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“MDs” is one of a fresh crop of medical-related TV shows scheduled for the fall programming lineup. The new ABC series, set in a fictional San Francisco hospital, features Jane Lynch as Nurse “Doctor” Poole.

Seen a doctor lately? If not, then you must not be watching much television. Doctors, nurses and other health care professionals are all over the tube these days.

Whether it’s a dramatic series like “ER” or a reality-based program like “ICU: Arkansas Children’s Hospital,” TV producers continue to seek viewers via the real-life drama that takes place in hospitals every day.

At least four series—“ER,” “Scrubs,” “Presidio Med” and “MDs”—are scheduled for the fall lineup, and three documentary-style TV programs—“Children’s Hospital,” “Houston Medical” and “ICU: Arkansas Children’s Hospital”—appeared this summer.

Added to the mix are programs such as “General Hospital” on ABC, “Trauma: Life in the E.R.” on The Learning Channel and “M*A*S*H” reruns on what seems like every other channel.

So, why all the medical-related TV shows?

Robert Thompson, professor of media and popular culture at Syracuse University, said that medicine—along with private detectives, law enforcement and law—is one of four TV “franchises” that consistently generate enough stories to keep a TV series going.

“For a series, you need these situations or settings in which there is a constant source of dramatic tension and major dramatic tension at that,” said Thompson, director of the university’s Center for the Study of Popular Television.

“The hospital shows are a matter of life or death—even more than the cop shows—that viewers can identify with,” Thompson said.

Richard Hanley, communications professor at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., said another reason for the popularity of medical-related TV shows is that most people continue to assign a certain amount of mysticism to the medical profession. As Shakespeare did with royalty, portraying doctors with some sort of humanity and—in certain instances—clay feet, resonates with the audience, he said.

Undergirding the traditional dramatic structure in these TV shows, Hanley said, is something that is fundamental to the psychology of advertising: Sex and death sell. “Medical shows seem to inject a rather thick dosage of sexual tension among the hospital staff—note the liaisons among “ER” staffers—and this tension is heightened by its juxtaposition with death or the threat of death,” he said.

And the area of sexual tension, like it or not, is often where nurses come in.

Evolving roles

In the early days of television, Thompson said, nurses existed to provide a romantic interest for doctors on programs such as “Ben Casey” and “Dr. Kildare.” The CBS program “Trapper John, M.D.” (1979-86) included a nurse named Gloria Brancusi, one of the first TV nurses to be portrayed as a professional rather than a love interest.

Another positive portrayal of nurses came in the CBS program “Nurse” (1981-82) starring Michael Learned, better known as the mother on “The Waltons,” another CBS program.

The NBC program “St. Elsewhere” also portrayed nurses as medical professionals who played a crucial role in patient care, Thompson said, and “ER” has continued in that vein and has introduced the “male nurse” to the American public.

One of the most popular portrayals of nurses came on the ABC program “China Beach,” which followed the lives of several characters working in an Army surgical hospital close to the frontlines. Dana Delany portrayed nurse Lt. Colleen McMurphy, whom Delany described in a NURSEWEEK article last year as a female Clint Eastwood.

Delany won two Emmy Awards for her portrayal and the response from health care professionals led to her involvement with the American Red Cross, the Texas Hospital Association and the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Project.”

And the worst portrayal of nurses? Thompson names the ABC series “Nightingales” (1989), which continued the traditions of the “jiggle era” of television best exemplified by “Charlie’s Angels.” This Aaron Spelling production included lengthy scenes of attractive nurses changing clothes in the nurses’ locker room.

“I think the reason it took so long [to begin portraying nurses as professionals] is that the first shows focused on medicine, and doctors are cast at the center of that,” Thompson said.

The same holds true for the reality-based TV shows. “Houston Medical” and others often focus on the interaction between doctors and patients even though nurses provide the majority of patient care.

“Nurses, I think, have been treated in television and reality shows in much the way they are treated in the real word,” Thompson said, “and that is as an extraordinarily underappreciated and overworked profession.”

Fact vs. fiction

Thompson said reality-based medical shows always draw a smaller audience because they’re harder to watch. The dramatic series, like “ER,” intersperse tense moments with lighter subplots, whereas the reality-based programs often don’t have that option.

Chuck Bangert, executive producer of New Screen Concepts, which produced “Houston Medical,” said the earlier episodes were more serious than the later ones. “We learned to cut our stride and balance them out, especially in the fourth, fifth and sixth shows,” he said. “You can’t be that heavy all the time.”

“Houston Medical,” which ABC ran in the slot usually occupied by “NYPD Blue,” received a respectable 5.5 share, which means that about 5.5 million people viewed each episode. Bangert said ABC has asked New Screen Concepts to continue filming at Memorial Hermann, although it has not committed to airing more shows.

The popularity of the program in Houston has led a city councilman to start a campaign to save the show, complete with its own Web site [www.savehoustonmedical.com]. Thompson said those viewers who enjoy reality-based medical programs often are among the most devoted fans.

Susan Allen, RN, a shift manager in the preop testing center at Doctor’s Medical Center in Modesto, Calif., was among those who complained when she learned that “Houston Medical” wouldn’t appear on the fall TV schedule.

Although she has watched “ER” for years, Allen said she prefers the reality-based programs to the dramatic series. She said she enjoys seeing how other hospitals handle patient care and whether they experience the same sorts of problems as her facility.

Beth Sartori, director of corporate communications for Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, said the feedback on “Houston Medical” from staff and the public has been overwhelmingly positive.

The hospital’s Webmaster has received e-mails on a daily basis since the show premiered and a larger-than-usual number of people used the e-greetings to send get-well wishes to patients profiled on the show.

“Many of the viewers were health care professionals and, based on the e-mails we received, they liked the reality and the fact that it depicted their lives without the Hollywood slant,” Sartori said.

Tom Bonner, senior vice president for administration at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, said the desire to recruit nurses and other health care professionals was among the reasons hospital administrators decided to allow cameras into the nation’s sixth-largest children’s hospital.

“We want nurses to come to our hospital and to Arkansas to live and work,” he said. “Any positive publicity we can get that shows what this hospital does is going to help us in this area.”

Christie Berner, MSN, RN, senior vice president for patient care services at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, said the four-week series has generated a number of calls to the hospital’s employment line.

She said in the case of “ICU: Arkansas Children’s Hospital,” the portrayal of nurses has been extensive and favorable.

“I have been very pleased about how the nurses have been a key part of all the episodes,” she said. “I can’t think of one family situation they followed where they haven’t also included an interaction or an interview with a nurse.”

Two “break-out stars,” as Bonner described them, were both nurses.

Berner said she especially enjoyed watching Jean Ann Phillips, RN, manager of the hospital’s heart operating room, who, in one scene, calls a colleague early in the morning to discuss a heart surgery on an infant in which they had just participated.

“She’s very dedicated and extremely competent and when you heard her talk you could see she was very thorough and very careful about her job and took her responsibilities very seriously,” Berner said. “I thought she was showing the competence a nurse can have.”

Contact Scott Williams at scottwilliams21@msn.com.