Grey's Anatomy Premier!!! + How to Contact Show Creators

SleeplessInNJ · Mar 31, 2005

I wonder why Hollywood doesn't do a show with nurses as the main characters? They could make a really great dramatic series with touching, sad and some hysterically funny plot lines. If you get a group of nurses together and start telling work stories, it's always interesting! It would be nice if the public understood (and respected) what we really do. Anybody have any Hollywood connections? :coollook:

cursenurse · Mar 31, 2005

It really ought to be, "I do the vast majority of the work, since the doctor sees you for about three minutes a day when you're in the hospital. Oh, and I keep the green residents from killing you. If it weren't for me, you'd never get your medications, the physicians would have no clue what's going on with you, and you'd probably be lying in a pool of your own excrement. I am a nurse.""

Very well put!

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Mar 31, 2005

originally posted by rach_nc_03
it really ought to be, "i do the vast majority of the work, since the doctor sees you for about three minutes a day when you're in the hospital. oh, and i keep the green residents from killing you. if it weren't for me, you'd never get your medications, the physicians would have no clue what's going on with you, and you'd probably be lying in a pool of your own excrement. i am a nurse.""

:smiley_aa nrskarenrn stands up and cheers, stomps feet :yeahthat:

:melody: i was contacted by sandy summers exec. director @ the center for nursing advocacy

per sandy:

"i was able to track down some email addresses directly to the

producers and the publicist, so if they still have copies of their

letters, resending them through our form would get them delivered to a

more direct target."

:yeah: here' s the center's campaign:

abc's "grey's anatomy": so chunky with hollywood's contempt for nursing, you'll be tempted to use a fork. but use a scalpel!

so let your words flow:

just paste your original letter into form for best results!

send a letter to grey's anatomy to ask them to improve the portrayal of nursing on the show--it's nearly instant, just click here.

our profession thanks you! :thankya:

karen

cranky · Mar 31, 2005

I agree, that would make a great show. I get tired of the medical programs that portray nurses and doctors as sex hungry animals. I have worked in hospitals for years and heve never found anyone int the linen closet making out.

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Mar 31, 2005

I wonder why Hollywood doesn't do a show with nurses as the main characters? They could make a really great dramatic series with touching, sad and some hysterically funny plot lines. If you get a group of nurses together and start telling work stories, it's always interesting! It would be nice if the public understood (and respected) what we really do. Anybody have any Hollywood connections?

There was one, a comedy called "Nurses" that aired on ABC either in the late 80's or earlier 90's, and if i recall it was produced by the same people that produced "The Golden Girls" and "Empty Nest".

Edited to Add: the link describing the show i was refering to.

http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Stage/4318/Nurses.html

Notice that the nurses dressed normal, and it's the administrator's characher that had the huge hair and short skirts.

hoolahan, ASN, RN · Mar 31, 2005

Oh my god! I haven't posted in a long time, but I just had to post again. I'm watching the premier of Grey's Anatomy -- any of you see this?? (new show on ABC)
The Doctor, after being questioned by a nurse says, "I'm just a resident, but you take 4 years of medical school, and let me know if I'm right." (Did I quote it right?)
Then, as he walks away he says, "I hate nurses."
Then, he walks up to a female resident and mistakenly calls her a nurse and she responds, with anger and indignation, "Did you just call me a nurse?" As though it were a racial slur!

I find this to be a very accurate portrayal of the attitudes I have encountered. Is it right? Of course not! But why fault the program or writers for doing an honest job? To sugarcoat it is to do a disservice to the struggles of nurses. If you ask me, it just shows what a perfect orifice those two docs are!

Stitchie · Mar 31, 2005

I agree, that would make a great show. I get tired of the medical programs that portray nurses and doctors as sex hungry animals. I have worked in hospitals for years and heve never found anyone int the linen closet making out.

It's just that sex hungry doctors and nurses make people tune in; if they wanted to know what really went on in hospitals, they'd be watching "Trauma: Life in the ER" which, alas, doesn't exactly highlight the roles nurses have. It does a better job than most, though.

I don't think physicians really watch these types of shows all that much (just a hunch). And I have to agree, I've never seen people making out in linen closets, med rooms or anyplace else, for that matter. But I've never paid attention to that kind of thing; I have enough going on at home w/two toddlers to keep me busy!

CraigB-RN, MSN, RN · Mar 31, 2005

Its mass media and entertainment, not a documentary. I watched the show a couple of times and I didn't feel insulted at all. I wasn't impressed and I've been in hospitals that gave the 007 award. I've also taught an intern or two how to start IV's and draw blood. Screaming at ABC isn't going to change anything. The only thing that has changed media is when Hollywood found out that people actually wanted to see PG and PG-13 movies and that most of the R rated ones tanked.

I think the MD union would be more up in arms about how they are portrayed in media, show's like Scrubs sure make MD's look like a bunch of idiots. But as a group they are more confident in themselves.

Instead of blaming media, and writing "nasty" letters lets actually be professional and show the world who and what we are. People complain about Johnson & Johnson's campaign. But at least someone is out there talking about nurses. Get up out of the chair and be a voice. Go to civic organizations, go to schools, stand up in church, be an advocate for health care and nursing care.

allamericangirl · Mar 31, 2005

Well here is my contribution. I am on a consumer panel that reviews ABC TV shows and this is the opinion that I gave when they solicited it. I used the same letter in Karen's indicated place to email. I'm sure that some of you will not like it, but that is expected.

I am writing to express grave concern about the portrayal of the nursing profession in the premiere of "Grey's Anatomy." In my view you blew a fantastic opportunity to show how nurses teach new physicians, and that experienced nurses are highly educated, dedicated individuals with great health knowledge.

"A Hard Day's Night" went out of its way to underscore the surgeon's contemptuous views of nurses, and to reinforce the portrayal of nurses as unattractive, under skilled subordinates. There were so few appearances of nurses that it was as if they rarely exist in the hospital environment and that they are rarely used in any capacity of health care when the true fact is that nurses are the caregivers in health care, and in fact the physician's appearance is marginal!. Physicians peek in and out and occasionally appear. You portray this untruthfully and just the opposite of actuality!

None of your nurses even have a name! Only surgeons play significant roles in your care discussions, and only their actions matter in patient care, which is a huge untruth! You do not show that the nurses are the caregivers who interact with patients, and provide patient support, NOT the physicians. In real life, nurses provide education and care options to less than knowing interns! The misconception that physicians provide all meaningful care is blatantly pushed beyond repugnancy in your contemptuous definition and endorsement of your surgeons' contemptuous views of nurses.

Rhimes said: "the way people look at people on television is the way they perceive the world," and that "we can change the assumptions that people have simply by the images they see in the background of the show." - March 25, 2005, NPR interview: Isaiah Washington and Shonda Rhimes

"Gray's Anatomy", another of television's damaging misconceptions of medical care portrayed to the American public to the further determent of the safety of public health! Don't you people have any concept of responsibility to the public, to create positive results in the area a health care, an already DANGEROUS situation to the populous due to the extreme nursing shortage? When will television and ABC take a stand for improving the lives of it's viewers instead of instilling harmful misconceptions of an already broad misconception of medicine?

Choose to be part of the solution to the nursing shortage by a positive presentation of nursing in your show and correct your warped, misconstrued, misconceived, and falsely portrayed view of nursing on "Grey's Anatomy." Better yet do a new series, a truthful one about the heroes of health care: NURSES! This is a critical time in US medicine, and the public is at great risk! Help to improve public understanding of nursing, and dispel the public misconceptions which programming like Scrubs, Dr. Kildare, ER, and now Grey's Anatomy perpetuate, falsely portraying Nurses to be the stupid, uneducated, servants of the physician. The BSN degree is a four-year degree, and Nursing of today is filled with advanced masters and doctorate degree nurses! Your untruthful portrayal of nurses being helpless, blue collar, unskilled subordinates of health care is unforgivable.

During your seizure patient's code scene: Meredith does a total brain lapse, and the nurse's voice is prompting her: "You need to tell us what you want to do!" Nurses do not need to be told what to do in cases such as these. But your false portrayal shows them waiting for an Intern? to make a decision? NO! Eventually Meredith recovers, initiates and performs defibrillation, saving the patient. NO! The nurses working hard, portrayed to have minimal technical knowledge, and no suggestions for her and helplessly wait for her command. NO! The nurses wait for Meredith to take action to save the patient. NO! You show five nurses with no clue! How ridiculous! The nurses would have immediately done the defibrillation, then would have looked upon her as the idiot that she was! Nurses assume physician concurrence in the absence of an objection. Nurses are the ones who defibrillate, rarely, if ever the physician! Your message to the public was that five nurses with many years of combined experience had no clue of advice to offer an intern on their first day on the job. That was a disgusting untruthful portrayal!

Alex calls Meredith a nurse as an insult! Where is your head? You insulted the profession of nursing and lowered it into the cesspool. You destroyed the nurse for doing her job. The nurse is THE patient advocate! The ONLY patient advocate in health care! You could care less! If you end up in a hospital perhaps you should go incognito! Particularly, since you feel nurses to be annoying old pests who only serve to tell the public something about the beautiful, perfect interns, and have no other purpose! You also made a specific slam at nursing education: "nurses have not been to medical school, therefore pretty much all they can do is mechanically identify symptoms." Viewers were mis-lead. Nurses are college-educated critical thinkers! Physician abuse is the major factor in nurse burnout and is the real threat to patients in today's health care!

Alex trashes a nurse, who gives correct diagnoses and calls Meredith a nurse when she questions the diagnosis. Meredith takes great offense at being called a nurse. A perfect example of Suzanne Gordon's termed: "dress for success" feminism, in which women who pursue traditionally male professions like medicine disdain those in traditionally female ones like nursing is portrayed in your "I hate nurses" scene. Your program exhibits contempt for nursing.

Your portrayal of nurses in your program says that smart, aggressive, attractive, professional women do NOT become nurses! You should check me out. I am a 58-year-old "dish" (forgive my lack of modesty) who has left the business world to begin nursing school! Now! There is a story for you! You are so far off base on your concept of what a nurse is, that I wonder what world you live in!

With the media's proven influence on the public, an influence Ms. Rhimes acknowledged in her recent NPR interview, your show's attack on nursing will do more than its part to exacerbate the nursing crisis that is taking lives worldwide. I urge you to listen to nurses' ideas as to how that will happen.

"Grey's Anatomy" will have a negative effect on public health. You contribute to the chaos in health at a time when most of the world confronts huge nursing shortages. Substantial research confirms Ms. Rhimes' view that entertainment television is a powerful force in shaping public views and actions, including in the health care context. Use your show to make a positive influence on viewer's concepts by telling viewers that nurses are highly skilled, autonomous professionals who save lives and improve outcomes every day, and who do it without asking physicians what to do in times of crisis.

Contribute a positive influence to the public understanding of nursing at this critical time. You are in the position to take responsible positive action that could make a huge positive contribution to the world health care crises!

angelladyclaire · Mar 31, 2005

I think the MD union would be more up in arms about how they are portrayed in media, show's like Scrubs sure make MD's look like a bunch of idiots. But as a group they are more confident in themselves.

People complain about Johnson & Johnson's campaign. But at least someone is out there talking about nurses. Get up out of the chair and be a voice. Go to civic organizations, go to schools, stand up in church, be an advocate for health care and nursing care.

I like the way Craig B-RN thinks... :yeahthat: I've seen Johnson & Johnson ads that portray nurses in a great light. (I also love the "are you man enough to be a nurse?" posters) :) I don't see the harm in some well placed, educated letters of disappointment, but if we send angry letters we are likely to make ourselves look petty.

On the other hand, doctors can be confident enough not to care because they already have an established role in the american mind as heroes and gods. There are so many people, especially the elderly, who feel that their doctor can do no wrong. "If the doctor said it, it must be true."

It would be nice for people to realize that nurses and doctors have to work as as partners in order to make patient care work. Both physicians and nurses are classified as professionals. Let's allow people to see that through our actions.

angelladyclaire · Mar 31, 2005

allamericangirl's post is a prime example of what I am saying. If we lose our cool and send letters with sentences that are unreadable we make ourselves look ridiculous. Instead of losing our cool, we should send collected and throughtful letters to show the execs how professional and educated we really are.

CraigB-RN, MSN, RN · Mar 31, 2005

Maybe the real problem is that we don't teach people to be able to diferentiate between fiction and reality. I'ts a fictional show about a babe intern having sex with her attending. I'ts not about medicine or nursing. It just happens to be set in a hospital. It could as easily be a law office, a shool, whatever.

Be positive, I go to schools, With the schools permision i talk to sports teams during practice. I put articles in the paper, I speak at the senior centers. I don't smeg TV, I just portray it as fiction, and then tell them about the reality.

Now if this was a documentary, I'd have a differnt opinion. I was working at Johns Hopkins when film crew were there. I know they got many hours of footage of nurses. BUt it was the good looking blond female surgeon who gabe it all up that got their attention. That bothered me.

Be proactive. Let everyone on you block know what nurses are and what they do, Make sure your church knows, you're kids school mates, then when FICTION comes out in mass media, they won't take it for reality.