I have added a new category to my repertoire called celluloid healers, which will highlight the blunders, idiocy and occasional reality that pops up on both the small and big screen. Celluloid medicine, celluloid doctors, celluloid nurses. I have mentioned this in passing in other posts, but I think it’s a fun topic and that deserves some attention–considering that many people tend to think of medical themed television as quasi-documentaries.

This is a great article on the subject that appeared in Slate, and that was written by two doctors. In this article, they mention an old TV show called The Nurses, that was ultimately a flop. The article says that… “Its producer, Herbert Brodkin, refused to hire AMA vetters, instead employing a nurse to ensure medical accuracy. The Nurses flopped.”

I am curious why the show was a flop. It apparently ran from 1962 to 1963 and then the name was changed to The Doctors and Nurses. This is a description of the show from the IMDB:

The story takes place in a large hospital and revolves around two nurses, Liz Thorpe (Shirl Conway), the older head nurse, and Gail Lucas, the naive student nurse. The two nurses were joined by doctors in 1964 and these doctors tried to help the nurses resolve moral and ethical problems.

Were the nurses not all that interesting on their own, without the support of the handsome TV doc to solve all problems? Although, in 1962, nursing had far more limitations on it than it does now, and most vital decisions would have been deferred to the physician. Also, in 1962, nursing was a low paying job that many women entered because older professions were closed off to them, or difficult to enter because they were female. Since nursing education at the time was largely via a hospital which usually supplied room and board and even a stipend, it was a cheap way to get trained and enter the job market. Finally, many women did become nurses in hopes of meeting the doctor-husband who would raise their status in the world, and allow them to quit nursing!

So maybe the public didn’t find a show about nurses all that intriguing, due to attitudes and perceptions of the time period of women in general, and nurses.