Television Nurses

Before there was a Nurse Jackie or a Nurse Hawthorne, there were several television nurses that paved
their way while leaving an indelible mark on television viewers everywhere.

Nurse Dixie McCall - Emergency! - 1970s
Nurse McCall was often the first line of medical communication at Rampart home base for the field paramedics.
Nurse McCall knew how to maintain a calm, professional demeanor and she knew exactly when to to get
one of the doctors involved.

Nurse Chapel - Star Trek - 1960s
Nurse Chapel had the unenviable task of administering to Dr. McCoy while "boldly going where no man [or nurse] had gone". How she did it wearing that mini-dress still baffles many twentieth-century nurses who prefer scrubs to minis.

Nurse Julia Baker - Julia - 1960s (1962)
Diahann Carrol blazed trails as one of televisions' first minority nurses. She was beautiful, smart, and witty.

Nurse Consuelo Lopez - Marcus Welby (1969)
Consuelo was Dr. Welby's nurse/office manager. Nurse Lopez could organize appointments and calendars
for Drs. Welby and Riley and remain actively involved in keeping the patients files correct, up-to-date, and reminding Dr. Welby when he had missed eating his lunch or needed some sleep.

Mark Sanger - Ironside - 1960s/1970s
Many would challenge including Mark Sanger on this list; but Mark provided triple duty to former Chief Ironside;
Mark was his assistant, body guard, and personal nurse. Check out a few of the old episodes.

Nurse Helen Rosenthal - St. Elsewhere - 1980s
Nurse Rosenthal went through it all at St. Eligius - drug addiction, mastectomy, egotistical doctors, dramatic nurses - stuck it out and kept coming back for more and more.

Nurse Amy Vining - General Hospital - 1970s - 2001/2002

What list of television nurses would be complete without at least one of two soap opera nurses? Nurse Vining was perky with a unique wit. She saw it all at her General Hospital nurse's station.

Nurse Jessie Brewer - General Hospital - 1963 - 1991
While Nurse Vining was the perky, wry wit Nurse Jessie Brewer was Steve Harvey's confident. Nurse Brewer was friend to all. Her soap opera nurse's career saw numerous ups and downs. The seventh floor was never the same after Nurse Brewer left.

Katherine O'Hara - Operation Petticoat. - 1977 - 1979
Joann Pflug was the head nurse on a pink submarine. Not only did Nurse O'Hara have to maintain order with
her nurses, she had to do it under water and in the midst of sailers!

Margaret Houlihan - M*A*S*H* - 1972 - 1983
Completing this list is Nurse/Major Margaret Houlihan. Major Houlihan was second generation army and survived the longest television war in the history of television (in addition to the longest television affair-with-a-married-doctor-during-the-longest-running-television-war-in-the-history-of-television).

It is little wonder why many of today's generation of actors and actresses are eager to portray nurses on television.