Nurses Behind the Silver Screen
For the majority of nurses, the workplace is a clinic or a wing of a hospital, but for some, location can vary quite a bit. School nurses, sports therapy nurses, traveling nurses all may do their work in a variety of surroundings. But no surroundings change quite as much as they do for the nurses of Hollywood studios.
Set Nurses and Medical Script Nurses both play very important roles behind the scenes of Hollywood’s big movies and prime time television shows, and it’s not just tending to the health needs of the stars.
The Set Nurse
Movie sets, despite safety regulations, can still be dangerous places, and studios need qualified staff on hand in case something goes wrong. Lights can fall, ladders can tip, stunts can go wrong, and those are just during the domestic shoots—imagine the trouble actors and crew can get into while shooting on location in, say, the heat of a desert or the freezing, thin air of a mountaintop.
And set nurses aren’t just needed for film projects. Concert tours also hire nurses to be on standby in case of accidents or other medical emergencies.
The Medical Script Nurse
Very few scriptwriters also go to medical school, so when it comes to writing stories in medical settings (Grey’s Anatomy, Scrubs, House MD, The Good Doctor, etc.), they often need a little help making sure their stories and facts are accurate. That’s where the Medical Script Nurse comes in. He or she essentially works as a consultant, reading the scripts and offering feedback if the story strays too far from medical reality.
This may sound like a far cry from directly helping patients, but believe it or not, the work is vital. Millions of people watch the medical movies and television shows that Hollywood churns out, and those shows can easily color the perception that viewers have of healthcare.
Celebrities in Scrubs
On rare occasions, people who are celebrities today were discovered while they themselves were wearing scrubs. Here are just a few who started their careers as nurses:
- Paul Brandt (singer, former pediatric nurse)
- Bonnie Hunt (actress, first appeared on screen in Rain Man while still an oncology nurse)
- Julie Walters (actress best known as Mrs. Weasley from Harry Potter, former nurse)
- Kathryn Joosten (actress known for The West Wing, Desperate Housewives, and Ally McBeal, former psychiatric nurse)
- Tina Turner (actress and singer, former maternity ward nurse)
- Robin Quivers (DJ, former military nurse)
- Adrian Holmes (actor, former nurse)
- Naomi Judd (singer, former ICU nurse)
The bottom line is that nurses are needed everywhere—sometimes behind the camera, sometimes in front of it, and you never know where that nursing degree will take you until you try.
If you are interested in beginning your own career as a nurse or medical assistant, Provo College can help make that dream a reality. Contact us today for more information.
