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.
Specializes in ICU, CCU, Trauma, neuro, Geriatrics.
Show families who are angry being nasty to a nurse who just spent 15 minutes looking through the whole chart so she could approach a difficult situation properly. We should not be treated as we are by many families. Take a look at the media and their presentation of an isolated event related to how that unit/facility usually operates.
Let's see more of the day to day brief changes and bedpans vs exotic dx and tx! Great suggestions so far...! I also think when the attention is focused on the nurses chatting together, it shouldn't be so much about their sex lives. In my experience, when we have time to chat at the nurses' station, we talk about FOOD! :wink2:
I agree we talk a lot about food. A lot. One of the nurses I worked with started asking "so what are we doing for lunch today?" before breakfast trays were off the hall.
I would like to see a nurse show in a kind of cops format, so people could see and hear the nurses reasoning in decision making.
Maybe if people got to hear an out loud narrative that was not directed at them , they would learn about why they sometimes have to wait for things.
They could also see what the nurses are doing when they are just sitting on their cans at the desk.
Oh man, I wish there was a show like this. I like another poster's comment on how it could be like "Cops." I don't really know how they'd get around HIPPA, but it would be awesome.
I especially liked the idea about following people through school. You know, maybe find out how many people applied at the school, and then getting a round of interviews from many of them, like how they do the interviews before the performances on "American Idol." This way, it shows how competitive it can be and how long and hard it is to just to get in to nursing school. Then, maybe pick 5-10 of the people who get in and are starting in the same class, who seem to have good odds of making it through the program and follow their progress/struggles to make it more personal. I'm not saying to make the show about those students only, but it would make the show easier to follow if you know all about a few of the class members. Odds are that 1 out of every 2 will fail at least one level. So, by the graduation, there should still be a couple left from the beginning. Anyway, then it could move on to any and all categories and departments of nursing. Really show what intelligent, analytical thinkers we are, and that we DO work our behinds off for that measley paycheck!
Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.
My fiancee and I were dicussing this over dinner tonight. We were thinking one interesting aspect of nursing is the dichotomy of work vs home. How nursing puts us in a unique position to watch the progression of health, life and death, and how one goes back home to squabbling kids, bored husbands and homeowners associations. Sometimes after seeing something as life changing as the passing of transplant patient.
Specializes in FNP, Peds, Epilepsy, Mgt., Occ. Ed.
I really, really like the idea of the cop show format, something along the lines of The First 48- it shows what they do, how they talk it out, their reasoning, etc etc. This is what I'm doing, this is why, this is what I'm doing now, now I have to wait for this, so on and so forth.
And yes, please please please, show that it really is not all about sex! Sure, show the nurse going from the drama of the code to the grocery store, to home to maybe a hug and kiss from the SO, but no canoodling in linen closets, for pity's sake.
What? Yall don't canoodle in the linen closets?? You mean I'm the only one that finds time between bedpans, meds, charting, codes, more charting, getting yelled at for something not my fault, to freshen my makeup and "knock one off" with a Dr. McDreamy type before returning to the bedside? Man...I can multi-task!!!
I have a few suggestions for this show: one, show that there are no doctors that look like McDreamy or McSteamy. They are all fluffy and balding in my experience. And not worth the energy it takes to canoodle.
Second, I liked the idea of including the LPN in the equation. I think there could be a lot done with exploring the LPN that is working side by side with an RN for half the pay. The conflicts "them vs. us"; the resentment, etc. And follow the single mom as she struggles to make the transition from LPN to RN. Could make for some great character development.
And third, follow the nurse after she has to deal with a traumatic death/injury. Show us as humans that have to get rid of stress in one way or another, whether it be venting to the hubbie or working it off in the gym. Just make sure we aren't portrayed as machines with no feelings.
Get all the hospital staff involved in the show. I'd hate to see it turn out something like grey's anatomy where the nurses do everything. Bring in the docs, CNAs, RTs, EKG techs, transport staff, PT, OT, HUCs, Radiology, and so forth.
I would also love to see the distinction between units. One thing that bugs the heck out of me about Greys is they have an ED and a Cardiac/Neuro/Trauma ICU/Med-surg/recovery unit that all of the patients seem to go to and the nurses seem to float between the two units.
I'd also love to see a patient crash on med-surg and the nurses fighting to get the doc to give appropriate orders/see the patient, no ICU beds to send the patient to, and the nurse trying deal with keeping this patient alive while also trying to meet the needs of 3-6 other patients she's assigned to.
Let's see more of the day to day brief changes and bedpans vs exotic dx and tx! Great suggestions so far...! I also think when the attention is focused on the nurses chatting together, it shouldn't be so much about their sex lives. In my experience, when we have time to chat at the nurses' station, we talk about FOOD! :wink2:
I think that a couple of those Ps don't need as much focus as other things. I seem to get the jokes about bedpans and stuff like that because so many people assume that's all nurses do. I know it can be part of the job, but it's not the main part. I don't think any nurse went to school for 2 or 4 years just to learn how to change a person.
Yeah, a show with some chubby, bespectacled, not so gorgeous nurses of both sexes would be nice for a change (can I have a walk-on role, lol?!) Delegation, charge nurse duties, fighting, I mean, reasoning with house supervisor over pt. admissions, how charge decides admission to room, etc. AND let's not forget the importance of the ancillarly staff of environmental services (housecleaning), medical equipment, cafeteria & nutrional services. We all work together for the patient...right?
My thoughts...a show that realistically portrays nurses...would never make it past the pilot. Who wants to watch someone clean up after, take BS from, put up with family's, barely find time to eat...spend over 50% of the time charting...and get home and be too tired to "canoodle" with their significant other?
snowfreeze, BSN, RN
948 Posts
Show families who are angry being nasty to a nurse who just spent 15 minutes looking through the whole chart so she could approach a difficult situation properly. We should not be treated as we are by many families. Take a look at the media and their presentation of an isolated event related to how that unit/facility usually operates.