St. Denis Medical Cast Reveals What Skills They Learned From the Show
St. Denis Medical follows overworked doctors and nurses at an underfunded hospital — but did playing healthcare workers teach the cast any new skills in the medical field?
During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Mekki Lepper and more stars from the upcoming NBC sitcom revealed what insight they gained from playing medical professionals.
“Luckily — because I am an administrator — I don’t have to do any of the gory stuff. But we have excellent medical consultants that help us learn how to do things so that they look real,” McLendon-Covey, 55, who plays Joyce, shared. “What I’m learning is the chain of command.”
Stepping into the shoes of an executive hospital director allowed McLendon-Covey to learn more about what goes on behind the scenes, adding, “I do think that’s very helpful. If I’m ever back at the hospital, I can navigate [things] a little bit better. When I need something, I can advocate for myself a little bit [more].”
St. Denis Medical, which premieres on Tuesday, November 12, is set in a fictional hospital in Oregon where the healthcare professionals are trying their best to treat patients while dealing with their own issues outside of work.
The mockumentary offers a more lighthearted glimpse into the medical field, but some of the cast received actual training to prepare for their roles.
St. Denis Medical Ron Batzdorff/NBC
“There’s a couple of actors that I truly believe could draw blood if they needed to,” McLendon-Covey told Us. “I absolutely think Allison [Tolman] could [help in certain medical emergencies]. And I do believe that David Alan Grier could give me stitches because he practiced. He did suturing practice so I would trust him to do that. I hope it never comes to that but I think he’d be good.”
Not everyone from St. Denis Medical had the same level of confidence. Josh Lawson, who plays a trauma surgeon, joked, “If I stood up on a plane and said, ‘It’s OK everyone, I play a doctor, I think we’d be in trouble. We’d be in some serious trouble.”
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Lawson, 43, did throw out some medical terms that have stayed with him.
“You do pick up stuff. After a couple of episodes, you might say to the medical technician, ‘Alright, so we intubate and then after I palpate here.’ And then I realize that I guess I’ve learned some stuff. But certainly not enough to save someone’s life on a plane.”
Meanwhile, Kahyun Kim had a different experience after playing a travel nurse in the Emergency Department.
“Everything goes in and then leaves my head,” she quipped. “Nothing has stuck. But we do have amazing medical professionals, and we have experts on set who help us. So it’s definitely very helpful to have them because if not for them, I wouldn’t know what to do.”
Lepper, 30, had a very similar realization about how little he knew when it came to medicine once he was cast as a nurse, adding, “It turns out that all this medicine stuff is actually pretty complicated to learn. And goofing around on a set is not a very conducive environment to medical knowledge.”
Instead, Lepper gained a higher “appreciation” for hospital staff.
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“These people are so smart. They’re retaining so much information and they’re so poised. Because even when it’s fake, I get scared when there’s a medical emergency [in a scene],” he noted. “I’m like, ‘This is really intense.’ So yeah I have a higher respect now for nurses and doctors. It’s just amazing what they do.”
Medical experts played a large role for everyone on set. In fact, Kaliko Kauahi recalled thinking about her own friends who are actual nurses and how they affected her performance as a nurse administrator.
“My question to them was not so much about the day-to-day [experience]. It was about the relationships between doctors, nurses and the staff in different departments,” she explained to Us. “I felt like that’s the part [of the job] that I couldn’t get insight from anyone else about. And they will be sure to let me know if things don’t look accurate, I’ll be getting a call, I’m sure.”
St. Denis Medical premieres on NBC Tuesday, November 12, at 8 p.m. ET. with back-to-back episodes before streaming the next day on Peacock.
