Inger Stevens: July 2025

In preparation for her role in the Playhouse 90 production "Diary of a Nurse", Inger worked as a student nurse in a local hospital. This was not a requirement, but something Inger felt would make her portrayal more convincing. Inger said, "They wanted to hire a technical advisor to teach me enough to get by, but I needed the emotional impact that a nurse goes through every day to be convincing on the screen."

While on the job, Inger answered bells for assistance which led to her changing beds, delivering dressing trays, feeding patients, and giving baths. She spoke with the nurses and they gave her insight into how the job made them feel during their daily rounds. Inger reflected on the experience:

I had to bathe a 10-year-old girl who was due to undergo a heart operation the next day. It was heartbreaking. She didn't know what was happening. The first thing I thought about the next morning was how she was pulling through. Fortunately, she is recovering beautifully. Right now I feel very much like a nurse. I'm still thinking about my patients and their lives.

In the teleplay, Inger's character is a student nurse named Gail Lucas who becomes so emotionally involved in the lives of her patients that, as one reviewer said, "life for her becomes sadder with each new admission." Inger remarked on those attachments:

The transition from actress to student nurse seemed natural and normal. I didn't have time to be frightened. As I went my rounds, I heard the problems of each patient, and I learned you can't get too involved emotionally with them. Otherwise, all nurses would break down.

Certainly, Inger was all too familiar with the routines and relationships discoverable within a hospital by the spring of 1959. She'd spent 16 days as a patient at Columbus Hospital in New York City in January of that year. Inger had survived a suicide attempt, but faced several medical setbacks that required the lengthy stay. Although a Paramount Pictures spokesman predicted that she would vacation in a warm climate to recover, Inger had no plans to take a break. In reality, surviving the attempt seemed to recharge Inger and spur her on to an even busier acting schedule and gave her the independence and confidence to break away from the studio, be more vocal about her desires, and embody the frail yet indestructible characters she so often played with a more knowing approach.

"Diary of a Nurse" would be Inger's first job following her recovery and her hands-on preparation as a student nurse indicates just how dedicated she was to the task. Inger enjoyed the experience, saying:

No, I don't want to become a nurse now. But I realize how badly they're needed. And I do plan to do some volunteer nursing work in the future. It was very pleasant being called 'nurse.' I was proud of it.

True to her word, Inger would go on to volunteer at Kedren Community Health Center and work with children with disabilities in hospitals for the rest of her life. But she also proved herself as a dependable, quality actress by performing in poignant episodes of Bonanza, The Twilight Zone, Route 66, and 19 other shows between her role in "Diary of a Nurse" in 1959 and starring in her own sitcom The Farmer's Daughter in 1963.

The production ran 1 hour and 30 minutes and was deemed a "well-knit show" with great performances by Inger, Mary Astor, Victor Jury, Mildred Dunnock, and Suzanne Pleshette. It aired on CBS on May 7, 1959. Unfortunately, the show is not available online or on physical media. Fortunately, a copy of the episode does exist and is preserved in the Paley Archive.