re: Hate ‘Nurse Jackie’? Here’s What You Can Do

Nancy Harrison-Werner — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:50:19 GMT

I recently discontinued my expanded cable access so I have not yet seen the episodes of the two programs. Nonetheless, having read the articles in Advance, I have to say that I object to the contrived "tic" of the doctor who is said to have grabbed Nurse Jackie's breast. Perhaps she should have "knee'd" him in a reflexive movement or at least had him brought up on sexual harassment charges. Too often sexual harassment goes on in the medical setting and to allow this on national programming would seem to encourage it. Having been an R.N. for nearly 40 years, I have seen many instances where true sexual harassment has been blown off, or the person making the complaint is seen as a troublemaker. I find the scripted insert on the episode of Nurse Jackie to be unnecessary and offensive.

re: Hate ‘Nurse Jackie’? Here’s What You Can Do

Monya — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 23:38:10 GMT

I've been a nurse for 9 years and I like Nurse Jackie. I could say that it's only fiction and not representative of the profession but that's not my defense of the show. It is indeed fiction and there were a couple of holes in the premiere's story.

But, watching it with my daughter who's been a nurse for 18 months, what we liked is that Edie's character is flawed and complicated. Her strong sense of justice, however skewed, could be expressed in ways that our jobs could never allow. Her frustration with life unfairness and medicine's inequities is something we feel almost everyday. There's so much wrong with the way that medicine works in the US and Nurse Jackie allows us to root for logic and fair play for 30 minutes a week.