Hollywood's Portrayal of Male Nurses?

I need some feedback for my class about the portrayal of male nurses in movies and television shows. Comments would greatly be appreciated on whether it is positive or negative portrayal.

[Anoetos, BSN, RN]

Pretty low profile show, but Miami Medical has an ER charge nurse who is THE MAN.

Nurse Brody, played by Omar Gooding...

[BellsRNBSN]

Does anyone watch Boston Med??? Just watched my first episode and it's pretty amazing! I guess it's not really "Hollywood," though, because it's a documentary show of real occurrences in 3 different hospitals in Boston. It's a little more focused on the residents and doctors, but they also follow this ER nurse Mike around, and he's great! It's on ABC on Thursday nights - I highly recommend checking it out!

[mcknis]

I do miss Trauma: Life in the ER. It was that show that made me want to go into the ER. The show "ER" did a good job portraying Malik though.

[suanna]

All men in nursing are gay aren't they?- (except the ones that are going to med school.) The term "Male Nurse" is insulting- No one refers to women in nursing as "Female Nurses" I honestly had a volunteer ask if I only took care of male patients... As for Hollywood- nurses are always cast as over-sexed bimbos or gay, or failed doctors, or hard hearted sadists. Men and women in nursing get different bad types but I have almost never seen a nurse that even vaguely resembles my practice. As to the movie with Greg Focker in "Meet the Parents " I can't stand it. Through out the entire film it is a running joke that he is a man in nursing. I can't believe there wasn't more outrage over this movie. As nurse we we need to say it with our wallets- write any sponsor of a medical show that portrays nurses (men or women) in an insulting or unflattering manner and let them know you can't continue to buy a product that advocates an insulting portrayal of your profession.

[CoffeemateCNA]

Until very recently, it was on discovery health evenings at 6. Reruns anyway. I don't know what they've done with it now. Such a great show.

Oh Lord, don't get me started on this. I am so angry at Discovery Health for changing up their time slots.

Trauma: Life In The ER is still on, just at extremely random times. There seems to be no correlation whatsoever between date and time. One day they show it at 3 am, the next day at 8 pm, the next day at 11 am.

I used to watch it every day that I wasn't working until they so rudely screwed up their schedule. :)

I think I will have to start DVRing all of the episodes and then pick through them when I have time to watch.

[K.P.A.]

Who wants to watch anyone - man or women - who is "quiet professional that is just trying to get through the shift doing the best he can"? Film characters are suppose to be interesting to a broad population, and "normal" people are not. I would love for my classmates to have all their dialogue written by Tarantino, instead of the endless stream of mundane chick-chat.

I do agree with your 3 generalizations of male nurses tho.

You've got mundane? We've got lesbian dominance throw down fights!

[That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

It annoys me that the one nurse who is male on Hawthorne, is the one who wants to go to medical school.

And he seems like a complete know it all prick at that.

[Anoetos, BSN, RN]

Yes, I've been enjoying that as well. It's like the Networkification of "Trauma: Life in the ER" (not that that is a bad thing).

[Anoetos, BSN, RN]

I do miss Trauma: Life in the ER. It was that show that made me want to go into the ER. The show "ER" did a good job portraying Malik though.

Until very recently, it was on discovery health evenings at 6. Reruns anyway. I don't know what they've done with it now. Such a great show.

[Moogie]

All men in nursing are gay aren't they?- (except the ones that are going to med school.) The term "Male Nurse" is insulting- No one refers to women in nursing as "Female Nurses" I honestly had a volunteer ask if I only took care of male patients... As for Hollywood- nurses are always cast as over-sexed bimbos or gay, or failed doctors, or hard hearted sadists. Men and women in nursing get different bad types but I have almost never seen a nurse that even vaguely resembles my practice. As to the movie with Greg Focker in "Meet the Parents " I can't stand it. Through out the entire film it is a running joke that he is a man in nursing. I can't believe there wasn't more outrage over this movie. As nurse we we need to say it with our wallets- write any sponsor of a medical show that portrays nurses (men or women) in an insulting or unflattering manner and let them know you can't continue to buy a product that advocates an insulting portrayal of your profession.

I agree that the "joke" about Greg Focker being a male nurse was irritating. The only positive, though, was that he liked what he was doing, unlike HawthoRNe's Ray Stein, who constantly whines about wanting to go to medical school and has to prove his heterosexuality by being in love with two women.

Then again, all the men who were nurses on Nurse Jackie and Mercy were gay. The character of Mohammed on Nurse Jackie was definitely edgy because he was a gay man with Middle Eastern heritage. His character was likable, believable, caring---and then dropped from the show.

[Anoetos, BSN, RN]

Does anyone watch Boston Med??? Just watched my first episode and it's pretty amazing! I guess it's not really "Hollywood," though, because it's a documentary show of real occurrences in 3 different hospitals in Boston. It's a little more focused on the residents and doctors, but they also follow this ER nurse Mike around, and he's great! It's on ABC on Thursday nights - I highly recommend checking it out!

And yes, ER Nurse Mike O'Donnell is amazing. He's the nurse I want to be.

[GtownhoyasDC]

Nurse Steiner on Hawthorne seems okay.

I've watched the show at times, but I really can't tell how bad he is. He seems to be better to be portrayed than some of the other nurses that I've seen on TV, but I suppose he could be better... I do know that he wants to go to medical school, which some may not be so thrilled about on here...