So... How real is the show ER?

Last week we admitted a 16 year old with a C7 fracture post motor vehicle collision. I was the resource nurse so was tasked with covering breaks, running to codes on the wards and helping with admissions. I went to see if the nurse in the room needed help and nearly fainted form the shock of seeing not one but FIVE physicians (well, four docs and a med student) in there log-rolling the patient while the nurse assessed his skin. I wanted to take a picture... no one would believe me without one.

I actually had a doc straight cath my patient. I tried a billion times, another nurse tried a billion and in walks one of my favorite dr's and she sure did get it on the first try. Had to give her props as none of us thought she could do it.

We actually have a couple of docs that are true team players
Will come in an attempt iv access (before central line), attempt foleys, take vital signs. Those doctors are truly loved by the nurses.

ER is not real at all, we have no cute doctors, no one is having an affair with a doctor, nurse or tech. Someone else said "I wish our ER ran that smoothly". Yeah, same here. Controlled chaos. Team work. Smart nurses and techs is what makes the ER work. As much as they would hate to admit it, doctors could NOT do their job or save anyone's life without a great staff!

At one of my previous jobs, I told my neighbor (we lived in an apartment building) where I worked, and he went "EWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!" I wondered what he meant by that, and it turned out he had never set foot in a hospital for any reason since he was discharged as a newborn, and he thought that the whole inside of the building looked like the TV show "ER"! I told him, "No, the ER looks like ER, and then not even most of the time. Usually, it looks more like your doctor's office."

This was in Sioux City, and when that plane crash happened in 1989, everyone said that it did indeed look like "ER" but that was definitely an exception, and not an experience anyone would want to go through again. I worked there a few years later.

I liked the first few seasons of ER.
I liked Dr. Greene. I liked the "tension" between Dr. Carter and his 'mentor' Dr. Benton [an under-rated character IMO].

Then I kinda quit watching it regularly after the first 2-3 seasons. I'd watch it if I was flipping channels and it came on - but IMO the show had become repetitive. They tried to spice it up with the docs travelling to Africa - and I'm 50-50 about that. I liked seeing 'the dark side' of Luka but a lot of the other stuff was a little too far-fetched.

As far as medical "dramas" (note I didn't use the word "show") go, I think it lived up to it's name. It was pretty fantastic - but it was supposed to be fantasy, right?

Of course, as an ED/ER nurse - I am weary of all those folks who look at that show and think that real life ER is like the show ... be it the "miracles of resuscitology", the "quick and speedy care" or "sex every other week in every other room"...

But for entertainment wise, it wasn't half bad [the earlier seasons. The later ones were ridiculous].

cheers,