Why no nursing love from Grey's?

[thisgirlsanurse]

So, I did a rare thing the other night: I watched Grey's Anatomy.

I generally avoid the show for two main reasons:

1. I work in the ICU, so the last thing I want to see is the ICU (or whatever make-believe "unit" it is where they practice) when I'm not there.

2. It portrays doctors as NURSES and nurses get NO credit!

Three examples: Dr. Meredith turning a patient?? Dr. in OR with concrete-block-boy pushing D50 and Insulin?? "Figuring out" to put a foley in the patient?

In my time as a nurse (albeit short -- life-longers please disagree if you have contrary experience), I have never seen a doctor do any of these things.

ONCE in a while, I'll get a rare, rare doctor (resident, mind you) to help me pull up a patient, but usually that's b/c the patient is in respiratory distress and needs a position change to breath, and I have only seen a doctor push a med ONCE, and it was again, a resident, TPA, and during a code (b/c that's hospital policy).

And the foley?? What nurse would allow a patient to even ENTER the ICU (much less bolus them with excessive fluids) without making sure they have a foley? Has anyone ever seen a physician put one in a routine patient? Ridiculous.

So, this is my question...why no love for nurses? We not only DO these things (most without being asked, mind you), we double check them before we do, know when they're needed and usually are the ones asking doctors for orders for them...so, why, when positive media-attention is needed for nurses MOST...are these super-unrealistic-suave-RESIDENTS getting the credit?

I noticed another thing while suffering through the show...when the young boy fell down and had a seizure, what did Dr. Gray immediately do?

She yelled, "NURSE!" Because, even her distorted, fictional, unrealistic character-self knew that the nurse would be the one who knew exactly what to do.

It's about time that Hollywood woke up to the fact that nurses are the award-winning, exciting, realistic, intelligent, juicy people they need to be spotlighting on prime-time TV. Then, maybe we'll start to see a break in this nursing shortage.

Any thoughts?

[CLC172]

Just an interesting side note. I remember when Gray's first came on the air. Some of the surgery interns and residents were washing up and getting ready for rounds in my unit. They were also waiting on the attending. A couple of them started talking about the show saying "when do they (Gray's interns) study? when do they work?" and finally one of the prettier interns said "And who would sleep around with our attendings? They're old!":chuckle. So even the surgery interns and residents aren't all that thrilled with that show.

That's so true! I have a friend who's husband is a surgical intern and they had a lot to say about this show and how unlike real life it was~