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 mean, nurses have historically been marginalized in many mass media outlets, but this is amazing!!
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."
im totally stealing this from you. it's so damned true.
Why can't they make a serious show about nursing? In fact, it wouldn't need to be all serious as we all know how often moments of hilarity occur during a nomal shift. So, my question would be, what area should the show focus on? There's already an ER show, so I guess that area would be out. All the network has to do is consult nurses on events and things that actually happen, with a little "changing the name to protect the innocent" the would probably have a hit show that would educate the public on the real world of nursing. They could show the moments when the nurse is the one the patient turns to for support, the moments where the nurse is crying, having just lost a patient, moments when a coworker is telling everyone a dumb joke to lighten the mood, times where the nurse is telling the doctor that the patient is going sour and he/she needs to see that patient right now. Times where the nurse initiated treatment immediately because that's what the patient needs. There are all kinds of scenerios that would make for a hit show. What do you all think?
Specializes in Critical Care, Emergency, Education, Informatics.
We have to convince the producers that a "serious" nurse program would be marketable. I'm not sure that all the nurses in the world would make enough of a finacial market to support it. It's TV. The nurses would be either to pretty, to stupid, to something or other.
Specializes in Critical Care, Emergency, Education, Informatics.
14 Hours
Just after I posted the last message I read a review on "14 hours". I"ll have to watch it, it's supposed to be pro nurse and how they reacted to the disaster in Houston.
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."
im totally stealing this from you. it's so damned true.
i sent them an email, i hope they read it.
Yes it is true, but do we always have to bring excrement into it?? It doesn't exactly help our struggle for professional recognition. Also, believe it or not, some nurses' days actually DO NOT revolve around bedpans
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.
At least she got involved. At least she got up off her duff and did something about it. It's just too easy to criticize those who do take action against injustice, isn't it, instead of attacking the injustice itself.
Please feel free to share your letters. Remember, professional writers have professional editors to help them out. Very few of them are ace spellers or grammarians, they just have a burning desire to say something.
Specializes in Critical Care, Emergency, Education, Informatics.
I guess the area of contention here is whether there is injustice or not. You look at any TV show or movie and no proffesion or person is left untouched. I don't think that every person who works in a 1 hour photo lab is a pervert after the Robin WIlliams movie. I don't think that FBI profilers always see visions. I don't think that every cop on the beat is corrupt.
IT's not action or inaction I'm talking about, It usefull and benificial action. It's action that actually changes things and doesnt' just make us feel good about writing a emotionally charged email.
I just don't hink it does any good. So my plan for me, becuase it works for me, is to spend the same energy and be productive.
Most med school graduates now days are not that insolent upon graduating med school. If they are that way earlier on in school, their attitude is adjusted or they will fail. Occasionally one with a big head makes it through and develops it further until they become a putrified blob of condescension. However, this is rarity NOWdays.
This is how I feel too. Most residents and med school students I've met are respectful and seem to have good working relationships with nurses. I have a lot of hope for the new generation of health care professionals and I really think the doctors coming out of school today are much more down to earth and just plain kind. This show does not at all portray what I see in the real world. Besides the fact that it really rips on nurses, it doesn't really do doctors any favors either. It's just about a fictitious world where nurses are invisible and doctors have flashy, verbose arguments because their huge heads keep knocking together over the operating table. Maybe things were like this at some point in time, but not anymore.
Please feel free to share your letters. Remember, professional writers have professional editors to help them out. Very few of them are ace spellers or grammarians, they just have a burning desire to say something.
I am certainly not a writer, but I did the best I could.
March 31, 2005
Dear Ms. Rhimes, Mr. Gordon, Mr. Parriott, Ms. Beers, Dr. Klein, Ms. Tobin and Mr. Thompson:
I was very excited about the premeire of Grey's Anatomy, and right after Desperate Housewives I settled in to watch the show and turned off the the television within 45 minutes. I am very disappointed and disgusted with your portrayal of the nursing profession.
I am sure you are aware that a large chunk of your audience points are going to come from the health professionals, of which none will be impressed with your lack of knowlege about the way interactions with professional staff occur and the way hospitals operate.
I was especially disgusted when the clueless intern was paged stat by a nurse for a bored patient. Never in my career have I even heard of that happening, and we nurses are well-versed in patients who are fishing for attention and contain that problem ourselves.
When a patient is seizing, and we have a fresh off the boat intern on our hands, we nurses "suggest" what to do next so that the intern can gain footing and begin the process of caring for the patient:
"How about some ativan?"
We teach the interns what to ask for and in what order to ask for it, when they lose their bearings.
And attendings teach us. Every day I learn something new from one of our attendings, who are all lovely and amazing neurosurgeons and neurologists. Working life in hospitals is not what you are showing. I would think, judging from all of the medical reality shows on Discovery Health, that a stronger dose of realism is what viewers want to see.
Please try to add some reality to your show. Until then, you have lost a viewer right out of the gate.
Yes it is true, but do we always have to bring excrement into it?? It doesn't exactly help our struggle for professional recognition. Also, believe it or not, some nurses' days actually DO NOT revolve around bedpans
I don't understand this. Because we clean up poop, we are not professionals? I think the definition of nursing should include all aspects of it and it should all be included with some dignity.
I don't understand this. Because we clean up poop, we are not professionals? I think the definition of nursing should include all aspects of it and it should all be included with some dignity.
That is not what I said. What I said is that it is one tiny part of what some nurses do, but it is one of the first things mentioned when some of us talk about what we do. Consequently, it is one of the first things people think about when they think of nurses.
It is impossible to include all aspects of nursing because, as I stated in my other post, some nurses never, in the course of their jobs, touch a bedpan. Does that make them less of a nurse?
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geekgolightly, BSN, RN
866 Posts
im totally stealing this from you. it's so damned true.
i sent them an email, i hope they read it.