Most any hospital will have a charge nurse, who ensures the emergency department runs as smoothly as it possibly can. And we know Pittsburgh Trauma’s in capable hands with Dana Evans, whose mastery of the highlighted, ever-changing, always ailment-noted patient leaderboard is one of the first things The Pitt ever taught us. But in Episode 6, as Dr. Melissa King steps into a side stairwell to focus on the amoeba-like entropy of her lava lamp app – ideally it calms her, though Mel remains in a struggle with the possibility she influenced a caregiving daughter to abandon her schizophrenic mother – of course it’s Dana who notices, and it is she who suddenly appears next to Mel like a guardian angel on her shoulder. 

Nobody can anticipate everything. (Well, Dana often has that power, but let’s just go with this nice little moment.) Mel can’t beat herself up over the incident. She doesn’t have all the facts. And besides, she already delivered on the Pitt’s chief priority, which is effective frontline care. “Sometimes,” Dana says, “just askin’ someone how they’re doing is enough.” And ain’t that the freaking truth? She’s just a character on a television show. But Dana Evans is also the charge nurse for our feeling overwhelmed souls.

Now if only Dana could toss up a few deflector shields around her attending, because Gloria the hospital administrator has returned to badger Dr. Robby about boardroom business terms like “metrics” and “OFI.” Opportunities for improvement? Really? At the Pitt, the average wait time to see a doctor is six hours, but staffing in the ER and its existing number of beds are both static. What can he really do? Gloria and her counterpart, a doctor-executive from ECQ, which manages 500 emergency rooms nationwide for the benefit of its shareholders, are not receptive to Robby’s protests. “I need you to improve scores with the resources we have, or we will explore what ECQ has to offer.” Jeez. Doesn’t Robby have enough to worry about with the whole saving multiple lives each hour thing? Dana stears him away before the encounter with Gloria and the exec devolves into cursing. She is definitely the charge nurse on Robby’s soul.

What’s crazy and unfortunate is that this same confrontation, between ER bosses and their bosses’ bosses, is certainly happening in real life at hospitals across the country. As it maintains its crowded slate of existing and new patients, The Pitt is equally effective at seating these larger issues – the constant clash of demand, performance, budgets, and profit – in the everyday professional existence of its characters. During a quick all-staff huddle, Robby does his grudging best to promote Gloria’s OFI initiatives. ADF, he urges: always discharge first. It keeps the hot-racking of patient beds flowing. Show your work on charts, he reminds the doctors. And to this we overhear an aside between Langdon and Collins. “The hospital won’t admit this, but it’s less about charting and more about profit.” 

And meanwhile, the real time action of the Pitt’s everyday continues. Collins won the staff pool on the ambulance theft with “frat boy prank in catchment,” and Lagndon has to physically manhandle one of these Greek life dummies’ collarbones back into its socket before it punctures his airway. Dr. Mohan treats a “complications from silicone butt injections” case – the patient found somebody on TikTok to inject her ass with caulk from Home Depot – and with another appearance on the floor by Dr. Eileen Shamsi, Victoria Javadi’s efforts to quash any suggestion of nepo baby-ness hit a snag when the senior attending calls her daughter “honey” during a patient consult. For a minute or two after, Javadi zones out on this. It’s true she’s a 20-year-old med student. But she’s proven to be quite adept in the emergency department. And shouldn’t a senior medical professional like her mother know not to refer to her daughter by a pet name while they’re at work? Maybe, but there’s no additional time to dwell on it. Two minutes later, Javadi is tasked with being “Captain Morgan,” using her knee and physical leverage to reduce the frat kid’s dislocated hip.

Holy shit, it’s chest tube time! Santos finally gets her wish to perform the tricky procedure, which she’s been antsy about all season. And Dr. Garcia is more than willing to monitor the intern doing it. That is until Santos slices into a guy, only to promptly slip and drop the scalpel, right into the webbing of Garcia’s toes. The surgeon is a badass, so she completes the chest tube insertion herself. But while Santos assists her self-treatment of the foot wound, Garcia reiterates a version of Mohan’s “aggressive energy” observation from ep 4. “You’re confident,” Garcia tells Santos. “That’s good. But there’s a fine line between confidence and cockiness.” How many fine lines are left for Dr. Santos to cross?

‘The Pitt’ Star Isa Briones Breaks Down Dr. Santos’s Mortifying Chest Tube Gone Wrong: “Begins Her Humbling”

Not even Dana Evans can be everywhere at once. Remember Kristi, the teenager seeking an abortion with Lynette, her “mother,” who was actually her aunt? And then Eloise, Kristi’s real mother, showed up in the emergency department? It’s Dr. Collins who must attempt to mediate this escalating conflict, as Kristi locks herself in a bathroom before her mother tries to make her carry the baby to term. Kristi is vomiting from morning sickness, Collins is feeling discomfort from her own womb, and Lynette gets into an obscenity-laced shouting match with Eloise, bringing up bad blood between them that goes all the way back to their own mother. Collins tries a doctor’s gentle but firm hand on the shoulder, and is physically pushed for her trouble. In a dramatic setup like this, the expectation that Collins would fall and threaten the health of her unborn child was high. (The Pitt is not immune to soap opera moments.) But while it fortunately does not go down like that, if anybody ever needed to be reassured by a soulful charge nurse, it’s Kristi’s family.

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.