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

Nurses Relations

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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.

Specializes in Pediatric Cardiology.
It's the SIDE RAILS!!!! That always gets me.

I can handle the O2 tubing wrong. The MD giving meds. Pronouncing med names wrong. Make-up and perfect hair on a dying pt.

I just can't stand the side rails down. It's nursing 101.

Nurses cannot intubate where I work. Must be a facility thing.

I forgot about O2 tubing! That is probably the thing that bothers me most, it's so insignificant but every time I find myself yelling at the TV. My husband even points it out now!

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I haven't seen a show yet that shows CPR done correctly. It's always push down, wait 5 minutes, "Is he alive?", push down, wait 5 minutes, "How 'bout now?"

And how about when the one doing the compressions is doing it on a bed that is bouncing like there's a giant spring in the patient's back?! There in the television ICU, of course there's no backboard, lol.....Boing, Boing, Boing....gee, STILL no rhythm? Go figure.

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It's because of shows like this, people like my mother-in-law, who have never worked a day in their lives and sit at home eating bonbons make comments like...you're not a doctor, you're not even a nurse...lvns change bedpans and that's all...I have no problem changing bedpans but I can do a little more than that... Just saying.

It's also because of these goofball medical shows that people tend to flip out if they see a bubble in the IV tubing creeping toward their arm...."AGGHH!!! I'm gonna FLATLINE if that champagne bubble gets into my VEIN!!!!"

Nah, we're not that lucky....

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I do wish we had the nice, seafoam green linens like the Salem hospital on DOOL... And that there was only one room in the whole place...

OOhhh, yes, I do admire those hunter green, cobalt blue, and even BLACK sheets on Grey's...rofl......yep, those stand up to hot water and bleach really well :)

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I never get tired of The Machine that Goes Ping!

I know it's been posted before but it's SO classic.

When I read that post, I immediately thought the same thing! We don't know what the machine actually does, but it does go ping! lol

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I had alot of respect for Dr. Oz in the beginning. He was down-to-earth and a welcome source of realistic medical info. He apparently IS a respected cardiac surgeon.

HOWEVER, all he seems to do these days is promote diet after diet after diet. How can one person find so many diets to espouse?

Mrs. Oz must have the lowest laundry bill of any doctor's wife in Manhattan; her husband wears nothing but scrubs! Wonder if he goes to bed in them as well? *LOL*

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Watching Grey's yet again...nurse is sitting playing a game on the computer. LOL.

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
My favorite--on a Sy Fy channel movie I learned that the cure for hypoglycemia is insulin.

Unfortunately there are some diabetic patients who believe this is true.

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Far as television medical *dramas* are concerned IMHO "Trapper John, M.D. was and still is one of the best.

Not that they got it right all the time and some episodes came near to jumping the shark, but there was still enough reality on both the physican and nurse side of things.

Following is one of my favourite episodes as it dealt with the issue of AP nurses. While it may seem like no big deal to many today especially those *youngsters* to the profession back when the series ran (1979-1986) advanced practice nurses either as NPs or floor/unit nurses having a wider scope of practice via courses/certifications was *new* and not all the natives were happy nor comfortble with the idea. In particular the thought of such nurses writing scripts sent more than a handful of physicans raving mad.

TRAPPER JOHN MD SUPERNURSE - 1 - YouTube

TRAPPER JOHN MD SUPERNURSE - 2 - YouTube

TRAPPER JOHN MD SUPERNURSE - 3 - YouTube

TRAPPER JOHN MD SUPERNURSE - 4 - YouTube

TRAPPER JOHN MD SUPERNURSE - 5 - YouTube

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
Far as television medical *dramas* are concerned IMHO "Trapper John, M.D. was and still is one of the best.

Not that they got it right all the time and some episodes came near to jumping the shark, but there was still enough reality on both the physican and nurse side of things.

Following is one of my favourite episodes as it dealt with the issue of AP nurses. While it may seem like no big deal to many today especially those *youngsters* to the profession back when the series ran (1979-1986) advanced practice nurses either as NPs or floor/unit nurses having a wider scope of practice via courses/certifications was *new* and not all the natives were happy nor comfortble with the idea. In particular the thought of such nurses writing scripts sent more than a handful of physicans raving mad.

TRAPPER JOHN MD SUPERNURSE - 1 - YouTube

TRAPPER JOHN MD SUPERNURSE - 2 - YouTube

TRAPPER JOHN MD SUPERNURSE - 3 - YouTube

TRAPPER JOHN MD SUPERNURSE - 4 - YouTube

TRAPPER JOHN MD SUPERNURSE - 5 - YouTube

^ I WISH they would bring back this show...As an 80s baby, I watched this show, M*A*S*H, and they were very good shows...these shows really inspired me to go into healthcare...this particular episode, especially. I was able to ask the WHY of the show, and my parents were happy to oblige in providing answers that made sense.

Technology is a wonderful thing :) Thanks DoGoodThenGo!!

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Not to forget the great-grand-daddy of all medical dramas, Medical Center:

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^ I WISH they would bring back this show...As an 80s baby, I watched this show, M*A*S*H, and they were very good shows...these shows really inspired me to go into healthcare...this particular episode, especially. I was able to ask the WHY of the show, and my parents were happy to oblige in providing answers that made sense.

You're welcome! T'wern't nuttin.

Technology is a wonderful thing :) Thanks DoGoodThenGo!!

Trapper John, M.D. covered some ground breaking and controversial topics over it's seven year run. It was one of the first prime time televison shows to deal with AIDS for instance. Granted it being a medical show made things a bit easier but for that time the subject was a hot potato.

It has just been a little over thirty years since "Trapper John" and you can see from the series how the roles of professional nurses were evolving from the 1950's "Marcus Welby" type dramas.

Gone for the most part were the dreamy eyed young girls who didn't open their mouths except to say "yes doctor" or "no doctor" or some such drivel, and in their place you begin to see a more assertive model both on the floors/units and supervisor.

Ernestine Snoops, R.N. (played by the late Madge Sinclair), always reminded one of the various nurses one knew growing up from the "Islands". Don't know if it was their accent or culture but they could either make you crack up with laughter or set you straight without batting an eye.

Nurse Snoops also IMHO did a good job of showing just what nurse supervisors did then and still are often going through. Fighting for staffing, fighting for bennies and other things her nurses not just required but she believed was their rightful due.

You also saw what was playing out in hospitals in terms of nurse "uniforms" at that time. Yes, many still wore white dresses and caps, but lots of younger nurses ditched the latter and often wore pant suits. Oh and the only one wearing anything remotely "see through" was the supervisor, and even the sight of her elegant sheer blouses and camisoles didn't set off any alarms.

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