Edie Falco.

• Author: Gordon, Suzanne
• Position: Interview

I've been writing about nursing for almost twenty-five years and finally a TV show is getting it right: Nurse Jackie , with former Sopranos star Edie Falco as an ER nurse in New York City. It's great TV, with great acting, and its depiction of nursing is spot on.

After watching last year's entire season, I was intrigued, but hardly surprised, to learn that some nurses and nursing organizations disagreed--even ones that hadn't bothered to tune in. The New York State Nurses Association was deeply distressed by the fact that Jackie is addicted to painkillers and other meds (because, like so many nurses, she got a back injury on the job). In fact, they demanded Showtime insert a disclaimer alerting viewers to the fact that Jackie constantly violates nursing ethics. Since this is a TV drama and not a documentary, Showtime wisely demurred. Sadly, what a lot of nurses are missing is the fact that Nurse Jackie is the first show to spotlight a smart nurse in a long time. To Hollywood, smart nurses seemed like an oxymoron. Which is why Nurse Jackie fascinates me.

This past November, I visited the studio in Astoria, New York, where cast and crew were filming season two, which is where I met and interviewed Edie Falco, who has won three Emmys and two Golden Globes in her career. Falco's schedule is grueling. She's raising two young kids, who, with their nanny, sometimes accompany her to the set. She arrives at the studio early in the morning and shoots the show till late at night. There is take after take, angle after angle. What I watched was brilliant: just the right dose of comedy and tragedy, and a nurse who knows her stuff inside and out at the center of it all.

While she's become a voice for health care reform, it is not the first issue she's spoken out on. In 2004, she was the voice of Mothers Opposing Bush (MOB--get it?), which ran an ad in which she said: "I'm with the MOB, no, not that Mob, Mothers Opposing Bush.... Mothers always put their children first. Mr. Bush, can you say the same?"

In the following interview, she offers her views not only on nurses but on our health care system.

Q: Can you tell me how you became interested in doing Nurse Jackie ?

Edie Falco: It was Jackie's personality that first drew me to this. No matter what she was doing with her life, she's unwilling to let things get in the way of doing what she needs to get done. It just so happens that what she does is healing and helping people. She doesn't have a lot of room for bureaucracy and rules when they stand in the way of her taking care of someone. I had no particular interest in nursing. And it's...