A real-life nurse and UCLA alumnus is featured on the cast of HBO’s medical drama “The Pitt.”
Ned Brower – a registered nurse and musician who plays nurse Jesse Van Horn on “The Pitt” – sat down with science and health editor Charlie Hamilton to discuss how his nursing education at UCLA shaped his acting and perspective on the show. “The Pitt,” which has won Emmy, Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice awards, aims to depict realistic emergency room cases.
Brower received his emergency medical technician license at UCLA and obtained his master’s degree at the School of Nursing in 2020. He worked in the emergency room of the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles during the COVID-19 pandemic and at the UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center before landing his role on “The Pitt.” Brower continues to work as a nurse while acting and making music with his new band “Bloodwerk.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Daily Bruin: How did your time at UCLA and as a nurse in general prepare you for your role on “The Pitt”?
Ned Brower: When I went to “The Pitt,” they asked me to help weigh in on medicine, if anything looked out of sorts. They knew I was a UCLA practicing nurse and would have something to say if needed.
UCLA taught me a lot, but it also taught me how to find answers and how to source science. It taught me to be humble. I’m comfortable saying when I don’t know something, which happens all the time still, but UCLA gave me the tools to be able to find the answers and the network to be able to reach out to for help when I need to phone a friend.
DB: What was the relationship like between nurses and other staff members during your time at UCLA, and did this influence how you approached your role?
NB: Yes, it did. Unlike some other departments, in emergency departments, you work very shoulder-to-shoulder with the doctors, and while the doctors are overseeing the patient care and the orders, they really rely on the nurses to give them good reporting, … and it’s not uncommon in the emergency room for a nurse to just walk in and say, ‘Order this, this, this,’ and the doctor trusts them enough to order it, especially when you have that rapport. That goes down to all the different people at UCLA I work with. We work as a team, and “The Pitt” does a really good job of showing that emergency camaraderie on the show.
I definitely try to bring that vibe with my character, Jesse. He’s the guy who’s been working there longer than a lot of the doctors, so they trust him. He knows more than probably a lot of the doctors. He’s probably seen hundreds of more patients.
That sort of camaraderie between the doctors and nurses and the ER techs on “The Pitt,” that’s the same thing that I saw at UCLA. I work with a couple of UCLA ER physicians who are the medical advisors on “The Pitt,” so I’m still working with multiple people who have been medical practitioners at UCLA.
DB: How accurately does “The Pitt” reflect the realities of an ER and the roles of its staff?
NB: It’s very realistic, and obviously, that’s been the main media talk and story behind the show. We’ve had dozens of successful hospital medical shows, but “The Pitt” is doing something different. We go really hard to make everything look super realistic, down to the most detailed props. Are there certain things that are hard to show? Yeah, like doing CPR on a real actor. It’s hard to make it look as real as it does in real life.
We’d show more crazy cases in one shift than you would usually see, so some people will complain about that. ‘Oh, you’d never see all this crazy stuff one day,’ and I say probably not, but you could. These are all real cases.
DB: On “The Pitt,” your character was detained by immigration officers. Why did the show choose to include this?
NB: A big part of “The Pitt” is trying to address hot topics … in a nonpartisan kind of way. This situation with these ICE agents the past year or two has been a real drain on the medical system in a lot of different ways. When the episode came out, I got so much mail from so many different people working in hospitals, saying, ‘Yeah, this happened in my hospital.’ It really wasn’t until after it came out that I realized the impact I was going to have and also how often this stuff is actually happening.
That’s the best way to educate people and change their minds. You don’t want to come and hammer them with your opinion. That was cool to put nurse Jesse Van Horn’s flag in the sand in that moment, and I like that he was defending a patient, because even though he’s a grouchy guy to people that pick on his team and his colleagues, he’ll do anything for his patients and his doctors and nurses, if push comes to shove.
DB: What advice would you give to students interested in pursuing careers in nursing or acting?
NB: If you’re looking to pursue a career in nursing, go for it. That’s a job that is in demand. You get respect, … you’re making enough money to live a comfortable life, and you have time to enjoy the comfortable life. You get to leave your stress at work. If you just go through the training and you’re patient and you work hard to get through school, you will do well, and you will have a job. You’re going to have a stable life.
Arts – exact opposite. There’s no stability, there’s no linear path whatsoever. If you’re looking to get a career in the arts, all I can say from personal experience is you need to align yourself with people who are doing art. Go live in a community where there’s stuff going on. If you want to work professionally in show business, now you’re talking about LA, or New York or London. You need to be somewhere where it’s happening.
Follow your creative instincts, and say yes to projects. If somebody’s like, ‘I’m going to make a short film, and I need help with costumes,’ say, ‘Yes.’ You’ll meet people there who are like-minded, and you’ll start to have your people. I did that when I was 20, and now that I’m in my 40s, all my friends are hugely successful in all different areas of show business, from huge rock stars to huge directors to producers.
It’s just a lot of luck, and then being ready to make something of that when it strikes. When you see that opportunity, jump through that door.
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