Grey's Anatomy vs. Scrubs

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
C

collegefreak12

Full Member
10+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2006
Messages
69
Reaction score
0
So, in scrubs, the surgical residents just operate basically. On the other hand, in Grey's anatomy, the surgical residents do everything, from diagnosis to operation. So, in the rotations/ residencies, which one is closer to the truth? Or is it a mixture of both?
Members don't see this ad.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Oh I don't know about horrible. Grey's helped me decide to pursue plastics, so that I can also do neuro for free. Pretty easy to choose between that and doing neonatology so I can do gyn for free. Plus if you're coding it's better to get the chief of surgery resuscitating you instead of the 15+ techs that bring people back every day. I'm very happy to know that every case I'll work on is a paper waiting to happen. Too bad I don't want kids because clearly it's reasonable to open a clinic as a surg R4 with a newborn. I hope the attending I get to sleep with is cute.

cf12, I hope you're kidding.
 
collegefreak12 said:
So, in scrubs, the surgical residents just operate basically. On the other hand, in Grey's anatomy, the surgical residents do everything, from diagnosis to operation. So, in the rotations/ residencies, which one is closer to the truth? Or is it a mixture of both?
Click to expand...


Lemme guess... premed? Or is it pre-premed?
 
collegefreak12 said:
So, in scrubs, the surgical residents just operate basically. On the other hand, in Grey's anatomy, the surgical residents do everything, from diagnosis to operation. So, in the rotations/ residencies, which one is closer to the truth? Or is it a mixture of both?
Click to expand...

I have to agree with neither. Many non-medical shows that sporadically have scenes in a hospital (eg. Law and Order) tend to have more accuracies in terms of medicine (conditions, meds). Scrubs does an interesting take on the hospital hierarchy and the abuse of residents by an SOB attending, but even that is pretty soft and not particularly accurate (back in the old days of ER when Benton was regularly berating Carter, you got to see some portrayal of this as well). Grey's is far off in left field. Leaving out the attending/resident hookups which have ethical implications in and of themselves; Not only do the surgeons do every procedure in the hospital (and now a clinic as well), but none seem to stick within their own subspecialty. And all the residents seem to be able to leave the hospital at the same time. And you aren't going to meet too many surgeons who tie one on every week night to the point of inebriation and are able to show up in the morning ready to work. (Many of the surgeons I know won't even drink coffee within a day of a surgery because it makes them jittery) The moral of the story is do not get your notions of medicine from TV.
 
Besides being simply a better show, I think Scrubs may actually be more accurate. It may not seem like it because of the comedic nature of the program, but if you pay attention to the medicine in the show it's often pretty reasonable. Also, I think that the overarching themes of the episodes tend to ring true of very real things that doctors deal with, and they aren't completely blown out of proportion into a huge spectacle like Grey's. Though I have to admit that I still do have a secret addiction to Grey's, like a dirty soap opera that I don't want anyone to know I go home for during every free lunch to get my fix.

That's just an analogy. I don't watch soap operas. Besides Grey's.
 
Yeah I agree with Rogue Synapse...Scrubs=more accurate and more better. Plus its my favorite show on tv.
 
Rogue Synapse said:
Besides being simply a better show, I think Scrubs may actually be more accurate. It may not seem like it because of the comedic nature of the program, but if you pay attention to the medicine in the show it's often pretty reasonable.
Click to expand...

While people seem to like to say how accurate scrubs is, if you actually sit down and pick apart any given episode, you will find that very little rings true. Moreso in these later years of the show. Entertaining yes, accurate no.
 
Law2Doc said:
While people seem to like to say how accurate scrubs is, if you actually sit down and pick apart any given episode, you will find that very little rings true. Moreso in these later years of the show. Entertaining yes, accurate no.
Click to expand...

True, but at least the administrative organization of the hospital is somewhat more accurate than in, for example, Grey's Anatomy or House. For example, in Scrubs, at least the medicine residents don't do ridiculous stuff like take their own CT scans or do their own surgeries. On one episode of House (admittedly, the only episode I've seen, and probably the only one I will EVER see), the surgeons removed a ruptured spleen. One of the medicine fellows picks up the spleen out of the tray, carries it over to the corner, puts it directly under a microscope, and starts analyzing it for granulomas. Earlier in the show, that same fellow did his own contrast venogram. House is a horrible show from a medical standpoint. Worse than Scrubs.

OP: All medical shows on TV (besides TLC, Discovery Health, and maybe MASH) are hideously inaccurate. If you're really curious as to how "accurate" these medical shows are, think about volunteering in a hospital.
 
Don't know as much about the true reality of practicing medicine (I'm applying to med school this year), but the one thing I can say from my experiences volunteering and also growing up in and around hospitals (lots of family work there) is that people do indeed laugh there! Based on that alone, Scrubs gets my vote. Maybe I have a taste for gallows humor, but I think patients/nurses/doctors can be very funny (albeit not always intentional).

I generally avoid shows like ER and Grey's. I don't like soap operas. They take themselves too seriously. Discovery Health Channel is good, but I am sure that is edited. I volunteer in a Level 1 trauma center in a major city and I have yet to see all the bays going, like they regularly are on Critical Hour. Maybe I just need to do a 8-midnight shift on a Saturday night (I'm planning on it!)
 
Members don't see this ad :)
I would really love it if there was a House + Grey’s Anatomy crossover episode. Then House could finally solve one of the greatest medical mysteries of our time: what the hell is Addison Shepard’s specialty?


It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No it’s a neonatologist/pediatric surgeon/obstetrician/gynecologist /neonatal surgeon/astronaut/pediatrician/Superwoman!

She really needs to borrow the Janitor’s business cardmaker/paintball gun.
 
People always ask me if working in the hospital is like scrubs. My response is always "Yeah if you take out all the fun and have it last 12 hours instead of 30 minutes it's pretty much just like scrubs."
 
smq123 said:
House is a horrible show from a medical standpoint. Worse than Scrubs.

OP: All medical shows on TV (besides TLC, Discovery Health, and maybe MASH) are hideously inaccurate. If you're really curious as to how "accurate" these medical shows are, think about volunteering in a hospital.
Click to expand...

No way! Are you serious? I think House is an excellent show from a medical standpoint...well, at least from a diagnostic standpoint. There have been soooo many cases that were discussed where the symptoms and eventual diagnosis were just as learned in school. You really have to give it more than 1 episode (obviously I'm biased:) ). Of course there's a butt load of stuff that's grossly inaccurate (the whole series surrounds a self-admitted drug addict who still practices...I mean come on!) But any educational benefit is just a bonus...it's supposed to be all for entertainment. Just like that other show they tried to come out with (3lbs I think it was called...with the neurosurgeons...)it was a lot more medically true to the specialty than any of these shows, but they used all of these neuroscience terms and techniques that were of course way over the average person's head and what happened? Cancelled after about 3 episodes!
 
Skills of House said:
No way! Are you serious? I think House is an excellent show from a medical standpoint...well, at least from a diagnostic standpoint. There have been soooo many cases that were discussed where the symptoms and eventual diagnosis were just as learned in school. You really have to give it more than 1 episode (obviously I'm biased:) ). Of course there's a butt load of stuff that's grossly inaccurate (the whole series surrounds a self-admitted drug addict who still practices...I mean come on!)
Click to expand...

From a diagnostic standpoint...I get annoyed when they call "House" a good diagnostician, when he prides himself on never touching or seeing his patients. That would give my physical diagnosis professors heart attacks. And the method of "maybe there's something wrong in this part of the body" and then just ordering a test to see if it's there (as opposed to seeing if it fits the symptomology, the patient's age/gender/etc - Occam's razor, people!) annoys me as well. I guess I didn't like the show because it felt like it was just watching them do a series of unnecessary tests, and not really thinking about the patient's problem very deeply. I'm a med student and a geek! What can I say? Maybe other episodes are better.

I know, it's supposed to be entertainment. But since this thread is talking about the accuracy of other "medical" shows, I took advantage of the chance to vent my irritation. :)
 
Pontifex Maximus said:
Grey's is an absolutely horrible show now.
Click to expand...

I was praying to sweet Jesus that he would spare us of more Meredith melodrama and just have her pass blissfully into the night.

Of course that didn't happen.

I completely agree, Grey's Anatomy is too self-indulgent for it's own good. Scrubs is just simple, good, humor.
 
smq123 said:
From a diagnostic standpoint...I get annoyed when they call "House" a good diagnostician, when he prides himself on never touching or seeing his patients. That would give my physical diagnosis professors heart attacks. And the method of "maybe there's something wrong in this part of the body" and then just ordering a test to see if it's there (as opposed to seeing if it fits the symptomology, the patient's age/gender/etc - Occam's razor, people!) annoys me as well. I guess I didn't like the show because it felt like it was just watching them do a series of unnecessary tests, and not really thinking about the patient's problem very deeply. I'm a med student and a geek! What can I say? Maybe other episodes are better.

I know, it's supposed to be entertainment. But since this thread is talking about the accuracy of other "medical" shows, I took advantage of the chance to vent my irritation. :)
Click to expand...

House also drives my clinical medicine prof crazy! Just today he said that if House would ever take a history or do a physical, it'd take him 5 minutes to solve a case instead of 5 days.
 
smq123 said:
From a diagnostic standpoint...I get annoyed when they call "House" a good diagnostician, when he prides himself on never touching or seeing his patients. That would give my physical diagnosis professors heart attacks. And the method of "maybe there's something wrong in this part of the body" and then just ordering a test to see if it's there (as opposed to seeing if it fits the symptomology, the patient's age/gender/etc - Occam's razor, people!) annoys me as well. I guess I didn't like the show because it felt like it was just watching them do a series of unnecessary tests, and not really thinking about the patient's problem very deeply. I'm a med student and a geek! What can I say? Maybe other episodes are better.

I know, it's supposed to be entertainment. But since this thread is talking about the accuracy of other "medical" shows, I took advantage of the chance to vent my irritation. :)
Click to expand...
I understand your point, but when I said from a "diagnostic standpoint" I meant that the way the patient presents and the actual diagnosis are medically accurate (so at the end you're always like 'oh yeah, that's makes sense' as opposed to "what?! that doesn't happen in that disease!")...not from the basis of anything House does. But again, who (outside of us med geeks) would want to sit there watching him give people physical exams? It would be ridiculously boring and most people wouldn't know what they were watching anyway, so it's much easier and more entertaining to just order some lab test, definitively state what it's for, and move on to the next insult or round of pill popping:D
 
Biscuit799 said:
House also drives my clinical medicine prof crazy! Just today he said that if House would ever take a history or do a physical, it'd take him 5 minutes to solve a case instead of 5 days.
Click to expand...
Hellooooo???? Then what are they going to do with the other 55 mins? :laugh:
 
Biscuit799 said:
House also drives my clinical medicine prof crazy! Just today he said that if House would ever take a history or do a physical, it'd take him 5 minutes to solve a case instead of 5 days.
Click to expand...

In some ways, that's what makes the show accurate. Lots of physicians go too quickly to the fancy tests instead of spending appropriate time doing the basics. There was a NEJM article on that point this past year.
 
i'd say scrubs gets the relationships right within a hospital (+/- on the medicine, and the comedy purposefully exaggerates things), house goes for medical accuracy (but not the process, or responsibilities of each person), ER is a dramatization of what a busy ER might be like, grey's is a soap-op loosely set within a hospital.

seriously, i think scrubs must have a doctor(s) or resident(s) contributing to its commentaries on hospital life.
 
Grey's Anatomy might have the most annoying cast of characters of any medical show in the history of medical shows. All of them are seriously nauseatingly, nail through your eye so you don't have to watch annoying.
 
I can't wait to work in the "pit" next year.
 
Law2Doc said:
Not lately -- too many major disasters directly affecting the staff. The first season was pretty decent in terms of capturing the essence of an ER.
Click to expand...



this is OT: But just reminding you, you are almost at the 10K mark. I looked in the physicians desk reference and discovered that it is the clinical "viola!" of SDN addiction :D
 
braluk said:
this is OT: But just reminding you, you are almost at the 10K mark. I looked in the physicians desk reference and discovered that it is the clinical "viola!" of SDN addiction :D
Click to expand...
Hey braluk. Quick question. What are the guidelines to becoming an advisor or a mod? Do you have to be a donor first? Is it the amount of posts you have (2000+)? Is it your overall conduct as a member of SDN forums? Or is it just asking?
 
thegenius said:
I was praying to sweet Jesus that he would spare us of more Meredith melodrama and just have her pass blissfully into the night.

Of course that didn't happen.
Click to expand...

I stabbed myself in the eye with a fork when she didn't die. Grey's is now officially the worst show on television.
 
DoctaJay said:
Hey braluk. Quick question. What are the guidelines to becoming an advisor or a mod? Do you have to be a donor first? Is it the amount of posts you have (2000+)? Is it your overall conduct as a member of SDN forums? Or is it just asking?
Click to expand...

Nomination usually. Other mods/advisors/admins will nominate posters in the mod/advisor forums and then a period of discussion follows. Theyre looking for posters who are kind of like advisors already on topics (mine was postbac, and then added also into a preallo advisor)- posters who are a great resource for the community and can help benefit the community even more as an official advisor. After signing on as an advisor my inbox went from like 50msgs to a current 653 lol.

As for mods, I believe now, with the advisorship added into SDN, theyll look for advisors to fill the roles of mods. Theres a hierarchy
Advisors--> mods--> supermods --> admin

Just post normally as you do and if you are helpful with the majority of what you post, you will be noticed. Also note: if a particular forum has an already dedicated bunch of advisors/mods, it may be more difficult to become an advisor for that particular forum because there already exists numerous advisors.
 
braluk said:
Nomination usually. Other mods/advisors/admins will nominate posters in the mod/advisor forums and then a period of discussion follows. Theyre looking for posters who are kind of like advisors already on topics (mine was postbac, and then added also into a preallo advisor)- posters who are a great resource for the community and can help benefit the community even more as an official advisor. After signing on as an advisor my inbox went from like 50msgs to a current 653 lol.

As for mods, I believe now, with the advisorship added into SDN, theyll look for advisors to fill the roles of mods. Theres a hierarchy
Advisors--> mods--> supermods --> admin

Just post normally as you do and if you are helpful with the majority of what you post, you will be noticed. Also note: if a particular forum has an already dedicated bunch of advisors/mods, it may be more difficult to become an advisor for that particular forum because there already exists numerous advisors.
Click to expand...
lol. I'm surprised that there isn't an SDNcat. Anyway, thanks for the info!
 
Law2Doc is the best advisor EVAR.
 
Gray's Anatomy has officially jumped the shark with this "visions of the dead" storyline.

I'm back to Scrubs and 30 Rock.
 
I've avoided Grey's anatomy. What's the difference between general hospital and grey's anatomy?

House is also getting soap operaish, esp this season. In fact the creators said they want to shift more into character relationships and less medicine stuff. Yeah, also there is a lot of quality control problems on House-- I think what happens is that MDs write medical premises but other writers take liberties with the premises. Like ALS having sensory symptoms or the horrible Naeglaria episode (scary yes, realistic ? hell no!!!). Naeglaria cannot be airborne plus if you get it, you die period. Last, giving someone legionella to stop naeglaria??? hahaha

However, some of the cases do have accurate history/symptomatology and they help me remember some medical facts which is very cool! (like AIP having pink urine) Plus House has extemely intelligent dialogue and great actors who have good chemistry.
 
Nurses are the most grossly missrepresented in these medical shows. It's like they dont even exist. Plus from my experience, especially in the ER, nurses do almost all the work and the physician usually just barks out orders for them to do. In Grey's the "surgeons" do everything...which is highly inaccurate.
 
turkleton said:
Grey's Anatomy might have the most annoying cast of characters of any medical show in the history of medical shows. All of them are seriously nauseatingly, nail through your eye so you don't have to watch annoying.
Click to expand...

Finally someone who's speaking my language! It never fails - whenever I tell someone I'm about start medical school in August, I always get the response, "Oh, so don't you just love Grey's Anatomy?" Umm... no. Doesn't seem remotely realistic and it's just really really irritating! For some reason, people think that's where I'm going to get my education. Weird.
 
Grey's Anatomy is a soap opera based in a hospital setting. It resides in its own little world. The doctors wear HIGH HEELS for god's sake!

I'd say Scrubs is more accurately as compared to Grey's, but no fictional TV show truly shows what being a doctor is like. I think DiscoveryHealth had a reality show a few years back about residents. Probably more realistic protrayal.
 
werd said:
seriously, i think scrubs must have a doctor(s) or resident(s) contributing to its commentaries on hospital life.
Click to expand...

Yep. I watched the season 1 dvd and there is a dr. john doris (i.e., JD) who is a friend of the creator of the series. It is loosely based on the stories that the real JD was telling the creator of the series while he was going through his residency. You can see the real JD's input in season 1. After a while though, I think that show stretches it because they have to find excuses to keep everyone sticking around.
 
ER in its first couple of seasons came closest of any of the doctor dramas to portraying real life. Someone gave me season 1 on DVD after I got in and I netflixed the next few. Carter always trying to please his surgical resident Benton and instead getting yelled at rings true enough :) It also did the best of any doctor show in giving nurses a strong role with Nurse Hathaway. As someone pointed out, they are the ones who really run the ER, or any other department.

Of course the show became a joke later on...
 
Lshapley said:
Yep. I watched the season 1 dvd and there is a dr. john doris (i.e., JD) who is a friend of the creator of the series. It is loosely based on the stories that the real JD was telling the creator of the series while he was going through his residency. You can see the real JD's input in season 1. After a while though, I think that show stretches it because they have to find excuses to keep everyone sticking around.
Click to expand...

Its not that much fo a stretch, lots of people stick around a given hospital system ;)

I think of all the major medical shows out there, I have to agree with a previously expressed sentiment: Scrubs gets the "feeling" right. The issues you deal with, the major themes, the interactions, are pretty damn close, esp in season 1 as I move into the last third of my medicine internship.
 
I'm a huge fan of scrubs, so I don't get too upset when things are totally unrealistic.
 
I don't get what you all are talking about as far as Scrubs being accurate.:confused: Usually any medicine (and this in itself is rare on the show) that's discussed is done for about 5 seconds surrounding being "pimped at rounds" humor. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely one of my absolute favorite shows and I do have at least the 1st two seasons on DVD) but calling it an accurate portrayal seems quite the stretch. Especially now that they're attendings...though admittedly I haven't been able to watch it that much this season.
 
obviously any show is good or not good depending on whether it entertains... so yeah

scrubs is cool
 
i heard that grey's anatomy is actually filmed in a real hospital with real interns, so I'd have to say thats the more realistic
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Next unread thread

Similar threads

C564
Trying to get pregnant... how to approach anatomy/formalin exposure?
Replies
11
Views
1K
C564
C564
P
Anki Deck for Anatomy Remediation?
Replies
0
Views
887
PieceOfGum1
P
G
  • Question
Texas Tech Anatomy Questions
Replies
2
Views
760
graciexexsc
G
V
MD & DO Drexel Gross Anatomy Summer Course
Replies
0
Views
925
VolDoctor
V
B
Anatomy lab treatment by other students
Replies
15
Views
2K
PathNeuroIMorFM
PathNeuroIMorFM
Top