The most radical thing about ER were the nurses

Vulture

On other hospital-set shows -- from Grey's Anatomy to Scrubs -- nurses are frequently secondary characters. "They tend to be marginal, expendable, interchangeable, or primarily there to support the development of the doctors," says Kathryn VanArendonk, in marking ER's 25th anniversary. "This was not the case on ER, pretty much from the jump." She adds: "It was radical for ER to make its show as much about the nurses as it was about the doctors. It destabilizes a fundamental idea about hospital hierarchy, the implicit sense that doctors who give orders are somehow more important, more valuable, and more worthy of attention than the nurses who execute them. Nurses were not just fun background figures on ER. One of the earliest personal dramas of the series is about Carol Hathaway’s suicide attempt, and Hathaway’s arc over the show’s first six seasons is arguably the most compelling and propulsive long-running story of the entire series. Carol often became the explicit representative of the show’s nurses-versus-doctors ideology; at one point she considers going to medical school, and in spite of her self-doubt the show makes clear that she would be wildly qualified. Carol decides against it. She is better, more useful, and happier where she is."