Nurse Jackie is one in all Showtime’s hottest reveals this season. That includes Edie Falco, an HBO veteran from the hit The Sopranos, as an amoral emergency room nurse devoted to saving lives, whereas dishonest on her husband and indulging in highly effective painkillers to fight her again ache, the present transcends typical drugs dramas in style in primetime tv by specializing in those that heal, not those that diagnose.
This Showtime drama additionally options The West Wing’s Anna Deavere Smith as Gloria Akalitus, a nurse-turned-hospital administrator. Akalitus is the butt of many a joke within the present, getting giddy off of Jackie’s Percocet-laced espresso, unintentionally tazering herself in an elevator, and questioning a homosexual nurse about easy methods to acquire adoption papers for a kid left at a nursing station.
The place lies the road between reality and fiction within the characterization of this hospital administrator? Frankly, the road zig-zags. Hospital directors play an vital half within the inside workings of the hospital, and assist to maintain all the things operating easily. However in a darkish comedy like Nurse Jackie, Akalitus is a strolling punch line, offering a a lot wanted dose of laughter amidst a lot darkness. Nonetheless, if her staff behaved themselves, Akalitus would most certainly seem to be a mean nursing supervisor.
In a single notable episode, Akalitus urges Jackie Peyton to make a dying man vacate a mattress attributable to overcrowding. Jackie asks her to have a look at the person once more, not as a healthcare administrator, however as a nurse. Akalitus permits Jackie till the tip of the day to search out him one other place to remain, as a result of she realizes that he’ll be dying quickly.
This side of Akalitus’ character could also be official. It could be logical for a nurse to develop into a supervisor. Many hospital directors started as healthcare staff. Nonetheless, it isn’t a easy leap from nurse to administrator. Most have at the very least a Masters diploma in Well being Companies Administration, though some pursue levels in public or enterprise administration. Hospital directors with monetary backgrounds might go on to develop into Chief Monetary Officers or Chief Govt Officers.
Schooling features a yr of interning in a well being care middle, and most directors start as administrative assistants for big hospitals, earlier than pursuing greater positions in smaller establishments. Subsequently, it is unlikely that Akalitus could be working alongside her former friends, as she in all probability would have wanted to maneuver elsewhere to discover a place.
In one other episode, Akalitus stays late to supervise Jackie making the time schedules, having famous that she all the time appears to be working with pals. One of many duties of the hospital administrator is the upkeep of the price range. The hospital administrator could be answerable for the schedule of the nurses being overseen.
Lastly, Gloria Akalitus seems to work alone. That is positively true. There’s typically just one hospital administrator in a small hospital, and bigger hospitals want a single administrator for every division. All Saints, the fictional hospital at which Nurse Jackie works at, looks as if a big hospital. Because of this, it might be frequent for a well being care administrator to supervise the whole division alone.
