Medical shows vs the real thing?

daensg · Jan 21, 2008

At the facility where I work, we don't let the Cardiologists

even touch(!) the defibrillators. And we are number one in

the state in that specialty, too. I have nothing but very high

respect for those same cardiologists, but they (except for

the EP docs) don't use that equipment.

murmur · Jan 22, 2008

I think you guys are right people get the idea that the Docs do everything from watching these shows. Recently a family member wanted me to call an Anesthesiologist to start an IV. I thought to myself yeah it will probably be a guy who I taught how to start IV's. I work in the ER of a very busy teaching hospital. I am nice to the interns and residents I teach them stuff. I used to work in the OR I started the IVs not the anesthesiologist. I start 10 IVs a day - I am very good at it. If I can't get it you probably need an EJ and if I say so the Doc knows I am right. Whoever said so was right we do work collaboratively in the ER. We usually enter the orders - and start the care. If we waited for the Docs forget about it. We start the protocols for chest pain pneumonia cva everything not the Docs. The Docs look at everything of course and add whatever they think they might like to add. But we get the ball rolling and we are #1 in the state for stroke and mi care. There really should be a show where nurses are more out front. I think ER is a pretty good show, but it is not very popular anymore.

dadusmom · Jan 22, 2008

On the TV shows, the nurses are there for clean ups and to give the Dr's some "LOVE" after a hard days work. I loved an episode of House where the pts husband had the nurse watch his daughter.

truern · Jan 22, 2008

Last night when I was working in the ER, the hospitalist came down to admit a patient. Right as he was coming into the room, the patient had asked to get up to the commode to have a BM. When the patient saw the doc, he said "oh, I can wait until the doc is done" so I said I'd come back in a few minutes to help him to the commode. When the hospitalist was done seeing the patient, he came up to me and said "I'm all finished with Mr. Smith- I helped him up to the commode, and he's back in bed now."
Well my jaw hit the floor, I just about pooped my pants- the DOCTOR had actually gotten the pt. onto the commode & back to bed!!! So, while these shows might not be totally realistic, it's not completely unheard of for doctors to do this type of thing!

We had a nephrologist consult go to a patient's room just as she rang for help going the the BSC. Danged if he didn't get her there, he helped her tidy up AND got her back into bed before doing his consultation!!

He happens to be one of my favorite docs on the unit.....always approachable, always humane, always respectful. Gotta love the guy!!

lamazeteacher · Jan 22, 2008

I have always wondered if medical shows are similar to the real thing. Or are they way off from what really goes on?
What is your opinion on this?

WAY OFF! - more or less depending on the effectiveness of technical consultants. I advised the "All in the family" cast many years ago about prepared childbirth techniques, and was very impressed with Sally Struthers when she was told to say a line during a contraction, and she said "I can't talk during a contraction!" She also never hoo-haa'd in the ridiculous way it's portrayed these days.

Has anyone noticewd that the doctors in "House", "Grey's Anatomy, and "The Practise" work without nurses and do our chores? ER is better, but only slightly, as that program portrays doctors heading into patients' homes, breaking and entering to collect "evidence", as they also do in "House". :bugeyes:

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Jan 22, 2008

I had a real nice dress in my locker so I could change and look reallll sexy for my hot date.

You have a LOCKER??? Color me pea green! I'm lucky if I can find a clean spot in the admin hallway to hang my coat, never mind a locker...

The other week I was watching Grey's Anatomy, a family member came up to George and said "My father STILL has NOT received his medications!" George then proceeded to go and TAKE the chart away from the nurse and give the patient's meds....:angryfire
It was then that I turned the TV off! The interns on my floor don't even had access to the med room, nor would they have the first idea as to how to get the meds out of the Pixis! And people actually believe this stuff!!!!!

We have a unit policy that all medications must be double-checked and double-signed. A couple of times I've asked a doc to check my meds... our medical director looked at me like I had two heads and asked, "Can't you find a nurse to do that?" Well geez, if I could do you really think I'd have asked YOU? Others have just looked at me like a deer in the headlights. What, is the math too hard for you? I need 10 mg, there's 5 in 1 so I need 2 mL, right? And for this you went to school for ten years?

But to get back to the topic at hand... I watch out of some twisted fascination. Last week ER put a kid on ECMO in the trauma room. Hmmm. I work in a unit that does more ECMO than any other unit in Canada. If they could cannulate, do the run (only a couple of hours? Not in my experience...) and decannulate in the ER, why do they always bring them to us and get us to do it? And I've NEVER seen a ECMO patient that was extubated ON PURPOSE while still on the pump (except in an emergency, once, when the kid had a pulmonary hemorrhage and needed reintubation STAT for an obstructed tube). What was THAT? Sure we put them on rest settings, but to extubate? Yeahhhhhhhhhhhh. NO. :grn:

allnurses Guide · Jan 22, 2008

You have a LOCKER??? Color me pea green! I'm lucky if I can find a clean spot in the admin hallway to hang my coat, never mind a locker...
We have a unit policy that all medications must be double-checked and double-signed. A couple of times I've asked a doc to check my meds... our medical director looked at me like I had two heads and asked, "Can't you find a nurse to do that?" Well geez, if I could do you really think I'd have asked YOU? Others have just looked at me like a deer in the headlights. What, is the math too hard for you? I need 10 mg, there's 5 in 1 so I need 2 mL, right? And for this you went to school for ten years?
But to get back to the topic at hand... I watch out of some twisted fascination. Last week ER put a kid on ECMO in the trauma room. Hmmm. I work in a unit that does more ECMO than any other unit in Canada. If they could cannulate, do the run (only a couple of hours? Not in my experience...) and decannulate in the ER, why do they always bring them to us and get us to do it? And I've NEVER seen a ECMO patient that was extubated ON PURPOSE while still on the pump (except in an emergency, once, when the kid had a pulmonary hemorrhage and needed reintubation STAT for an obstructed tube). What was THAT? Sure we put them on rest settings, but to extubate? Yeahhhhhhhhhhhh. NO. :grn:

Yeah . . . .but the kid made it!! :rotfl:

I had a locker at my job . . .not one big enough for hanging clothes up but it held all my nursing paraphernalia.

steph

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Jan 24, 2008

So guess what I saw on All My Children yesterday that had me :lol2: ? A visiting physician (Angie Hubbard) was seeing her own son in the ER/OU when he had a seizure. She, aided only by that most capable nurse Julia Keefer, attempted to intubate (without drugs) and then proceeded to perform an emergency tracheostomy, again without drugs, right there in the observation unit. Awhile later, the son was noted to be wearing nasal cannulae along with his nice new Portex trach...

vballz · Jan 24, 2008

I have always wondered if medical shows are similar to the real thing. Or are they way off from what really goes on?
What is your opinion on this?

I entered nursing school because of the television show "SCRUBS."

That's what it's gonna be like....right?

lamazeteacher · Jan 24, 2008

So guess what I saw on All My Children yesterday that had me ? A visiting physician (Angie Hubbard) was seeing her own son in the ER/OU when he had a seizure. She, aided only by that most capable nurse Julia Keefer, attempted to intubate (without drugs) and then proceeded to perform an emergency tracheostomy, again without drugs, right there in the observation unit. Awhile later, the son was noted to be wearing nasal cannulae along with his nice new Portex trach...

Can TV producers/networks be sued for misleading the public?

How scary that scene must have been, for most uninformed watchers!

MiamiNice · Jan 25, 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. :)

Thanks! that is when I had to say ,,enough is enough,,,Meredith Gray,

under water dead and coded with no HR/BP/breath etc for over 30min plus and then after??cant"t recall bypass/cardopulm she wakes up /hair

perfect /makeup perfect and yadayadayada goes to do brain surgery onMc Dreamy and smile at Mc Steamy ugh!!! no nurse present except to fetch something or be yelled at by a resident! great drama and the Black woman resident is the best actress on the show (sorry I

don"t remeber her name) aloha from MiamiNice Thanks for that insight!!!! Even my male dentist tells his wife naw............ that is not

how it goes.... and he trained as an oral surgeon at a nyc hospital a

zillion years ago...back in the day

allnurses Guide · Jan 25, 2008

I had a good laugh yesterday. Regarding all the trysts that supposedly happen in the hospital between nurses and docs and doc and docs.

On the front page of my local paper - a huge scandal. Two men who work for City Hall pleaded guilty to having affairs with women. The women were labeled x, y, and z. The men were identified. Sex in the stairwell, sex in the closet, etc.

So, it does happen in real life.

steph