Carol Hathaway: ER

Carol is the experienced and skilled ER nurse manager at Chicago's County General Hospital. She completed all the necessary classes to apply for medical school while juggling her nursing responsibilities and she scored very well on the MCAT. Seeing the importance of the work she was doing, including her ability to help her patients intimately and to spend more time with them, led her to decide that nursing was "living the dream" after all. She puts her aspirations to practice medicine aside for good. In her time at County General, she fights for the rights of and to meet the needs of her patients (who are mainly without adequate resources or access to care).

Carol stands up for her nurses and is always quick to remind doctors that it is the nurses who provide hands-on care and they know more about the patients than most doctors give them credit for. She always puts others first and is fiercely loyal to her hospital and her patients. She used all her personal communication skills to find funding and get the support necessary to open a free clinic in the ER (who doesn't love THAT?).

Carol is not only a professional in every sense of the word (she is always honest, even when it comes at a great personal cost), she also is a real person with a real life outside the hospital. She is vulnerable and she struggles just like everyone else. What's more, she is that same big-hearted person both inside and outside of the hospital. She loves with everything she has to give. Every nurse aspires to channel their inner Carol every now and again. She exemplifies what the profession of nursing stands for and manages to do so within the confines of the limited resources of a county hospital.

Jackie Peyton: Nurse Jackie

Jackie is a long-time employee in the ER at All Saints' Hospital in New York City. She is a skilled and attentive nurse and is the first to catch a mistake in the making, whether by a nurse or physician. Despite her personal problems (and personality flaws) she takes excellent care of her patients and always fights for their needs.

Jackie goes toe-to-toe with administrators and physicians alike as she advocates for her patients with no regard for the personal cost, and she doesn't back down for anyone. She believes in always doing the right thing for them, even if that means breaking the rules (or the law).

While her questionable ethics and warped sense of justice may not be quite in line with the realities of nursing, her practical personality and case-hardened attitude make you want to side with her even when she crosses the line.

Jenny Lee: Call the Midwife

Jenny is a 22-year-old nurse who arrives in Poplar, a district of East London, to practice nurse-midwifery in the midst of post-WWII reconstruction. At first, she is shocked and repulsed by the poverty (even abject poverty) she encounters working as a district nurse at Nonnatus House.

With experience, she begins to understand that the people of Poplar are better than good and their life circumstances do not keep them down. She sees the positive effect she can have on people who need her, and as a result, her love for her community and for nursing grows by leaps and bounds.

Amazing life stories happen in front of her and this leads her to continue learning and re-evaluating her own way of seeing the world. She uses what she learns to improve her skills and assist those who need who help the most. Isn't that a big part of what nursing is all about? Jenny would make Florence proud.

Bokhee: Grey's Anatomy

Bokhee is a quiet fixture at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital in Seattle. She is the highly skilled scrub nurse that can be seen assisting the surgeons in their toughest cases. She is the nurse who has been there for longer than some of the interns have been alive, and her intuitive movements while handing off surgical instruments shows her level of expertise. She consistently demonstrates that she is the person to have in your O.R. when the worst happens. Her calm spirit and experienced hands have helped save the day on multiple occasions.

While we never see Bokhee's face without her mask, her expressions say a lot. She has a sense of humor which can be seen when she smiles behind her mask or rolls her eyes at a not-so-funny joke. Her eyes also narrow when the mood is urgent or serious, or her brow furrows when she feels the grief or defeat of a surgery with a poor outcome.

The actress that plays Bokhee, Bokhee (Kathy) An, is a scrub nurse in real life. She currently assists with open heart surgeries at a Los Angeles area hospital. That makes her character even more real and even more special.

Didi Ortley: Getting On

Didi is a new nurse at the Billy Barnes Extended Care Unit of Mt. Palms Hospital in Long Beach, CA. Extended care is a subject that rarely makes it to the small screen, which is part of what makes "Getting On" so special. One of the bright spots of nursing is being able to laugh about the best and worst parts of the job and not surprisingly, Didi (played by Niecy Nash) brings comedy to the realities of working in long-term care.

The character is relatable.

Didi is funny, warm, and real. She works full time on the unit, then goes home to be the caregiver to her children, her sister's children, and her mother-in-law. While she provides brutally honest observation and sometimes dark comedy to pass the time, she personifies the art of nursing while facing suffering and death. She exhibits a quiet strength that stands out among the other nurses at Billy Barnes.

Her passion for helping people shines through the mundane of activities of giving a bath or singing from her heart to a person in need of comfort. Who knew that a spiritual rendition of Genuine's "Pony" could ease anxiety and bring a sense of calm to a patient and friend?

The connection is real when the conversation revolves around writing an incident report for a code brown randomly placed in a chair. Incident reports and feces are definitely a feature in the world of nursing; it's how we handle the real and figurative poop that dictates how the shift ends.