"The Good Nurse" is correct when stating Charles Cullen worked at nine different hospitals over 16 years. The movie starts at St. Aloysius in Pennsylvania in 1996 and ends at Parkfield, New Jersey, in 2003. Along the way, Charlie tells various people he's worked at St. Elizabeth's, Florians, Vance, and Shawlands. Amy tracks down a woman she trained with at Shawlands to confirm her suspicions about her new friend and co-worker. In the end, the film tells us that while Charles received 18 life sentences for his crimes, none of the hospitals were held accountable.
Likely, "The Good Nurse" created fake names for the hospitals that employed Charlie for legal reasons. The real-life Amy Loughren hinted that some of these cases are still under "gag order," and details were changed to not emotionally damage those involved.
But how did hospitals let this happen? Previous criminal complaints against Charles were dismissed, so he didn't have a record to share with future employers. Hospitals fired him for trivial reasons, so his misconduct didn't have to be reported to subsequent workplaces. After graduating as the president of his nursing class, Charles got his first job at St. Barnabas Medical Center's burn ward in 1987. He killed his first victim in 1988. After St. Barnabas became suspicious, he worked at the following hospitals: Hunterdon Medical Center ICU, Morristown Memorial Hospital, Liberty Nursing Home, Easton Hospital, Lehigh Valley Hospital, St. Luke's, Sacred Heart, and Somerset Medical Center — which the film changes to be Parkfield. However, the movie keeps New Jersey and Pennsylvania, where all these facilities are, as its geographical base.
