Is 'E.R' the tv show accurate?

Specialties Emergency

Published

Hi,

Do you guys reckon that 'E.R' the tv show is accurate from a nursing perspective? Does it underrepresent nurses? (is underrepresent actually a word? well you know what I mean lol) It does seem to glorify the doctors a bit...

Its not as bad as others

Greys Anatomy definitly does I think.

And predidio med! yeesh!

Whadya reckon?

Jack

My Daughter and I have an agreement. I watch all the animal control programs on Animal Planet. And she watches ER and one of the other medical shows. And we never watch each others programs. She can't stand to see some of the mistakes on Animal Planet and I can't stand the ones on ER. And I haven't worked in more then 15 years.

Grannynurse:balloons:

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Specializes in CCU,SICU,CVICU,Burn Unit.
No..not accurate at all. We barely have time to pee yet less contemplate sex in the supply room :chuckle
:yeahthat: ISN'T IT THE TRUTH! :roll
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I know it's weird, but I like HOUSE. The show is TOTALLY inaccurate. Do they even have nurses on that show? What I like is he says things that medical people WISH they could say out loud to patients. He doesn't handle anyone with "kid gloves". Maybe in a peds unit that's okay but with people older than me? :uhoh3: I wish I could just ask some of my patients, "What is your basic problem??"

BTW- I love Emergency Vets on Animal Planet. I don't know how real it is, but it amazes me they can do all the stuff we do on humans on animals- but they get paid so much less. :( Anyway, I had thought about being a vet and a friend said, "Yeah, but your patients would bite and hiss at you." She hadn't taken care of some of the little old ladies I have!! :p

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

'ER' is much more medically realistic than it used to be.......in the first season, they were actually performing CPR on a pt. who was conscious and talking!!!:rotfl: They have some MD and RN consultants on the show, which I'm sure helps; still, they make enough mistakes that at least once an episode I'm yelling at the screen, "NO, you don't do it that way!!":chuckle It's always fun to watch them put in a central line with no local anesthesia, or crack open a rib cage in the ER with 50 people milling around, or leave an intubated patient alone, unrestrained, and with all the side rails down.:uhoh3:

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Specializes in NICU.
I'd say ER is closest. Gray's Anatomy :chuckle I loved the one when the mom had quints and they all had a different surgical problem, and of course the mom just didn't know a thing until she was 32 weeks pregnant and the perinatalogist was a neonatalogist/surgeon herself :rotfl: And when that doc told the resident to sit by the baby's bedside and then proceeded to say, "She better still be alive in the morning", well I was on the floor laughing, as were all my co-workers.

I normally like "Grey's Anatomy" but that episode really sucked! First of all, surgical residents do not get to hang out in the NICU like that! They come by, check the kids out, schedule surgery, etc. They have no background in pediatrics and therefore are not allowed to govern the care of a NICU baby. Surgical stuff, true, but nothing else! The fact that Addison "tested" Izzy by having her care for that baby all night long, it was totally off the wall. We don't "use" our babies to "test" residents, and definitely wouldn't allow a surgical resident to order ANYTHING for these babies. They have no clue about neonatal medications!!! I was so peeved at that episode, I can't begin to explain.

"ER" seems more realistic, but then again I haven't worked with adults in years and never in an ER, so I'm sure it's not all that perfect. I have to say, the couple of episodes they tackled NICU (like when Benton's son was sick, and that great episode called "NICU") they've done a pretty good job. Much more realistic than I could have hoped for.

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I know it's weird, but I like HOUSE. The show is TOTALLY inaccurate. Do they even have nurses on that show? What I like is he says things that medical people WISH they could say out loud to patients. He doesn't handle anyone with "kid gloves". Maybe in a peds unit that's okay but with people older than me? :uhoh3: I wish I could just ask some of my patients, "What is your basic problem??"

BTW- I love Emergency Vets on Animal Planet. I don't know how real it is, but it amazes me they can do all the stuff we do on humans on animals- but they get paid so much less. :( Anyway, I had thought about being a vet and a friend said, "Yeah, but your patients would bite and hiss at you." She hadn't taken care of some of the little old ladies I have!! :p

Most of the vet medicine, on Animal Planet is practiced at the more advance vet practices, vet schools or zoos. While there is health insurance for your pet that can be purchased, it has its limits. And most local vets do not have access to MRIs or CTs. Even the vet practice by the SPCA or Humane Society is supported by their area gifts. NYC and Huston(?) have wonderful services, Ft Myers, Naples, Port Charlotte and Sarasota do not. They are dependent on their local county to pay for emergency care of animals picked up and/or the vet donating time and services when they county can no longer pay. The one thing they have over us, they can muzzle any animal that hiss or attempts to bite:)

Grannynurse:balloons:

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Specializes in Med Surg, Hospice, Home Health.

I don't watch it, itls likebeing at work

linda

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I agree that watching ER is like being at work sometimes. I do think that it is probably one of the more technically acurate shows. What is very unrealistic, though, is all the hand-holding that the doctors do on that show. I don't know about how it is at anyone else's hospital but at mine they can't wait to get people OUT of the ER. To see the patients on TV spending all that time in the ER with the doctors getting so involved in their lives and all their problems is silly. And to see the TV docs stay late after their shifts to sit beside the stretcher, etc, please. Also, half the stuff the docs do on the show are really nursing duties. Like I said, maybe technically acurate but a very false representation of nursing and who really does the work at the bedside. I can't stand to watch most of the others, my husband likes House but it is so inaccurate it aggrevates me too much to watch. If you really want a laugh, watch some of the medical scenes in the made for TV movies like the one I saw on Lifetime for women recently (mindless TV clicking after a mind-numbing shift in ICU).

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Specializes in Emergency.

Is "ER" accurate? Depends on what you mean by "accurate". The show's producers make a big deal about their technical authenticity, and I suppose the medicine shown is way more real than silly shows like "Grey's Anatomy". Please remember this is still TV. What I do think is really accurate is the atmosphere of barely-controlled chaos when the department is really humming, of people who are very good at their jobs, doing the best they can in a very unconventional world. That all being said, what is wildly inaccurate is the portrayal of the characters. Doctors are almost too busy sleeping with one another to see patients. Nurses are portrayed as either pining to marry doctors (Carol) or to become one (Abby) - actually, I wouldn't want to stay a nurse on "ER", either - for the life of me, I can't figure out what they do, other than clean up. So, if you want a purely escapist soap opera with more technical medicine than average, "ER" is your show. If you want to know how a real ER works, spend your evening shadowing a real ER nurse. Trying to learn ER nursing from "ER" is like learning about suburban planning by watching "Desperate Housewives".

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Check out The Center for Nursing Advocacy at http://www.nursingadvocacy.org for analysis of media representatives of nursing. Lots of essays on these TV shows, very little of it positive.

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Specializes in ICU,ER.

I love the way everything just happens so quickly on these shows.

An ER doc will bellow out (very dramatically)..."Damn it, we need a chest tube in NOW" and about one and a half seconds later some resident yells back "Chest tube in!"

When I was working Neuro-ICU, a slightly cocky resident told us.."I need a suture removal kit STAT" This nurse I worked with was ghettofab and hilarious (and a very good neuro nurse)...put her hand on her hip, looked at him sideways and said, "Honey, you MUST watch way too much TV... you ain't Dr. Greene and I sure as hell ain't Nurse Hathaway. The kits are in the supply room to your right"

We were all ROLLING....:chuckle

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Specializes in Staff nurse.

...what bugs me is when putting in the central line, no one is wearing a mask, and you never see anyone washing their hands, or even using antiseptic waterless wash on their hands. Maybe we should ask for some "ask me if I washed my hands" buttons to send to Abby & Luka, etc :)

...and with being medical personnel, there seems to be a lot of pregnancies...

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