I’mma about to ruin medical shows/scenes for y’all. And once you see this, you cannot unsee it. the source for all this is the 15 years I spent riding in the back of the bus as a medic.
When you see a scene in the ER and a critical patient arrives, all the doctors go rushing into the exam room and start doing things and arguing about what to do. If we put this stupidity aside for a moment and roll back the scene to the beginning we will see the mistakes the show makes every time.
First, doctors don’t rush into the exam room the moment the patient arrives. The doctor, just one and not a whole squad of them, will wait for a moment or two to let the medics and nurses get the patient on to a bed and the triage nurse gets the medic’s report.
When the Medics and the cot leaves the room, the doctor will walk to the doorway and stop. Most of them will actually lean against the door jam and just look for a minute or so. They are making their first assessment of the patient from that distance and begin to formulate a treatment plan. Doctors are ACTUALLY TAUGHT to do this medical school. And they practice it because it’s hard to remember in an oh shit moment and hard to do. Even us medics are taught the same thing. If the TV doctor does NOT do this, this is your first warning that this a bullshit medical show no matter what the producers and actors claim about realism. This is basic and fundamental to ER medicine and would be soooo easy to do. This is the point where I’m out and ne’er to be seen again.
The second mistake that gets made is that the doctors themselves do very little of the actual treatment of the patient. They stand off to the side and tell the nurses what they want them to do. The nurses do most of the work. The doctor observes and directs. Only if a procedure that requires a doctors skill and knowledge to do, do they get hands on. So that’s the second bullshit thing in these shows.
And finally, doctors do not consult in the patient’s room unless it absolutely can’t be avoided. Which is very rare. They have a room, generally behind the nurses station where they go for that. I have been in there with doctors on occasions when I asked for a teaching moment to further my skills as a medic from one of them. And no matter what hospital, that’s where we would go.
I was amazed how Stargate Atlantis got one medical procedure right over so many medical dramas I’ve seen.
Patient is in defib, so they get the defibrillator. Doesn’t work, patient’s heart stops. They take away the defibrillator and start doing chest compressions.
I was just… Woaw. This series plays so fast and loose with science. Didn’t expect that.
I’mma about to ruin medical shows/scenes for y’all. And once you see this, you cannot unsee it. the source for all this is the 15 years I spent riding in the back of the bus as a medic.
When you see a scene in the ER and a critical patient arrives, all the doctors go rushing into the exam room and start doing things and arguing about what to do. If we put this stupidity aside for a moment and roll back the scene to the beginning we will see the mistakes the show makes every time.
First, doctors don’t rush into the exam room the moment the patient arrives. The doctor, just one and not a whole squad of them, will wait for a moment or two to let the medics and nurses get the patient on to a bed and the triage nurse gets the medic’s report.
When the Medics and the cot leaves the room, the doctor will walk to the doorway and stop. Most of them will actually lean against the door jam and just look for a minute or so. They are making their first assessment of the patient from that distance and begin to formulate a treatment plan. Doctors are ACTUALLY TAUGHT to do this medical school. And they practice it because it’s hard to remember in an oh shit moment and hard to do. Even us medics are taught the same thing. If the TV doctor does NOT do this, this is your first warning that this a bullshit medical show no matter what the producers and actors claim about realism. This is basic and fundamental to ER medicine and would be soooo easy to do. This is the point where I’m out and ne’er to be seen again.
The second mistake that gets made is that the doctors themselves do very little of the actual treatment of the patient. They stand off to the side and tell the nurses what they want them to do. The nurses do most of the work. The doctor observes and directs. Only if a procedure that requires a doctors skill and knowledge to do, do they get hands on. So that’s the second bullshit thing in these shows.
And finally, doctors do not consult in the patient’s room unless it absolutely can’t be avoided. Which is very rare. They have a room, generally behind the nurses station where they go for that. I have been in there with doctors on occasions when I asked for a teaching moment to further my skills as a medic from one of them. And no matter what hospital, that’s where we would go.
Speaking of medical dramas:
I was amazed how Stargate Atlantis got one medical procedure right over so many medical dramas I’ve seen.
Patient is in defib, so they get the defibrillator. Doesn’t work, patient’s heart stops. They take away the defibrillator and start doing chest compressions.
I was just… Woaw. This series plays so fast and loose with science. Didn’t expect that.
And isn’t CPR deliberately depicted wrongly in movies and shows because the proper IRL CPR procedure risks breaking a person’s ribs?
Oh, you break ribs when done right.
But they will share all the details with any random supporter waiting for the procedure to be finished in the otherwise empty waiting room, right?
Oh yeah, that is so totally true. HIPPA doesn’t apply to strangers in the hallway.
Is he going to make it, doc?
cries
I don’t know. Damn it Jim! I’m a piano player, not a Doctor!