I love seeing real nurses in pictures and films. I’ve had enough of the well-groomed-young-nurse-hugging-my-clipboard photos. Show me some real nurses. Here’s a few projects that do just that:

• Joy Williams, RN, from Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses her work and love for Project HOPE in this short film.
• Photographic film captures the essence of nurses and their work in The American Nurse Project, a “photojournalistic journey that aims to capture and share the images and stories of nurses from all across America and to celebrate the role of the nurse in this country’s healthcare system.” The creators chose six nurses to feature in a full-length documentary, and simply based on the nurses’ brief bios, this is going to be an amazing film when it debuts in Fall 2013.
• NURSES, If Florence Could See Us Now is a documentary celebrating the work of nurses. As the film trailer points out, most people have a hard time explaining what exactly a nurse does, but rather explain nursing through how nurses make them feel. That’s powerful stuff.
• The Truth About Nursing has a list of nursing-related documentaries, along with “nursing” and “artistic” ratings.
• Nurses is a four-part documentary of Australian nurses. It was actually planned and filmed by nurses.
• A quick search on YouTube reveals over 53,000 results. Looking through the first seven pages of results, at least, there are definitely gobs of short films on real nurses and their work. I love that. After page seven, the results get a little sketchier, so you might have to refine your search criteria to get real nurses who aren’t wearing – ahem – “unapproved” scrubs.

Are there any other photographic or film pieces capturing real nurses that inspire you?