Bad Request (Invalid Hostname)

Photo by James Dittinger	More NurseWeek Features   Smoke-Free Zone   Nurses and patients tackle nicotine addiction   Bloodless Survival     Surgical techniques to use when transfusion drops out of the equation
As water cascades down the stairs, three nurses, including JoBeth Williams (center), rescue blood and patient records from a flooded hospital lab in 14 HOURS, TNT’s Johnson & Johnson Spotlight PresentationSM, which premieres Sunday, April 3, at 8 PM ET/PT.

When Tropical Storm Allison flooded Houston in 2001, hospitals didn’t expect disaster to strike them directly. As 30 inches of rain fell in 14 hours, the downpour cut off roads, running water, phone service, and electricity to many of the hospitals on the Texas Medical Center campus. And when the deluge reached its back-up generators, the weekend night staff at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, a tertiary care facility, was stranded with 231 nurses to care for 565 patients — many critically ill and dependent on life-support equipment.

Nurses took the lead, both in the crisis and in 14 HOURS, the reality-based made-for-TV movie that portrays their experience with unusual authenticity. The Johnson & Johnson Spotlight PresentationSM airs on TNT at 8 PM ET/PT Sunday, April 3, with encores through April 12. Although the flood lasted severa l days and affected other hospitals in the Texas Medical Center, the story focuses on a single facility during a shorter time frame.

Nurse Jeanette Makins (played by JoBeth Williams), an ED charge nurse filling in on the ICU, is the epitome of competence and compassion as she manages everything from staff morale and a disrespectful doctor, to taking charge of the hospital and its evacuation.

The electricity may be out, but the real power is in the nurses, who rely on their expertise and clinical skills to keep their fragile patients stable.

The nurses’ camaraderie, concern, and clear thinking are evident, whether they’re hand-bagging at-risk babies for hours or battling neck-deep waters to retrieve endangered blood supplies. They see the big picture, prioritizing evacuations based on acuity, unlike physicians who put their units first. They also heed small, unspoken needs, reassuring patients repeatedly, connecting a neonate and his parents for the first time, and urging an elderly man to rest as they care for his wife.

Makins is the kind of nurse who bakes an inscribed farewell cake for a NICU colleague who is leaving. When she catches hot-shot surgeon Tom Foster (Rick Schroder) stuffing himself with a huge hunk before it’s served, she calmly corrects him. Later, when he rebukes a nurse for triple-checking meds, she reminds him that it’s a basic safety practice. As she teaches Foster about nurses’ skills and responsibilities, she also educates viewers. When the administrator asks Makins, not Foster, to determine whether to evacuate, viewers unaware of the authority that rests with the director on call will learn that Makins has what it takes to make the right choice.

The positive portrayal of nurses is no accident. Executive producer Shanna Tyndall Nussbaum and her Cosmic Entertainment colleagues interviewed hospital staff extensively to learn what really happened. Writer Danilo Bach combined these personal stories and details, compressing 72 hours into a two-hour script. “The disaster is the backdrop, but these human stories are much more powerful,” Nussbaum says. “I feel a special loyalty to all those people and want to make sure the essence of the story and things they told us stays true.”

Williams says she already had inside information about nurses, staff dynamics, the evacuation, and Memorial Hermann itself from her mother, a registered dietician who worked there for 18 years. Williams herself was a Candy Striper at 16. “I was fascinated then, and I still am,” she says. “Nurses know what needs to be done, and doctors rely on them. Head nurses run the show. I liked that Makins was the strength who made things happen. I hope it means a lot to nurses. They don’t get the respect they deserve.”

By the end of 14 HOURS, inconsiderate Dr. Foster has learned to have much more respect for nurses. The film’s creators hope that viewers will, too.

Wendy L. Bonifazi, RN, CLS, APR, is a senior staff writer for Nursing Spectrum.