So many TV shows and movies take place, at least in part, in a medical setting. When you're a nurse, you automatically notice the severe errors in the scenery, which ruins the show. Or maybe it's just me.
I was watching the very first episode of ER (as a rerun, this is fairly recently) where the nurse- what was her name? I'm getting old- OD'd and was brought into the ER on a stretcher. I jumped off the couch and started shouting, "Chest tubes?!? She has two Atrium chest tubes there. For a drug overdose???"
It seems like the directors of these shows assume that the more medical-looking stuff they throw in there, the more realistic it will seem.
On TV, the "patient" almost always has his O2 cannula on incorrectly. And I can't count how many times I've seen the actor-patient surrounded by medical equipment that is totally irrelevant to his illness. Oh, there's a vent nearby, and some vent tubing on the bed, for no apparent reason. Sometimes you'll see an EKG monitor in the background and the rhythm displayed there totally doesn't match what's going on with the "patient". (Many times, it's a fatal rhythm, but the patient is alert and talking.)
And the IV pumps/ bags etc... It's all wrong, all wrong, and I can't stand it.
Also, I'm a huge Stephen King fan, but in two of his books he has patients who are on ventilators who suddenly wake up and start talking... with the ventilator still in place. (The Dead Zone, and Desperation.)
It also chaps my ### when the nurse is wearing whites, with a skimpy white skirt, with a white nurse's cap... in a modern day setting. (If the movie is taking place in 1970, that's different, but I'm talking about shows set in modern times.) Inevitably, if the nurse says anything at all, it is something stupid.
Has anyone else been irritated or enraged by things like this? Or am I just over the edge?
