What do you think about TV nursing comedy/drama like Nurse Jackie?

[Brian]

I never watched Nurse Jackie but I do know that many people enjoy it. Do you get anything from watching Nurse Jackie or similar nursing shows?

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[maelstrom143]

Nurse Jackie is one of the worst shows ever if you are looking for a realistic portrayal of nursing - or anything else.

However, as a TV show, it is very entertaining and I purchase the series on DVD every year.

WKRP had little to do with radio. MASH had almost nothing to do with the Korean War. I certainly don't put NJ in the same category of those two shows, but it's purpose is to entertain, not inform.

Oh, ROFL. If I want a realistic view of nursing, I go to work...totally entertainment value, not real life.

[Xsited2baNurse]

Btw, has anyone else noticed how much they've started caking on Dr. Cooper's eye makeup on the show? Like, seriously, *****! He looks like a half-assed drag queen nowadays haha.

[KimberlyRN89, BSN, RN]

I tried to get into HawthoRNe, but it just seemed so..unrealistic.I guess I'm not a fan on medical shows in general..however, I do enjoy those reality specials that come on Discovery Fit & Health

[tothepointeLVN, LVN]

Y'know what got me about the show Mercy. They are all wearing their nametags on lanyards and as they are doing patient care the id badges are whacking the patients in the face over and over and over again.

[suzannerny2k]

I actually know of a doctor and nurse that did at a hospital I worked at. They got caught on the stairs by the video cameras. Guess they forgot they were there. Got a mini vacation without pay too for a couple of weeks for that stunt. Plus, the talk of the hospital for a very long time!!!

[applewhitern, BSN, RN]

I apparently do not get Nurse Jackie in my area. I have never seen it. But I recently watched an older movie where someone sneaked into the patient's room and "pulled the plug!" It was funny because the patient did not even have on an 02 cannula, let alone any equipment to pull the plug! No vent, no oxygen tubing, no cardiac monitor, nothing! But they showed the "vent" pumping away in the background, and showed the guy reaching for the plug on the wall.

[nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN]

While I don't usually watch shows about "work" like Grey's Anatomy, Jackie, etc., it hits me on other shows. On the 3rd episode of the Hatfields/McCoy's miniseries on the History Channel, one person gets shot right thru the subclavian artery -- gets up, runs around, not the first sign of spitting or coughing up blood, moving the same side arm, etc. I'm thinking about all the nerves that just got severed, if he didn't bleed to death, he'd have a sucking chest wound, permanent loss of function and structural deformity if it actually hit the clavicle, etc., and completely zoned out for the next 2 minutes of the show trying to think how you'd have treated that kind of an injury in the 1880's.

It's a lot less stressful for anyone around if I just watch shows on archeology. Although, I was watching something on Pompeii and they talked about how the victims had silicosis, and I thought, "now how could they have lung tissue to analyze to know that, the people were hollow voids in the ash, not like their lungs were sitting there for 2000 years....

[PMFB-RN, RN]

I have only seen the first two season of Nurse Jacki but I find it to be the most realistic show involving nurses I have ever seen. The rule bending to get patients what they need I find very realistic. Same for the drug abuse among staff. The nurse physician relationship, whiule not like those I have experienced in real life, are certainly closer to what I have experienced than any other show where nurses seem to exsist only for use as sex toys by the physican stars.

[phil1968, ADN, BSN, LPN]

I agree. It is strictly entertainment. My teacher wife loves medical show, while I never bother. Why do I want to see work after I just left it?; even as it is fantasy. Besides, the only thing about them I enjoy is picking apart the many technical mistakes they make. Makes one wonder what their medical "advisors" do.

The truth is probably closer to using medical props for "dramatic effect", as when on a soap opera some years ago, the lead actress ridiculously had an ekg lead on her forehead!

Hollywood dramatizes our profession, and the public believes that our work is as exciting as potrayed. The same for doctors, lawyers, ect.

Our work is mostly mundane with sporatic drama thrown in. Why are people so facinated by what we do?

I would rather watch a documentary.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

Saw just a couple of episodes, found it to be a joke. Soap opera with a medical theme.

A soap opera with a medical theme I DO like is Grey's Anatomy...although not because it's realistic either, I just like the characters and the setting happens to involve some truly weird medical anomolies (presented as run-of-the-mill, everyday situations).

Which reminds me of Nip/Tuck....lots of gory operating room scenes, based in some reality and oftentimes bearing little resemblance overall. My fave was when the two plastic surgeons were forced at gunpoint to finish stitching up a boob-job patient and then...ready?...harvest a kidney. Oh, either one will do...just properly remove it, keep the patient alive, of course, and plop it into this waiting cooler for a recipient who's blood type and tissue matching hasn't ever been done with this donor...who could be hep C for all anyone knows...but don't worry, these two guys who have only been doing plastics for ten years are sure to pull it off! And yessirree, they sure did :)

Truly silly stuff, these "medical" shows. But hey, the actors are hot...

[That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

Greys should have died seaons ago. Its painful to watch now. But it is entertaining.

I could never get myself to enjoy NJ for some reason.

[Anna Flaxis, BSN, RN]

I make no apologies, I love Nurse Jackie!