with Jada Pinkett Smith as the head of nurses at a Virginia hospital, or "Mercy," an upcoming NBC midseason series on the lives of three attractive nurses.

A Showtime executive said there was no attempt to solicit controversy. But it's better than having a show that's ignored, said spokesman Stuart Zakim.

"It's entertainment," he said. "We expect that all of our shows will hit a bone or hit a chord. It's part of what we do on premium television. We try to take subjects and treat them in a way that can't be done on regular television."

Buzz is vital for premium networks that make its money off people who order subscriptions. Showtime makes its money from people who order subscriptions, and is in 17 million homes, roughly 15 percent of homes with TV.

Nurses are by no means unanimously against the series. Zakim said Showtime screened "Nurse Jackie" for a group of emergency room nurses at New York's Roosevelt Hospital and more than four in five said they enjoyed it and would recommend it to a friend.

Diana Mason, writing on an American Journal of Nursing blog, said she hadn't seen a nurse portrayed on television with such smarts, fierce dedication to her patients and human contradictions since Hot Lips Houlihan on "M-A-S-H." One person posted a response calling everyone involved in the series brilliant, while another said she was highly offended.
Tina Gerardi, chief executive officer of the New York State Nurses Association, applauded some of the realism of Falco's character. She was cheered by a scene where the nurse upbraided a young doctor for ignoring her warnings about a patient who later died, then thought its effectiveness was instantly negated when the doctor grabbed Jackie's breast.

Gerardi said she's worried that a negative character would discourage people from joining the profession.

Her association was also torn on how to respond to its concerns. Eventually it wrote to Showtime requesting a disclaimer be put on the series (Showtime refused). Gerardi posted the exchange of letters on the association's Web site but did little else to draw attention to them.

"Negative publicity is publicity," she said. "We didn't want to drag people to the show."

[amberdouglas]

I don't watch much tv at all, I do have showtime so I can watch the Tudors but thats all I ever watch on it. We were discussing this at work the other day, and I don't think one single person was not offended over this. I think they should have to place a disclaimer at the begining of the show, becasue I am a professional and very proud of who I am and what I do, and to have my profession reduced to sometime comparable to a streetwalker is disgusting. But hey, at least "nurse Jackie" is only played by Eddie Falco and not someone that more people would be interested in watching. I havn't seen HawthoRNe yet, but I plan to watch it. The reviews on the web about it are promising, a nurse that advocates for her patient's and having to deal with overworked doctors to do so...sounds more realistic to me. And Jada Pinkett Smith is certainly a more mainstream name.

[BeachyCEN]

Don't get your hopes up with Hawthorne either. Although Jad Pinket-Smith is playing the role, she is supposed to be a CNO, there has already been an inappropriate relationship between nurse and patient, and some other inappropriate issues. The CNO is always doing patient care and in some sort of drama with staff and patients....ok that may be a little true But over all both shows in my opinion do more harm than good for the image of nursing.

[cali510]

Originally Posted by BeachyCEN

Don't get your hopes up with Hawthorne either. Although Jad Pinket-Smith is playing the role, she is supposed to be a CNO, there has already been an inappropriate relationship between nurse and patient, and some other inappropriate issues. The CNO is always doing patient care and in some sort of drama with staff and patients....ok that may be a little true But over all both shows in my opinion do more harm than good for the image of nursing.

Agree. For that matter, I don't find either of them to be that great in the entertainment department either. I doubt the new one coming out on NBC, Mercy, will be any better.

[SoldierNurse]

So far, I've enjoyed watching the last two episodes of Hawthorne. Far better than any other nurse media portrayal, IMHO.

[AmandaWIRN]

Originally Posted by SoldierNurse

So far, I've enjoyed watching the last two episodes of Hawthorne. Far better than any other nurse media portrayal, IMHO.

I agree- Hawthorne is a great show!

[Robert F]

I enjoy it. I know it's just a show, but in the first episode; I felt really bad for the homeless woman that gave birth to the child.

[Teeituptom]

While Nurse Jackie was drug filled,sex filled, and totally unrealistic as an representation of anything nursing in the true light of day, it was mildly amusing. That is all it gets from me.
Now Nurse HawthoRNe is just as unrealistic the other way. I know 3 different CNOs currently. Truthfully, I do not think anyone of them even owns a set of scrubs, and they do not work on the floors or any pt care at all. Equally unrealistic. I do love that Nurse Candy there though.

[nursinghumor]

You can find a fairly balanced review here:

Please post your thoughts on "Nurse Jackie" here. The show's producers will be following this thread. You can read our review of the first episode here: http://www.truthaboutnursing.org/new...08_jackie.html

If you remember the show is a bout entertainment, fine, people will be entertained.

If you look at the perspective of how many people believe what they see on TV as real life nursing, the show isn't doing the profession any favors.

Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.4nursing.com