We've all heard it: nurses can't watch medical shows without getting annoyed about how inaccurate they are. Lately, I'm finding that the most ridiculous medical mistakes happen on police procedural dramas (Law and Order, Criminal Minds, etc.); at least the medical shows have people with medical backgrounds advising them.
Anybody have some funny tv medical mistakes to share??
Last week I was watching a rerun of Criminal Minds. The victim had been drugged with haldol by her kidnapper. When the police rushed in to save her, the EMS gave her a bolus of narcan and she magically awoke. It was a flipping miracle!! ?
Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).
I think My Favorite was a scene from Law and Order SVU - where Liv (cop) starts an IV on an accident victim from a backwards angle. without looking but being guided by a firefighter. Truely funny
My personal pet peeve is Liz Webber Lansing Webber Spencer Webber on General Hospital. One day she's an artist and the next day she decides to be a nurse. Within months, she's "the best nurse at General Hospital." Must be -- she's in the ER, the OR, the ICU, L & D -- no matter why a patient is admitted to the hospital, she's his nurse.
Alexis Davis' two year old is admitted for leukemia and they're scrambling for bone marrow donors. Of course, at that point, Alexis has to admit that Sonny is the kid's biological father and not Ned, whose name is on the birth certificate. Ned's eldest daughter, Brooke Lynn comes to visit her little sister and Liz smugly tells her she can't visit because she isn't really a family member. REALLY? Is that not a breach of HIPPO or something? And is that the way you'd want YOUR kid to learn that your husband isn't really his father, but the local mob enforcer IS?
Don't even get me started on the breaks, overtime shifts, etc. Liz is probably the only nurse I know of who shows up at work when she wants to -- any time she wants to get out of doing something else -- and goes on her "break" with stilettos and a cocktail dress to have a 4 martini lunch at the local five star hotel. Or takes "the launch" to Spoon Island to drop in on Nikolas and then has to leave to "get back to work" because her "break" is over. Wish I had breaks like that! (Or even actual breaks!). She gets fired for attendance issues (fails to show up for work because she's "got something I have to take care of" which probably entailed spying on her current heart throb to see who else he's up to) and everyone screeches that "it's so unfair" because "you're the best nurse General Hospital has ever had." Not to worry -- the local millionaire gets her her job back by threatening to "withdraw his support" from the hospital. And she STILL won't show up for work when she's supposed to if she's got something up in her love life. And it wouldn't be a soap opera without something up in your love life.
OK. I'll take a breath now.
Even CARLY was more reliable, and she flunked out of nursing school in her first semester.
Now I'm done.
What about Bobbi Spencer (Luke's younger sister) who IIRC was a hooker with a heart of gold before becoming a nurse. And she was such a great nurse she could go seamlessly from Front Desk (all the nurses on that damned show work the desk- I want that job!) to PACU, to peds to OR to ER. In a single shift.
But the single greatest moment in GH history was when McGyver....er Jeff Weber, failed to recognize the open heart scar on a baby's chest as that of his own son. Despite the matching DOBs, despite having raised the kid- he totally didn't recognize his own infant son.
I dont have specific examples from shows, but I cant stand blood not being depicted realistically in horror movies especially. Either its too bright red, too thin, or dried blood doesn't appear the correct brown shade. Or when someone gets punched in the stomach or leg or arm and blood magically starts spurting out of the mouth. Never matched the injury! Is it really that hard to find quality fake blood? I went to a costume shop and bought high quality, concentrated fake blood and it looks real. I've used it for Halloween for years. If I can get it right, why cant people who have a huge movie budget?
Ok, I also cant stand movies of old ladies with dementia that are made to say creepy things because they're possessed. The way they act is completely normal for someone with dementia or Alzheimers! People say creepy things when they're confused. One lady kept talking about her roommate "Nancy" as if she was right there. She had no roommate. Death threats aren't uncommon when someones agitated.
In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the character Kayla (Wolverine's wife) is killed, but not really. She reappears later only to say that they gave her a "shot of hydrochlorothiazide. It reduces the heart rate so low it appears to have flat-lined." I can only say....What???
In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the character Kayla (Wolverine's wife) is killed, but not really. She reappears later only to say that they gave her a "shot of hydrochlorothiazide. It reduces the heart rate so low it appears to have flat-lined." I can only say....What???
Maybe they were just going for the "longest, most important sounding med."
Now, I am a huge fan of BBC Sherlock (see my siggy line and location) but I kind of shook my head at S3E3 when Sherlock is in the OR after being shot and they've stopped resuscitation. He's essentially dead and the surgeon is about to walk out of the room, but the camera pans out and the OR is *pristine*. You and I both know what a room looks like after emergency surgery and a real code. Come on, Moffat, throw a little blood on something, leave some packaging lying about, geez!
In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the character Kayla (Wolverine's wife) is killed, but not really. She reappears later only to say that they gave her a "shot of hydrochlorothiazide. It reduces the heart rate so low it appears to have flat-lined." I can only say....What???
Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.
In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the character Kayla (Wolverine's wife) is killed, but not really. She reappears later only to say that they gave her a "shot of hydrochlorothiazide. It reduces the heart rate so low it appears to have flat-lined." I can only say....What???
What about Bobbi Spencer (Luke's younger sister) who IIRC was a hooker with a heart of gold before becoming a nurse. And she was such a great nurse she could go seamlessly from Front Desk (all the nurses on that damned show work the desk- I want that job!) to PACU, to peds to OR to ER. In a single shift.
But the single greatest moment in GH history was when McGyver....er Jeff Weber, failed to recognize the open heart scar on a baby's chest as that of his own son. Despite the matching DOBs, despite having raised the kid- he totally didn't recognize his own infant son.
The GH plot device that had me throwing (soft) things at the TV was the time one of the nurses was going from floor to floor passing meds. She took the narc keys home "for safe keeping." (Apparently there was only one set for the whole hospital).
Of course, this gave her sleazy SO the chance to get the key copied (!!) so he could roam the halls of GH at will, sampling the goodies.
I believe that may have been when I stopped really watching it lol.
Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
I hate all the pregnancy and baby crap on shows. The way they show someone's water breaking and OH MY GOD SHE'S HAVING THE BABY NOW! crap, esp if it is the character's first baby. And there's barely any blood at the delivery, and the kid looks like a 4-month-old instead of a squishy gooey elf (because it is a 4mo old child actor). If on the off chance the show actually depicts the character having a labor lasting more than 24 minutes, the doctor is there the entire time coaching the patient through her contractions.
Or those reality birth shows, how they sensationalize everything. "The baby's heart rate is dangerously low, forcing the doctors to make some life or death decisions." Puhleeeze, they're just variables and the FHR is fine otherwise. Or, "a scary situation at delivery, with the cord wrapped around the baby's neck".....grrrr, do you know how many cords are wrapped around babies' necks at delivery??
For this reason I don't watch medical fiction shows and I stay far far away from crap like A Birth Story.
And at the first contraction (which may even still be a Braxton-Hicks) the mother starts screaming and gasping like she's been knifed and has to be rushed instantly to the hospital. A few minutes later, she's smiling and holding her clean (4 mo old) baby.
Watching Parks and Rec right now. Anne is another one of those characters that seems to be super nurse and work in all parts of the hospital. Plus, I feel like all her nursing work is offering pillows and socializing.
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hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I
4 Articles; 5,212 Posts
I think My Favorite was a scene from Law and Order SVU - where Liv (cop) starts an IV on an accident victim from a backwards angle. without looking but being guided by a firefighter. Truely funny