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Nurses play leading roles in many TV shows and movies. While Hollywood doesn’t always get it right, we love to see nursing portrayed on the big (and small) screen. Whether they’re treating war victims in a busy hospital or working with coworkers at a community clinic, these nurses were worth remembering. Here are some of our picks for the best TV and movie nurses:
Carla Espinosa from Scrubs
She’s the head nurse at Sacred Heart Hospital, stands up to the cranky Dr. Cox and keeps J.D. and Turk grounded. She’s also a dedicated wife and mother on top of a successful career.
Carla Espinosa (played by Judy Reyes) is no-nonsense but also manages to have a smile on her face and a reassuring word for everyone. She is protective of and loyal to her friends, especially J.D. and Elliot, and is Dr. Cox’s confidant.
Plus, we can’t resist the Scrubs musical episodes where Carla, Turk and J.D. belt out tunes!
Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Louise Fletcher won an Oscar for portraying the conniving Nurse Ratched in 1975, a character named the fifth-greatest film villain by the American Film Institute.
Nurse Ratched is the opposite of Nurse Carla, denying patients at the Salem State Hospital medicine and food whenever they make her mad and torturing them with psychotherapy. One of the most cruel things she does is convincing a patient to kill himself because his mother will be disappointed in him.
While Nurse Ratched is terrifying as a nurse, she is certainly one of the most memorable characters of the 20th century.
Greg Focker from Meet the Parents
Sure, his future in-laws made fun of his career as a male nurse to no end, and his girlfriend’s father actually went as far as looking up his MCAT scores (since he thought about becoming a physician).
However, we love Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) for his determination to win his girlfriend’s parents approval despite a series of mishaps that it would be hard to bounce back from.
Greg Focker is also one of the best known male nurses in the media and is an example of the misconceptions many people have about men who go into the nursing profession.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmhGzTEGa70
Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan from M*A*S*H*
Not only was she a female Army major, which was far less common during the Cold War setting, Margaret Houlihan (Loretta Swit) was a strong nurse determined to take care of her patients despite growing up in a broken home with alcoholic parents and an unhappy marriage herself.
While she earned the nickname “Hot Lips,” Margaret is also an emotional character and one of the few people who actually stands up to Hawkeye and Trapper (though she’s also often the target of their practical jokes).
We love her feisty personality and how she changes throughout the series. M*A*S*H would have been a different show with Hot Lips Houlihan.
Ann Perkins from Parks and Recreation
It’s hard to play second-fiddle to the effusive Leslie Knope, but Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones) is sweet, funny and down-to-earth and makes you want to be her best friend, too. She deals with ridiculous antics from Leslie, April and Andy and has her heart broken a few times, but she continues to be upbeat and positive.
Not all nurses would be able to handle patients like April, Chris and Leslie all in one shift, but Ann rolls with the punches and is finally able to speak her mind once she’s off the clock.
Those are just a few of our favorite nurses from TV shows and movies! Who would you include on the list?
