But now, after respective June 8 and June 16 premières, nurses across the country are left wondering whether these shows are actually putting them in a positive or negative light.

"These shows may either highlight the growing importance of nurses at a time when nurses are in a prime position to contribute to the nation's healthcare reform, or further marginalize the often overlooked contributions of nursing and create a new set of false stereotypes," said Dori Taylor Sullivan, PhD, RN, NE-BC, CNL, CPHQ, associate dean for academic affairs at Duke University School of Nursing, Durham, NC.

That question has stirred a heated debate in recent weeks.

First we'll look at positive and negative portrayals of nurses on each show, and later, take a look at why all of this comes at such a crucial time.

Kicking It All Off: Nurse Jackie

Just 2 seconds into the June 8 season première of Nurse Jackie Edie Falco, (best known for her role as Mafia wife Carmela Soprano on the hit show The Sopranos), appears in a dream sequence flat on the floor, staring blankly at the ceiling, stoned on painkillers.

"What do you call a nurse with a bad back?" she muses. "Unemployed."

Off to a positive start? Not exactly.

In the span of a half-hour, Jackie, a tough ED nurse in New York City's All Saints Hospital, is snorting Percocet, having an affair with the hospital's pharmacist, forging a deceased patient's signature to make him an organ donor and flushing a violent slahser's severed ear down the toilet, and then stealing his money to give to a girl who needs a taxi home.

(You can watch the full first episode by clicking here.)

It took less than 24 hours for the American Nurses Association (ANA) to issue a statement saying it was "disappointed in the distasteful portrayal of nurses and nursing in Nurse Jackie," and urging nurses to send letters of protest to Showtime producers.

Prior to the première, the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) requested Showtime add a disclaimer at the start of each episode stating the show is not intended to denigrate the nursing profession in any way. Showtime officials denied the request.

But then nurses like Sandy Summers, MSN, MPH, RN, executive director of The Truth About Nursing surprised everyone by declaring Nurse Jackie the best, though not the most positive, portrayal of nursing she's ever seen on primetime TV.

It was surprising only because this year Summers released a book detailing how TV shows like Grey's Anatomy, ER and House reinforce negative stereotypes that undervalue nursing and drive the nursing shortage. Yet out of a four star rating, she gave Nurse Jackie three-and-a-half stars for how positively it portrays the profession. Grey's got a half-star.

"It's more about how the show affects what people think about nursing, as compared to this one nurse," she said. "And I think the show says a lot of positive things about the profession. Real nurses are complex individuals with problems, and nurses shouldn't expect, or even want, nurse characters on TV to be carboard angels."

So where does the debate lie? It seems everywhere.

For starters, many nurses are upset that at a time when medical errors are a major problem in our country (estimated to injure more than 1.5 million people annually) Nurse Jackie features an impaired nurse.

"An impaired nurse would never be working," said Barbara Crane, RN, CCRN, president of the National Federation of Nurses (NFN). "We would be getting her help and keeping her away from patients. We don't let people drive that way, so why is it OK for her to interact with patients completely stoned? Those patients are in the path of a speeding bullet with her at their bedside."

And real-life New York City ED nurses are worried the show paints an inaccurate picture of what nurses like them really do.

"We don't forge patients' signatures to donor cards; we don't snort Oxycontin on duty," said Eileen Yost, BS, RN, manager of emergency services at Roosevelt Hospital, New York City. "We take pride in our profession, and we are concerned the show puts us in a bad light. If they were going to give her a black-comedy personality, we thought it should be tempered with a real nurse doing positive things."

It all comes down to a perhaps justifiable fear that Nurse Jackie will erode the exact honor nurses have held year after year, poll after poll - the public's trust.

"Nurses have a moral code and a code of ethics they follow, and forging an organ donor card is certainly unethical," said Tina Gerardi, MS, RN, CAE, the CEO of NYSNA.

"So by portraying that, it sort of puts the question into a patient's mind, like "Would a nurse really do something like that?" The answer is 'no.' Nurses are the highest respected profession by the public. We take that very seriously. So that's what we object to."