Celebrity Nurses

There are nurses and doctors that were made famous by their characters in movies and tlevisions dramas. Dr. House has become a household item and Nurse Jackie has become your mum’s best friend during primetime. But had it come to your mind if there are really actresses or celebrities that really worked as a nurse before they become famous? Scrubs magazine made a quiz about some Hollywood actors and political celebrities who were formerly nurses or have work in a hospital and the quiz made a staggering twist. I was even tricked. So, Google knocked a head out of me to investigate and research if there are really celebrities that once clothed themselves with nursing scrubs and worked in a hospital and alas results were amazing.

Here are some of the famous celebrities who had an actual duty, used nursing uniforms, lab coats, dental scrubs and had care for patients. Let’s try to know them:


Derek Longmuir – He might not be famously known by his name around the world but he is greatly praised as the Bay City Roller drummer. In early 2000, he was even made famous for some child pornography issues and charges who he eventually pleaded guilty with. After his music career ended he was employed as a nurse at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.



Virginia Dell Cassidy – She left William Jefferson Clinton in the custody of his grandparents so she can pursue her study and later earned her a degree in nursing. The mother of Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States of America was actually a nurse. Too bad her son didn’t make it to pass the universal health care.


Eleanor Rosalynn Smith Carter – There is no clear proof that Mrs. Carter, President Carter’s wife was actually a nurse. But there are many accounts that speak about her championing issues concerning health like the one she is famously credited for – the mental health advocacy.


Walt Whitman – He is known widely in the academe as a powerful poet and history claims him to be an effective soldier during his time. But the most that captured me was his other career; he served as a nurse for his fellow soldiers during the Civil War.


Kate Gosselin – She just starred in the 2009 movie Eight Little Faces and then in 2010’s I just want you to know, Gosselin made it big in Hollywood in her reality show Jon & Kate Plus 8 – in where she shares life living with twins and sixtuplets. Kate is a registered nurse and worked as a labor and delivery nurse at Reading Hospital.

Dr. Betty Shabazz – Yes, Malcolm X has been assassinated but Dr. Betty was there to perform CPR on him – thanks to her nursing background.


Bonnie Hunt – According to Wikipedia, Hunt was an oncology nurse at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. She surely had a pair of medical scrubs to brag about not to mention her funny punch lines.
Tina Turner – Tina might have rolled out of the river and focused on her singing career that’s why she is now as famous as she is. But she studied nursing and was actually a nurse in a maternity ward while juggling singing at local St. Louis clubs.


Paul Brandt – He’s now a doctor but not of medicine but of divinity. This country singer first donned his nursing uniforms at Alberta Children’s Hospital before making it big in the music field.