House - Is this what nurses do?

Nurses General Nursing

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Did anyone watch House tonight? The reason I'm asking is about halfway through the show I think the MD played by Omar Epps made a rude comment about nurses. The situation was that the MD was preparing to do a spinal tap on a pt., and the pts. sister asked if she could help. He said something to the effect of "Sure, it's easier than getting a nurse" and asked her to reposition his legs and hold them. The girl then asked "Is that all that nurses do?" and the MD replied something to the effect of that being all they were good for.

Now mind you my hearing is somewhat diminished and I wasn't really paying a great deal of attention to the show, but I swear that's what I heard. Just want to confirm before I fire off a nasty email to the show...

Specializes in Gerontological, cardiac, med-surg, peds.

Excellent post, jb2u.

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Specializes in primary care, pediatrics, OB/GYN, NICU.

I have to agree. My husband and I like to watch the show House because we like the characters and solving the medical mysteries. But my husband said he wasn't going to watch it with me anymore if I kept saying "The doctors don't do that!!!!" I try to bite my tongue. But it's true: on House AND Grey's anatomy they show doctors doing a lot of nursing stuff - it's what WE do for goodness sakes! They also show the doc's doing tasks that the different lab and CT personnel do. And you know what? Not to offend anybody, but if they only showed what many (but not all) types of doc's do (brief head to toe exam if they touch them at all, write orders, dictation etc., discuss things with the family) the show would be rather boring. They have to make them look like they are doing something. I would never want to be an MD - how boring. Give me the hands on and patient care any day. It DOES bother me that they don't show any nurses doing anything. Well, actually last night they had two nurses (?) run into the guys room and use a yonker while he was having a seizure. I was very surprised.

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Specializes in rehab; med/surg; l&d; peds/home care.

one of my posts got deleted when this thread was combined, and my thoughts aren't all there.

i am concerned about the TV portrayal of nurses. I fully believe the public is misinformed/ignorant about what the true job of nurses is.

I also said that I was surprised that Omar Epps character didn't say anything nice about nurses to that young girl, since he IS DATING a nurse on the show. why does he have to talk about his boss' negative opinion? he could have said something to her negative comment "is this all nurses do?!". even the girl had a smirk on her face like she thought nurses were stupid.

it made me angry to see it. and i was another one who had to rewind that scene a few times to hear what he said.

My other post (that was deleted) also said that I am aware of how TV affects the public's view of many topics, not just nursing. Remember the thread about the newspaper article where the accountant stated that "nurses are not professionals"? it was just a couple weeks ago.

i am surprised how many pts on the show allow this doctor (house) to come in and yell at them, degrade them, etc. it's sickening. his character is really abusive to patients as well. he may be a genius, but he's a jerk (can't say here what i really think! ;). i'm glad his underlings are finally standing up to his crazy antics.

i can't remember any more of what was in my deleted post.

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Why don't we pitch a show about nurses to the networks? It would be comedy/drama. Some of what we see is quite serious but yet some of it is hilarious.

I've racked my brain and I cannot think of one show that potrays nurses in a positive light. I love MASH, but even then the dr's treated them like sex objects and the dr's saved the day, not the nurses.

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Specializes in Education, Acute, Med/Surg, Tele, etc.

Actually Bethin...long long time ago..LOL..there was a show called NURSE, staring Micheal Learned (female)...it was cool! The only reason I even know about it...was she is my great aunt, who I have never met actually!

I wonder if she would think it was cool to have a relative that is ACTUALLY a nurse! LOL!

That was a good show..for the re-runs I have seen...very dated mind you (smoking at the nurses desk...glass IV's...yes doc all the time...and short skirts in white! And Lord help you if the coffee wasn't right on! LOL!).

So..looking for a show that was actually cool about RN's....well it was in the 70's~ LOL...nothing recent though! LOL!

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Specializes in Critical Care, Cardiothoracics, VADs.
The only show I have ever seen that portrays nurses as nurses was one that the ABC (Aust) aired called Nurses

Ah, that was filmed at my hospital - one of my friends is in there! That was a great documentary.

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I generally don't watch medically oriented shows on TV, I decided I wasn't going to watch house from the first pre-view. However, I was watching "Untold Stories of the ER" on TLC last night and I really enjoyed that one. The ER doc was new and another doc told him to use a specific type of forcep to get a fork out of a patient's throat. The doctor looked at the table obviously perplexed and a nurse pointed it out to him.

I only watched a couple episodes of this show, but so far I've been pleased with the nurse portrayal. Now, if only it was more mainstream. ~sigh~

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Specializes in Adolescent Psych, PICU.

Please tell me one tv show that IS realistic.

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Specializes in primary care, pediatrics, OB/GYN, NICU.

Does anyone know anyone involved in the TV industry? Maybe it's time we came up with a realistic show about nurses! I mean, really...the story would be different every week - we do tons of interesting stuff, there are plenty of scary, funny, moving, surprising patients, families and situations. I really don't understand why one hasn't been done already. Remember China Beach? It's time for the media to portray nurses accurately. I sometimes wonder why anyone wants to become a nurse if their only exposure to nursing is what they see on TV!

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Nobody is more maligned in TV shows and movies than lawyers. Yet, I don't see lawyers complaining about it.

:typing

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Does anyone know anyone involved in the TV industry? Maybe it's time we came up with a realistic show about nurses! I mean, really...the story would be different every week - we do tons of interesting stuff, there are plenty of scary, funny, moving, surprising patients, families and situations. I really don't understand why one hasn't been done already. Remember China Beach? It's time for the media to portray nurses accurately. I sometimes wonder why anyone wants to become a nurse if their only exposure to nursing is what they see on TV!

If you notice, a big driving plot point in all of these shows is solving the medical mystery. And the medical mystery involves docs and diagnosis. That's probably why a lot of these shows focus on docs.

:typing

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Specializes in primary care, pediatrics, OB/GYN, NICU.

The Center for Nursing Advocacy lists House and Grey's Anatomy as the WORST in their portrayal of Nurses....interesting.

from Medscape Nurses, Mar 2006 Richard S. Ferri, PhD, ANP, ACRN, FAAN

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