Top Favorite TV Nurses

Over the years there have been many medical shows on television. Show that focus on hospitals, doctors, trauma or wartime medicine and nurses. Here are my favorite TV nurses.

Carol Hathaway and Samantha Taggart-ER

Julianna Marguiles portrays this favorite TV nurse. She is a very skilled nurse who is dedicated to her patients and always reminded the doctors how important the nurses were to the ER. This was one of my favorite shows and it aired on NBC from 1994-2009. One of the reasons I liked ER was because they didn't portray nurses as the stereotypical sexy, doctor chasing, bimbos. Sure the doctors and nurses hook up, but it was about a naturally developing relationship, instead of a nurse trying to land a doctor. Sam, a single mom and nurse, was played by Linda Carellini. She is a headstrong TV nurse, who knows her stuff.

Christina Hawthorne and Ray Stein-Hawthorne

This TNT drama stars Jada Pinkett Smith as a Chief Nursing Officer. She doesn't know the meaning of the word no, when it comes to what is in the best interest of her patients. David Julian Hirsh is TV Nurse Ray Stein who struggles with jokes about him being a male nurse. I think it is great this show has a strong male nurse character.

Veronica Flanagan Callahan-Mercy

Her home life is a mess, her parents are alcoholics and her marriage is strained. At work TV Nurse Veronica, portrayed by Taylor Schilling is one of the best. She is strong, knowledgeable and fights for what her patients need. Veronica is also dealing with being back in the states after doing a tour in Iraq.

Colleen McMurphy-China Beach

Dana Delany was incredible as TV Nurse Colleen McMurphy in the drama China Beach. This show took place in Vietnam at the 510^th Evacuation Hospital, during the war. Colleen was a small town girl commissioned into the military as a nurse. This gritty show showed the violence of war as well as how it affected those who took care of the wounded.

Nurse Linda-NipTuck

Known only as Nurse Linda, Linda Klein is one of my favorite TV nurses. She is because she has made it through all of Sean and Christian's antics. Nurse Linda is also not afraid to give them a piece of her mind when they are doing something unethical.

Bobbie Spencer -General Hospital

Jaclyn Zeman portrays prostitute, turned TV nurse in this ABC daytime soap. When she wasn't faking a pregnancy, or scheming to get or keep a man, Bobbie was a caring nurse, who was always there for her patients.

Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan-Mash

Loretta Swit played this TV nurse in this long running drama that was about the staff of an Army hospital during the Korean War. Margaret was a feisty, sexy, talented nurse. She was not afraid to tell you what was on her mind.