Finally, nurses are portrayed right in media

Nurses General Nursing

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Don't you just love Epiphany Johnson on General Hospital? Modern Nurse has a great story about this. Nurses are no longer portrayed in TV shows as mere accessories or even servants! She's confident, dedicated and hardworking like most of us truly are.

http://www.modrnnurse.com/cover-stories/article/epiphany.aspx

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

anybody who watches gh knows epiphany got quite a few things right. but the show is still getting plenty wrong -- mostly in the form of becky herbst's character, liz.

i loved epiphany telling liz that she needed to either get her act together or stay home because "mrs. s's hormones aren't going to do mr. d's gall bladder condition any good." and i loved her telling liz to concentrate on work, not her complicated personal life.

if epiphany is the real nurse, liz is the opposite. how many nurses do you know who have time to leave work, get dolled up in a fancy cocktail dress and go to a fancy restaurant to have a glass of wine and lunch with their ex-husband before returning to work to finish their shift? how many nurses do you know who can "take a break" by changing clothes and strolling to the docks so they can encounter an ex-lover and his current squeeze, stop and have a large latte while staring off at the water, and have altercations with a couple of enemies and a hug with a friend before going back to work? how many nurses do you know who regularly care for ex-husbands, ex-lovers, the current lovers of former lovers, best friends and enemies? how many nurses do you know who can have a bad feeling about their ex-husband's planned arrest of a former lover, run off to the police station in the middle of their shift to steal an official police file, then return to work to shred the police file in the paper shredder in the nurse's station?

how many nurses to you know who decided to go to nursing school during may sweeps and were fully qualified, experienced rns by november sweeps?

epiphany is great -- i love her! but i wish they'd shape liz up!

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I've been a GH fan for over 30 years but I hate how nurses are so interchangeable...ie...ER/OR/ICU/Floor nurse all in the same shift. Kinda like walking the halls of the hospital and finding a patient or case you like and just taking over!

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Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.
I've been a GH fan for over 30 years but I hate how nurses are so interchangeable...ie...ER/OR/ICU/Floor nurse all in the same shift. Kinda like walking the halls of the hospital and finding a patient or case you like and just taking over!

I'm a long time fan too and love the show but also get irritated by their lack of accurate portrayals. The doctors also work on every floor and every field of medicine. Patrick is a surgeon yet he & Robin treated Laura in the psych hospital. HIPPA violations everywhere. Patients charts lying around. Patients names on the room doors. Big bottles of Hydrocodone standing around on carts with no one watching. Pills in little paper cups sitting on carts with no names. Magic IV drug (which Robin didn't actually push) that brings back a catatonic patient within minutes with no residual muscle weakness. She jumps right back into life as it was. So much misinformation that it's laughable to us who know and unfair to pass off to those who don't and believe. I believe GH and other shows are part of the reason that people have the impression of nurses that they do. They do nothing but stand at the station and gossip or talk on the phone. Yes Elizabeth finished nursing school in just several months. Yes I do find Epiphany very refreshing! I did not know that she is really a nurse. Cool!

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Specializes in ED, ICU, MS/MT, PCU, CM, House Sup, Frontline mgr.

I do not watch Soaps, but I am glad that TV is moving in the right direction for once.

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Specializes in Emergency.
I've been a GH fan for over 30 years but I hate how nurses are so interchangeable...ie...ER/OR/ICU/Floor nurse all in the same shift. Kinda like walking the halls of the hospital and finding a patient or case you like and just taking over!

Hey, I like this idea! :idea: Only taking patients that meet OUR requirements!

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i thought this was going to be about cnn's special that is on this weekend about combat hospitals.

hi there ruby!

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Specializes in NICU.
how many nurses do you know who have time to leave work, get dolled up in a fancy cocktail dress and go to a fancy restaurant to have a glass of wine and lunch with their ex-husband before returning to work to finish their shift? how many nurses do you know who can "take a break" by changing clothes and strolling to the docks so they can encounter an ex-lover and his current squeeze, stop and have a large latte while staring off at the water, and have altercations with a couple of enemies and a hug with a friend before going back to work? how many nurses do you know who regularly care for ex-husbands, ex-lovers, the current lovers of former lovers, best friends and enemies? how many nurses do you know who can have a bad feeling about their ex-husband's planned arrest of a former lover, run off to the police station in the middle of their shift to steal an official police file, then return to work to shred the police file in the paper shredder in the nurse's station?

what, your breaks aren't like this at work? :lol2:

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Specializes in ICU, telemetry, LTAC.

What's a break?

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Oncology.

I thought I was the only one who got worked up about all of this stuff! I also like how Lucky got hooked on the M/S PCA - how he got a dose EVERY time he pushed the button. Did you notice that everyone referred to the PCA as a drip...

All My Children did the same thing with Julia. 10 years after nursing school she took a refresher course and was floating all over the hospital the next day.

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Specializes in Looking for a career in NICU.

I've never seen a profession portrayed accurately on TV, because that is what TV is..a fantasy.

On Nip/Tuck, they do procedures on that show that is out of the scope of practice for a plastic surgeon. All of the attorney shows make it look like every attorney is passionately dedicated to their clients. All of the New York shows make it look like you can afford a spacious 2 bedroom apartment while you work only part-time at a bookstore or a coffee shop.

I have never looked at television for the accurate portrayal of anything, and don't consider it damaging to any profession if it portrayed negatively or inaccurately. However, programs do have a tendency to increase the interest that people have in courses of studies, like the forensic shows are doing right now.

People interact with nurses a few times a year anytime you go to a hospital to visit a friend, are admitted to a hospital or visit a doctor's office. I've only run into maybe 2 nurses in my life, that I thought needed to get out of the profession b/c of their attitude or I thought they were lazy. As far as all of the others, I have always found nurses to be extremely helpful, willing to bend over backwards for you....and I'm sure my experience can't be unique.

I think it would be false to just assume that just because something is portrayed inaccurately, that it's what the majority of the public is going to believe, especially in a fictional show.

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Specializes in Day Surgery/Infusion/ED.

I'm disappointed; I thought this was going to be an article about real nurses, not some soap character.

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