Am I Only one who is irritated by doctors and medical shows?

Anoetos, BSN, RN · Feb 24, 2013

Grey's Anatomy is the worst offender, there ER docs ambulate patients, pass meds, do routine dressing changes on the floor and provide hygiene. Nurses are just there with stethoscopes and clip boards to fetch things.

Indy, LPN, LVN · Feb 24, 2013

House has docs hanging IV fluid bags. I am pretty sure I would have some kind of conniption fit if any doctor touched my IV's.

LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN · Feb 24, 2013

Of course it is true for all TV shows. But I like Scrubs, nurse Carla was intelligent, funny, would tell the doctors what to do, almost the only doctor show I know of that had a strong nurse. But still none of the shows are realistic.
My husband is ex-military. We both go on and on.....Me, "you don't give that drug that way" etc. My husband, "his rank, his "chevrons" keep changing, he has a different rank every time he comes on scene, the army doesn't have such and such, he is too old to be a major, USN/USMC do not salute without their "covers" on, they are too bunched up when they go on patrol , etc.

^ Carla on Scrub was great!!! Hawthorne was another show, and Mercy was good as well.

I think if the public wanted to know what nurses do, they have to resort to watch Discovery Health and Fitness to watch doctors be doctors and nurses be nurses...they still have those "life in the ER" "Baby Story" and medical shows like that, I think...

CapeCodMermaid, RN · Feb 24, 2013

It's television. It's meant to be entertaining, not a class on what goes on in real life. I watch every medical show there is....sure I holler at the TV when they give the wrong dose, but it's still just entertainment.

lolaviex · Feb 25, 2013

The new show Monday Mornings shows the nurses as shadow figures in the background. Most of the time the camera doesn't even bother to come into focus on them.

SaoirseRN · Feb 25, 2013

I remember an adult granddaughter insisting that the doctor MUST come in (at 0200) to look after her grandmother when I admitted her to the floor. She couldn't believe that "just nurses" would be able to care for her, we needed the doctor there because the doctor had to take care of her because that's what doctors do. She didn't want to believe me that the doctors aren't on the wards 24/7 doing personal care. I appeased her somewhat by assuring her that we knew how to contact the doctor if we had any concerns, but she was *shocked* and said she didn't think nurses did "all that" when it came to taking care of patients. She was certain the doctor did everything.

allnurses Guide · Feb 25, 2013

I love scrubs and think its the best of them.

An FYI, there are nurses who never went to college.

me1989 · Feb 25, 2013

This wasn't about a nurse, but was really funny nonetheless. I was watching Chicago Fire and one of the EMTs was listening to a heart... And heard v-fib! Ahhh!

beckyboo1, BSN, RN · Feb 25, 2013

I don't even like shows like The Doctors and just can't tolerate Dr Oz with his following every new "brand new study says" stuff. And give me a break, he's an expert in ever area of medicine? People, just go to your personal physician please lol

babyNP., APRN · Feb 25, 2013

Yet somehow medical shows continue to portray the situation unfairly. I actually got into a small disagreement with someone about the show scrubs. They said all in all it was one of the better ones, but one of the nurses makes a comment about never going to college (then she couldn't have been a nurse) and their is a particularly irritating scene where a doctor fires a nurse. you also see the doctors sending the nurses to new assignments?

Actually, don't diploma nurses not go to any college? Correct me if I'm wrong.

It used to rankle me about the tv shows, but not so much anymore. I go to work everyday and help unsure residents nearly every day and feel like a valued member of the healthcare team--the attendings know me well and listen to my concerns and suggestions.

I've watched Scrubs and House in the past, but only keep up with Grey's. I guess it does rankle me a bit how the surgical chief seems to have control of the whole hospital (no CEO?) and that patient in the ER episode where they let her die and no one knew anything about her (i.e. where was the nurse? I'm sure that a patient with inhaled smoke, a pneumo, etc etc wouldn't be left unattended??)

Le sigh. I guess it does rankle me when I think about it. I guess it's just giving the public what they want--their unrealistic beliefs of what nurses do.

Poochiewoochie · Feb 25, 2013

I don't even like shows like The Doctors and just can't tolerate Dr Oz with his following every new "brand new study says" stuff. And give me a break, he's an expert in ever area of medicine? People, just go to your personal physician please lol

I believe he is a cardiac surgeon and was very surprised that he was still practicing since he is a big shot tv star. A lot of the stuff he recommends has been discredited-like some of the weight loss stuff he talks about.

KelRN215, BSN, RN · Feb 25, 2013

I am not even a nurse yet, but my short time in the hospital as aide made me see how much nurses do and how smart they are about patient care and how little doctors are even around and sometimes honestly they seem to just not get what is actually going on. Sometimes they actually seem pretty clueless...
Yet somehow medical shows continue to portray the situation unfairly. I actually got into a small disagreement with someone about the show scrubs. They said all in all it was one of the better ones, but one of the nurses makes a comment about never going to college (then she couldn't have been a nurse) and their is a particularly irritating scene where a doctor fires a nurse. you also see the doctors sending the nurses to new assignments?
Any way i know it is just tv, but it upsets me because so many people are just ignorant
to what nursing is all about.
I know I was. I wanted to be a doctor mostly because I wanted to challenge gender sterio types, but one stay in the hospital changed my perspective took a 180. the nurses are the ones taking care of the patients!
Any way I don't want to bash doctors but I think maybe we need a new outlook on the way we view the healthcare team.

It actually is possible to be a nurse without ever having gone to college. There are still diploma programs around- as few and far between as they may be.

ER is the only medical show I will watch... I'm actually watching it right now... I can tolerate the mistakes because I started watching this show when I was like 13 so I like the characters more than the medical aspect of it. But there are things that are just so unrealistic it's ridiculous... like the other day I was watching an episode where an ER Attending pages Abby (who got kicked out of med school and is working as an OB nurse) and tells her that she's pulling her off OB to work as an ER nurse for the day. HA. Like the MDs have anything to do with assigning/floating nurses....

I cannot stand Grey's Anatomy. I remember being forced to watch the episode where Grey died when I was out of town with a bunch of friends who watched it... they were getting mad because the whole episode I just kept saying "she's dead, she's dead, she's dead."

There's a funny list about the inaccuracies in Grey's Anatomy:

life: "Things I learned on "Grey's Anatomy" that I didn't learn in medical school"