Nurse Series - The first medical series to feature a nurse as its main character was JANET DEAN, REGISTERED NURSE/SYN/1954 starring Ella Raines, as a former Air Force nurse who freelanced about the country. CHINA BEACH/ABC/1988 was the first series to address the experiences of the female nurses assigned to the Vietnam War. For an in-depth look at the role of nurses on television read: Images of Nurses on Television by Philip A. Kalesh and Beatrice J. Kalesh (Springer Verlag, 1983).