Code Black

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.

So I know this show has been discussed here already.

Unfortunately I just sat through an episode. One thing that really stood out to me as being SUPER unrealistic, I mean part from the many, many obvious things, is physicians confronting patients and their families. Apperently in TV land the hospital's reimbursement is NOT tied to patient satisfaction like it is the the real world.

I can't imagine any physician who makes it a point to speak confrontationly to patient or their families would keep his job.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

I have reluctantly kept up with code black. The cases are exciting (but then I groan NOOOOOO! That's now how you do it!) and the main female lead character is interesting. However, like you said it is so so unrealistic. The nurses are invisible. And the one main nurse character is so unbelievable as a nurse. A guy like him just wouldn't be a nurse. (Maybe I think this because the actor has had so many evil roles) The doctors give TPA and the nurses just make phone calls. The center stage thing is crazy. There is no privacy. A guy died on one of the episodes and the curtain wasn't closed and there was a patient in a bed two stretchers away who could see everthing. Trauma center or not, that would never happen in real life. And the code black thing is so so fake. Like they are on red all the time and then go into code black every shift. My ER which is very busy (>100k visits a year) has been in red like two times in the last 10 years. We are on yellow every other shift. If they are in code black all the time the city would build a new hospital/trauma center and hire more staff.

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They had a spice case! Haha

I was watching a documentary also called code black and it was pretty good, must have been what the show was based on as some of the people in the documentary had similar characters

It is unrealistic but more realistic than greys anatomy

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[quote=Lev

Watch the documentary it's crazy cause they actually have the center stage area and code blacks.... It was quite interesting as I thought as if as well until I saw the documentary

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.
Watch the documentary it's crazy cause they actually have the center stage area and code blacks.... It was quite interesting as I thought as if as well until I saw the documentary Code Black: A look into America's busiest ER.

I've heard about the documentary. Is the show related to the documentary at all?

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I always laugh when I watch greys anatomy and see attending surgeons take vitals, hang IV meds and ambulate patients.

I'm always curious as to why there is never an accurate portrayal of nurses on TV? We don't just sit at a nurses station and say "yes doctor".

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
[quote=Lev

Watch the documentary it's crazy cause they actually have the center stage area and code blacks.... It was quite interesting as I thought as if as well until I saw the documentary

I haven't seen the documentary. But my first nursing job was at the LA County / USC hospital in downtown east LA. I lived it. I was there during the LA Riots.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Emergency, CEN.

"...If they are in code black all the time the city would build a new hospital/trauma center and hire more staff."

T. H. I. S. ! !

That being said, I like that they treat nurses better than most MD shows do. For example during the quarantine episode "Hey nurses, what do you need?" "ABG kits!" etc.

And I love Mama.

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We don't just sit at a nurses station and say "yes doctor".

You mean I shouldn't come into work, open a bag of Cheetos, put my feet up on the desk and say, "Sounds good!", "Yessir!" and "Go get 'em, ma'am!" to every doc who runs by one the way to place a cath, start an IV, change a bag, change a bed, help a patient to the bathroom or assess a patient?

Maybe that's what I'm doing wrong.

On the other hand, that sounds like what I'd be doing if I were doing things right... :smokin:

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I always laugh when I watch greys anatomy and see attending surgeons take vitals, hang IV meds and ambulate patients.

I think it was last week on GA (or maybe the week before), a patient threw up with 3 physicians in the room, and one of them groaned and said, "I'll handle it."

Maybe when pigs fly.

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There was an episode where a nursing home resident swallowed a bunch of change and the MD residents took turns placing her on the bedpan and sorting through the BM until all the money was accounted for.

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There was an episode where a nursing home resident swallowed a bunch of change and the MD residents took turns placing her on the bedpan and sorting through the BM until all the money was accounted for.

So far, this has been the highlight of this program for me.

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