Movies/TV with rural healthcare as part of the plot/setting

kbrn2002, ADN, RN · Oct 1, 2019

Look at the selection of Lifetime and Hallmark Christmas Movies, there are at least a couple every year that feature a small town or country doctor. Call the Midwife is in a rural setting. Are you limiting yourself to US shows and movies or are you expanding to international options? Not sure why you are doing this but it sounds like a fun project!

Red Shirt 6, CNA · Oct 2, 2019

I found one Hallmark movie, I will have to look thru the Lifetime lists. I do have several non US title, they are Doc Martin, The Good Karma Hospital, The Heart Guy, Hospital Ship, and Summer 2007.

I have an idea for an article I would like to write but I have run into a few challenges like the fact that the original list there is not one Nurse protagonist it is all Doctors. The 9 movies that take place in the US all take place within 5 states: Colorado (2), California (1), Alabama (1), Alaska (2), and North Carolina (3).

Thank you for the help KBRN2002

Red Shirt 6, CNA · Oct 2, 2019

I found three more movies for the list.

The Indian Doctor (2010-2013)

The Royal (2003-2011)

The Clinic on the Sea (2013)

Red Shirt 6, CNA · Oct 9, 2019

I do not believe that this is going to get anymore commits so I wrote a brief synopsis of everything I found. For the people that are interested but do not want to look up a bunch of stuff. Thank you for reading .

Arachnophobia (1990)

A Doctor tired of city life moves to the country town of Canaima, California with his family to start a practice. While this is happening an invasive hybrid spider is spreading through out the area. The Doctor, a spider expert, a local exterminator, and the sheriff must work together to save the town.

Call the Midwife (2012-?)

Based on the Midwife Trilogy by Jennifer Worth [First published 2002] the TV series of the nurses, midwifes, and nuns that live and work in London's East End during the 1950’s.

The Chosen One A.K.A. O Escolhido (2019)

Three Doctors go to a remote village in Pantanal, Brazil to vaccinate against the Zika virus. Once there the Doctors clash with a local faith healer

Christmas Under Wraps (2014)

After Doctor Lauren Brunell is not selected for a position she wanted she moves to a small town in Alaska. The usual Hallmark TV Christmas movie things happen.

The Clinic on the Sea (2013)

Dr. Sezaki Kota a young doctor that is a little too eager with women starts working on a traveling Boat Clinic that serves the small islands off of Japan.

Country Remedy AKA Simple Things (2007)

To become head of pediatrics at a Chicago Hospital Dr. Evan Gibbs has to set up a clinic in the North Carolina. In the Mountains of North Carolina he reconnects with his son, and learns about life.

Doc Hollywood (1991)

Based on the book What? Dead Again? By Neil B Shulman [First Published 1979]. a young Doctor driving cross country from D.C. to California. On this trip he takes a wrong turn into rural Grady, South Carolina. Where he crashes his car into a fence and must preform community service as the town Doctor.

Doc Martian (2004-2019)

A top surgeon becomes the GP in a small eccentric coastal town of Portwenn where he had spent his summers as a child.

Dr. Koto's Clinic (2003)

After making a dramatic mistake in Tokyo; Dr. Koto goes to work at a clinic serving a small island off of Okinawa.

Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman (1993-1998)

Post Civil War a woman Doctor from Boston is hired to be the town Doctor in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Once there she proves herself as a Doctor, adopts 3 children, has a romance with a mountain man, and make a home for herself.

Everwood (2002-2006)

Widowed Doctor Andrew Brown moves his family New York City to Everwood, Colorado. Where things are more challenging then he expected.

Finding Normal (2013)

Dr. Lisa Leland is driving from Los Angles to New York gets arrested in Normal, North Carolina for traffics violations. Where she has to serve the local community as a Doctor

The Good Karma Hospital (2017-2019)

An English Doctor Ruby Walker wanting a fresh start decides to take a job in India at a nice new modern hospital only to discover she actually she signed up to work at a run down, under staffed Good Karma Hospital. There she grows as a person and a Doctor.

Hart of Dixie (2011-2015)

Dr. Zoe Hart has her life planned out until she loses her residency and discovers her father is not her biological father. So she seeks out her biological father only to learn he died and left her his practice in Bluebell, Alabama.

The Heart Guy A.K.A. Doctor Doctor (2016-?)

A hard partying heart surgeon Dr. Hugh Knight gets into trouble one too many times and has to serve community service as a Doctor his rural home of Whyhope as a GP in the towns under resourced hospital.

Hospital Ship A.K.A. 병원선 / Byeong-Wonseon (2017)

Young Doctors with different specialties provide medical care for island communities of South Korea aboard a hospital ship.

The Indian Doctor (2010-2013)

In 1963 Dr. Perm Sharma and his wife relocate from India to a Welsh mining town to be the towns Doctor.

Northern Exposure (1990-1995)

Recent Graduate New York Doctor Joel Fleischman has to work in rural Cicely, Alaska to pay back the state for paying his way through medical school.

Nurses On The Line: The Crash of Flight 7 A.K.A. Lost In The Wild (1993)

Based on a true story a group of Student Nurses and Doctors traveling to a medical station in rural Mexico crash lands in the rain forest after an engine malfunction.

The Royal (2003-2011)

Set in the 1960's the staff of St Aidan's Royal Free Hospital deal with changing times, money problems and community health in a the seaside town in Great Britain.

Royal Pains (2009-2016)

Dr. Hank Lawson loses his job in New York after a wealthy patient dies in his care. Hank and his account brother and a Physicians Assistant create a Concierge Doctor Practice in the Hampton's.

Summer 2007 (2007)

After getting in over his head in politics a Medical Student decides to get out of town for a while. He convinces several of his friends/class mates to do their internship at what they believe will be a modern clinic in an upper class area. Instead they are sent to a poor rural area.

kbrn2002, ADN, RN · Oct 10, 2019

Well, if you are looking at doctor characters in small town/rural setting there's going to be a lot more. Tons of doctor movies and tv shows out there. Heck the big city doctor going home for Christmas to a small town and finding love along with the true meaning of medicine is a Hallmark staple. Seem like there's at least one of those every year.

Not so many movies or TV shows though where a nurse is the central character much less in a small town or rural setting. One I can think of is another Hallmark Christmas movie: Journey back to Christmas. A nurse from the WWII era is transported to modern times and the usual Hallmark Christmas movie plot line unfolds.

There's also a very good Viet Nam era TV show set in an evac hospital where the majority of the primary characters are nurses. Rural definitely, since it's set in the jungles of Viet Nam: China Beach. A great series that ran in the late 80's to early 90's I believe. I've been waiting for the series to drop on a streaming channel but I guess getting the music rights was a giant pain. It's only available in a box set through Time Life which is pretty expensive.

Another doctor one, no nurses but it doesn't get much more rural than the rain forest is The Medicine Man. Sean Connery and some other scientist find the cure for cancer in a flower that only grows in the rain forest canopy. It's actually a better movie than that makes it sound like. There's also a variety of viral outbreak movies that have at least a good portion of the movie set in a small village, usually in Africa though in a fairly recent one the outbreak was bird flu that started somewhere in Asia, I think it's called Contagion?

Red Shirt 6, CNA · Oct 11, 2019

I did forget about Medicine Man and Contagion (2011) is the name of the movie you are thinking of. I own the China Beach DVD's although I think of that as a war/military rather than rural.

I am writing a paper on myths and realities of rural healthcare. I believe many of the myths of rural healthcare come from entertainment. So I thought that would be a good place to start. As I was finding things I noticed that Nurses perspective and stories are minimal at best, and being in/going into the nursing field I am very interested in how Nurses are portrayed as well as their stories. I feel nurses are really overlooked in this sub genera. (I was also hoping to be proven wrong about the overlooked thing).

At this point I have enough to be able to write it and I am starting on the next phase.

I want to thank everybody for their interest and commits.