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!! ?
On Nurse Jackie, they got a new ER doc, and EMS brings in a coding patient. The MD runs up, thumps the patient, the patient snaps out of the rhythm for like, 3 seconds. So when you're all like, that's so cool that worked!, the patient codes immediately again and the MD shrugs and says (paraphrased), "I always wanted to try that. It's looks so neat." lol
The character of Dr. Bernard Prince was beautiful and should have had at least 2 seasons -- he was the shining light of that grim, final season. Btw, wasn't he initially an ICU doc?
Which is why Hospice families are always horrified when you're doing post mortem care and their eyes won't stay closed all the way. *sigh*
When I was much younger we had one of our dogs euthanized and I was holding her when they gave her the shot. After she passed, her one eye (she had the other removed several years prior) wouldn't shut. Before I set her down and between sniffles and snot, I attempted to close her eye multiple times before thinking, "Dammit! TV lied again!!" Ever since the "dramatic manual eye close" gets a big eye roll.
Every single intubated patient that is able to talk around their ET tube.. happens a lot in soaps..
And they suddenly wake up after 6 months in a coma (still intubated, not trached), and everyone rushes to the bed to extubate them.
They walk out of the hospital just a few days later suffering no lasting effects of prolonged bedrest, intubation, and the devastating mystery illness that put them in the near-death coma.
I watched House only twice. The second episode I watched was a deathly ill baby that needed ECMO. The baby was all wired for sound and NO ONE was in the room -- not the two nurses required for ECMO, no one! The next hour, miraculously, the baby was recovered and safely in the arms of his mother...no ill effects at all.
1. Vaccines always given at the wrong anatomical landmarks.
2. Patient consent doesn't seem to exist in TV land.
3. Labor looks tortorus.
4. Doctor is present for the entire (yet remarkably short) labor.
5. Defribrillating when a patient is flatlining. Its a miracle every time!
6. Idk about anyone else, but I HATE wearing my scope around my neck all day. It gets heavy and dangles right in the way. I put it in my lab coat pocket.
7. Doctor does most of nursing procedures (however I have worked alongside a physician who would draw blood for his patients). So the nurses just stand around doing secretarial work and to just look pretty, and they sure do look nice and neat at work. Wish I looked that good by the end of my day.
Because of the small size, a Dobhoff tube can be left in longer (I want to say like 6 weeks, but don't quote me), and it causes less irritation than a honkin' big NG hose. It's passed farther than a regular NG tube (into the duodenum, I think) to help prevent reflux and aspiration, it has a weighted end to help it "drop", and it has a guidewire because it's so flexible.
The ones I remember were pink like this one, and also this small.
The character of Dr. Bernard Prince was beautiful and should have had at least 2 seasons -- he was the shining light of that grim, final season. Btw, wasn't he initially an ICU doc?
I agree! And yes, I think he was ICU. You can tell they totally fast tracked the end for an unexpected cancelation. Disappointing
In Criminal Minds a woman was dunked in an bleach filled bathtub. She gets pulled out and the ever perceptive Spence gives her milk and tells her it will "coat her lungs" and help protect them.
In Criminal Minds a woman was dunked in an bleach filled bathtub. She gets pulled out and the ever perceptive Spence gives her milk and tells her it will "coat her lungs" and help protect them.
What the...? If milk is coating your lungs you have more problems than a bleach-dunking.
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
Yes! I knew it! How did you find this? Did you make it?
Your post was hilarious ceej!
Thanks for asking- I put "Seinfeld heart attack" in the search engine, downloaded a pic, sent it to the paint program, added text, saved it, and then downloaded it to this thread.
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Ever since the "dramatic manual eye close" gets a big eye roll.
Btw, wasn't he initially an ICU doc?
la_chica_suerte85, BSN, RN
1,260 Posts
The character of Dr. Bernard Prince was beautiful and should have had at least 2 seasons -- he was the shining light of that grim, final season.
Btw, wasn't he initially an ICU doc?