Medical shows vs the real thing?

dopaminequeenRN · Jan 14, 2008

Hhhhmmmm....This is a hard one. When I'm watching these shows (My fave is ER), it seems the majority of the medical terminology and the procedures that are done are pretty much the norm. But, the other elements such as the scenarios themselves are a little overdone. For example, if every ER was like "County General" on TV, all the nurses, docs, etc would have admitted themselves to psych wards long ago. Once you get into the medical field and become familiar with how things really are at the hospital you'll be able to watch these shows and know what is accurate and what would never happen in a million years!

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · Jan 14, 2008

Almost all the patients on ER are really sick. In reality about 10% come in for things I wouldn't even call my doc for, and 30% I'd be embarassed to go to an emergency room because it isn't that serious.

The really sick patients they get are interesting, but my really sick patient is another guy with chest pain, or an MVA. The challenging ones come once a month or so.

Tait, MSN, RN · Jan 14, 2008

I used to hate seeing the IV bags on Scrubs because the drip chambers were always full. I was always yelling at the screen "but you can't see the drip!"

My fav line from some medical show, I think it was CSI was when a psychotic pt was having a seizure on the exam table. The doc yelled out "XXXdiazpine BID!!"

I was like...twice a day?

I like Grey's Anatomy and give it a lot of leway, I was told that thier cases are based on real life cases, and generally the drama of the romance crap supercedes the real medical part.

House is actually pretty fascinating as they focus heavily on symptoms/diagnosis etc. Have I ever researched it to see if it is all right? Nah, but the stuff I do recognize has usually been pretty close to spot on.

jmgrn65, RN · Jan 14, 2008

I dont think they are very realistic at all, they show the docs doing everything. House the one episode I watched had 2 residents take a pt to CT and there were the only ones there apparently they also know how to run a ct scan then the pt coded and they did the code all by themselves. Residents running a code by themselves is a joke.

I do agree with one of the other op that said ER is closest to realist they have real nurses on staff one of the actors was a nurse (i don't know if she is still on the show).

For the most part no they aren't realistic.

sorry i think i rambled.

Emma123 · Jan 14, 2008

Although I love Grey's and House for its entertainment value....

One episode, House yelled, "Nurse, clean that up."

On Grey's recently, an OR nurse just blatantly kissed "McDreamy", at work, on the clock. Hopefully the general public (laughs to herself) doesn't see us as poop cleaning prostitutes. :icon_roll

oldiebutgoodie, RN · Jan 14, 2008

I like how on "Scrubs" Karla the nurse seems to just cruise into work whenever she feels like it. Nobody ever gives or gets report on "Scrubs", and the surgeons are always around on the floor (what planet is this??)

Oldiebutgoodie

kmoonshine, RN · Jan 14, 2008

The shows are way off!

You can't shock someone from asystole into a normal sinus rhythm.

You don't have 6 doctors coding a patient with one nurse standing by to watch (I'm in the ER, and it is the nurses that run the codes; the doc is present, intubates if needed, put in a central line; it is a team environment but the doc doesn't stay by the bedside the entire time).

Nurses don't follow doctors orders; we collaborte with doctors. Some of my patient's would be dead if I followed doctor orders 100% of the time.

TazziRN, RN · Jan 14, 2008

i dont think they are very realistic at all, they show the docs doing everything. house the one episode i watched had 2 residents take a pt to ct and there were the only ones there apparently they also know how to run a ct scan then the pt coded and they did the code all by themselves. residents running a code by themselves is a joke.
i do agree with one of the other op that said er is closest to realist they have real nurses on staff one of the actors was a nurse (i don't know if she is still on the show).
for the most part no they aren't realistic.
sorry i think i rambled.

anyone running a code by themselves is a joke! at least in critical care, it is a team effort with the md asking the staff for suggestions, staff popping up with "how about ......?"

i do agree that er seems to be the most correct, but even that is not totally right. i stopped watching it when they showed a man with heart failure come in and the er crew kept him in the er and frantically made phone calls trying to find him a heart for transplant. uh-huh.

the one good thing er did when it first came out was give the public an idea of how crazy it can be, and why. i had so many pts tell me "now i understand why things take so long."

john q was a popular movie with a lot of raves, but i was so disappointed when i finally saw it. people do not seem perfectly healthy, collapse during sports, and get on the transplant list within a 24-hour time span. and people on vents do not talk. they can't. my daughter had to watch it during her cna class and i had told her ahead of time to watch for the inconsistencies. afterwards the students had to talk about it, and dd blasted it. even the teacher had to agree that she was right.

MelBel · Jan 14, 2008

As someone else already mentioned, I find they show the doctors doing everything on TV. And actually TALKING to their patients. I don't work in the ER, but I know on the floor they walk in, do a 1 minute assessment, look at the chart, and write some orders.

Also, I found it funny on Grey's Anatomy when one of the main characters (I don't remember who at this point) was found pretty much dead, and they resusitated her, and she was up and talking and looking good again immediately.

I do still like the shows for the drama. :)

RNperdiem, RN · Jan 14, 2008

Missing are the large numbers of elderly and chronically ill or disabled people who form a large percent of the hospital population.

Missing are the respiratory therapists. Doctors and nurses do all the patient care it seems.

Missing are the foreign docs with accents you understand only with great difficulty.

Kunzieo · Jan 14, 2008

I LOVE House.

I know, I know...it's totally unrealistic...

But in defense of House...the reason that House's team does everything themselves is because House trusts NO one (even his own team sometimes) and believes that the results are only reliable if the test was done by himself or a team member!

(actually that's not much of a defense, is it....still paints nurses in a pretty crappy way, untrustworthy, unreliable, untrained...

But...it's TV!)

btw...totally off topic...but there was a commercial on the TV just now and I wasn't really paying attention...but the narrator has that "Mr. Moviephone" voice...and he's over there saying "UTI is the answer...blahblah...Visit UTI.edu...see what it can lead to...UTI is the industry's choice...blahblah...UTI is the answer."

Thankfullly I have TiVo...because I wasn't really paying attention, but kept hearing that, and by the time I looked up the commercial was over. I was like...huh?

So I rewound...it's an auto mechic tech school...Universal Technical Institute.