The Great "Nursing Show" Discussion

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Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.

Alrighty guys and gals, you have discussed it, argued it, and down right demanded it, but the truth of the matter is...if you build it they will come!!

My intention of this thread is as follows:

"To get a concise and heartfelt feel for what nurses would like to see from a medical show based around Nursing"

Let's face it, television is fictional characters, laid out to imitate real life. However, as we have all agreed nurses tend to be a very incorrectly portrayed profession in most medical dramas.

So let's tell the television studios what we want!!

The Rules:

1. Please post your ideas on what you, as a nurse, would like to see on your primetime tv. How do you want to be represented.

2. Please don't bash each others ideas, feel free to agree and disagree by giving "thanks" to those ideas you really like, and clarifying those you don't, but keep it professional. Pending this thread gets big enough I would love to give a direct link to a few select channels, primarily Bravo and HBO/Showtime as I feel they have some great drama writers.

3. Keep it within topic, we have wonderful moderators (honestly some of the best on any forum I read) and I know they will help keep this on topic.

4. Have fun with this, and be concise, think about what is entertaining, heart breaking, and perceptive about nursing and how that would translate to the world of media.

5. Feel free to just post "yes I would love to or no I would not like to see" a show about nursing.

Ready! Set! Go!

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Specializes in EMS, ER, GI, PCU/Telemetry.

i think a "true life" show might be cool. like they have on mtv, with "true life i'm a ________". i think each week they could follow a nurse, from shift change til they report off, in each of the specialities. they could show the real life, of a real nurse, in a real hospital or facility, with real patients. it might show the public what its like to be a nurse and what a nurse actually does. from cleaning poo, to passing meds, to getting yelled at by family members, to taking orders, to holding a patients hand while they cry, to running a code.... i think that would be awesome.

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Specializes in Cardiac Care.

I think it's a great idea! I'd love to see some attention played to nurse education... the stuff you must go through to get licensed. That would be a reality check for some.

Also, I like the idea of marketing the program to the pay TV networks like HBO and Showtime. The program would definitely be grittier and more realistic and not for children.

And thanks for the snaps on rule #3...!

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A few thoughts...

1. I think staying away from the Grey's Anatomy style would be in the show's best interest--aka, not having every cast member sleep with every other cast member, constant break-ups, etc...it's too much about relationships and not enough about what is actually going on in the hospitals with the patients...and not enough REAL medicine/nursing, or anything else. Grey's is good to sit down and "veg out" to, but not something I want to showcase my profession.

2. I do like how Grey's started out with the doctors as interns and now residents. A show that started out with a class in their senior year of nursing school and brought them through their first few years would be really interesting and could potentially be very true-to-life...and it plays on what Don said about including education.

3. A show that represents more than one aspect of nursing would be good as well...not just critical care and er--let's look at med-surg, hospice, burn, wound care, peds, geriatrics...one of the things I love about nursing is how versatile it is.

4. Have a cast of "normal people." I very rarely see residents, nurses, and other people in the hospital that look anything like what is shown on Grey's, General Hospital, ER, etc. Let's have a real cast of varying ages, not-so-beautiful people, men, women.

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Specializes in EMS, ER, GI, PCU/Telemetry.
I think it's a great idea! I'd love to see some attention played to nurse education... the stuff you must go through to get licensed. That would be a reality check for some.

thats an awesome idea. they could show what its like to be a nursing student and go through class, clinicals and preparing for nclex while still having a family and a job.

people might get scared away, lol. i know if they followed me, i tend to turn into somewhat of the exorcist before a test.

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Specializes in Staff Dev--Critical Care & Trauma.

One thing I'd like to see, the public would never believe; however, it happens all the time in critical care, and in teaching hospitals in general. It only consists of one sentence after a physician examines a patient, thinks a bit, looks at the nurse and says...

"I don't know. What do YOU think we should try?" Or even more frequently: "Before I leave, is there anything else you need me to write for?"

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Specializes in Staff Dev--Critical Care & Trauma.

The other thing I'd like to see are physicians as peripheral characters the way nurses are in most shows. I, for one, RARELY hang out with docs off shift (nor do my co-workers). I know plenty of nurses that date people OUTSIDE of the hospital--or even other nurses. I don't think I've ever had a drink with a physician outside of an official corporate function.

By the way, actual male nurses would be nice. Not the butts of jokes. One unit I worked on was actually 50-50.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

I say to include LPNs in this as well. RNs are not the only licensed nurses working, and I really believe that our struggle should be acknowledged. Even the difference in how we are treated. I am not saying this in a negative light, but to show the differences in the scope of practice, or an LPN being placed on the spot by making a decision when there is no RN on site (this sure happens) and praying for the best. Maybe show the struggle of an LPN that wishes to enter into an RN program and the challenges that can be presented.

I do think that the educational path is important as well. Show how it is in nursing school, the crazy professors, the clinical experience and the first day on the unit. How uninformative orientation can be, horizontal harassment...the works!!!

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
The other thing I'd like to see are physicians as peripheral characters the way nurses are in most shows. I, for one, RARELY hang out with docs off shift (nor do my co-workers). I know plenty of nurses that date people OUTSIDE of the hospital--or even other nurses. I don't think I've ever had a drink with a physician outside of an official corporate function.

By the way, actual male nurses would be nice. Not the butts of jokes. One unit I worked on was actually 50-50.

:yeah::yeah:Yeah, put the doctors to the side for a change...make them a supportive role. Or, get George Clooney to be a male nurse...he is single again...:chuckle

For real, though, yes, get a guy's prespective. :up:

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

Oh, and show nurses sneaking to the internet to vent on allnurses! (Maybe we can get George Clooney to play Brian?)

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Specializes in Pediatrics.
A few thoughts...

2. I do like how Grey's started out with the doctors as interns and now residents. A show that started out with a class in their senior year of nursing school and brought them through their first few years would be really interesting and could potentially be very true-to-life...and it plays on what Don said about including education.

QUOTE]

You could have the show start out with how competive it is to even get into nursing school, the highs and lows of being accepted or waiting it out another year, then follow the students through nurisng school, and finally as real nurses

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Specializes in NICU.

I really love the "True life I'm a Nurse" idea. However it couldn't be real due to patient confidentiality.... But I would love them to follow an ER nurse, a floor nurse, an ICU nurse, ect ect. Show them being pulled in 4,000 directions at once.. The funny moments in the break room, the sad moments, the happy moments... the code blues, the code browns, the crazy family members, the funny doctors, and the doctors that are jerks... I just wish people understood what we went through....

Tiger

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