Reimagining Nursing on Screen: How Marvel's Claire Temple and BBC's Call the Midwife Get It Right

Abstract

Media influences us through the propagation of ideas, including stereotypes that can affect career choice, a crucial issue due to the global shortage of nurses and midwives. While content creators behind and in front of the camera typically have told stories that stereotype nurses, two current shows break the pattern. Our approach to the analysis focuses on midwife characters portrayed in the BBC’s Call the Midwife and Claire Temple, RN, of the Marvel cinematic universe (Netflix). Building on themes identified as problematic by film scholar Kathleen McHugh related to female nurse depictions (gender, care, drama), our analysis expands to include who the character is, why she does what she does, and how nurse characters provide care by engaging with her clinical work, colleagues, and patients. In our discussion, we show how these media makers got it right by resisting the stereotypic extremes in order to portray more nuanced, complex characters in meaningful contexts, resulting in more interesting and compelling stories. We conclude by offering steps for taking action to impact the image of nurses and nursing.