Medical Shows

[Doc4daze]

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I have heard that the most realistic or close to it medical show is scrubs. Just as a curiousity what doctors are shown in these types of movies? (House, Grey's Anatomy, Scrubs, any others you can think of) just a fun question to lighten up the forum 🙂

 

[Gavanshir]

What do you mean what doctors?

I can tell you that ER is the most realistic one. It's also the best written, directed and acted one. Its amazing!

House is very unrealistic, although some cases are interesting.

Scrubs is satire.

Grey's Anatomy is more like a soap opera, its like 90210 in a hospital.

 

[UCLAstudent]

House is very unrealistic, although some cases are interesting.

Pshaw, House is VERY realistic. 😉

 

[xanthines]

ER may be the most "realistic" one, but it's still really really unrealistic. Also, unless anything has changed within the past, oh say six or seven years (and I'm going to guess that it hasn't), ER is soap opera hell.

House, although entertaining, is pretty much fantasyland.

Scrubs is hilarious. That's enough for me!

Grey's Anatomy... gag me with a scapel.

If anyone tells me that any of the CSI shows represent even a modicum of reality, I may actually hurl.

The most realistic show, aside from the humor/satire, was probably MASH!

-X

 

[tank you]

whats wrong with greys?

 

[Gavanshir]

whats wrong with greys?

Grey's Anatomy is a lot like Sex & the City, and mostly chicks seem to watch it too. It's all about the residents' sex lives and how they have crushes on each other and the doctors. Nothing about the show appeals to me, specially not the actors.


About ER, xanthines can you come up with any points that would make ER unrealistic? I can confidently say that at least 90% of what is portrayed in the show is accurate with what really happens at the ER.

Also, ER does go into the students', residents' and doctors' personal lives but even those scenarios are based on how medicine affects their personal lives and again a HIGH level of realism is portrayed. No where close to soap opera status where drama is unrealistically glorified.

 

[DarkFark]

ER's pretty good with most 'realism', except for how it basically contains the most medically and/or ethically interesting cases that happen in the entire country in a one month period, condensed into a single episode. But hey, it's television. And there are still errors, which range from purely technical (like how they never wear ear protection on the helipad) to the more basic. And a bunch of little things. Example

Doctor: Nurse, I need you to get a radiologist to run the c-arm.

Reality: Operating the c-arm basically involves pushing the same button repeatedly for extended periods of time. It bores the hell out of the x-ray techs (who actually have to do this job), and there's no way they'd pay a board certified radiologist, what, at least a hundred bucks an hour to run the damned thing.

There's usually one or two of those per episode- I'm sure there are people here who can spot far more than I can. Still, it's usually fairly accurate.

Oh yeah, there's one thing that I'm confused on, can someone explain it? I thought that whether donor blood is positive or negative for Rh-factor is only an issue for pregnant (or potentially pregnant) women, and that O-positive works fine for everyone else. But on ER, they always ask for o-neg, whether its a man, woman, or child. Are they just saying oneg cus it sounds more dramatic, or am I misinformed?

 

[NCF145]

None of these shows are created to be completely realistic. They are there for entertainment and/or shock value. Obviously, if you want reality watch Trauma: Life in the ER or any show on the Discover Health channel.

Anybody know when the new season of scrubs returns?

 

[Overeducated]

Who the heck cares if a show is realistic? I just care whether it's entertaining and/or insightful... hence, House rules 😀

 

[Daddydoc]

I think scrubs returns in January. Finally!

As for blood, they try to give type specific whenever possible, but in cases of severe trauma they do, in fact give O neg units to the victim. Giving Rh positive blood to an Rh neg patient could cause a transfusion reaction. They might get by the first time because their body has not yet created antibodies to the antigen, but the next time they would have a bad reaction.

 

[NapeSpikes]

Grey's Anatomy sucks. The first couple shows were okay, and then it just got worse and turned into a chick drama. Scrubs is pretty cool and ER is good. House, on the other hand, is awesome. That one episode last season with Carmen Elektra was AMAZING. 👍 😀

 

[little_late_MD]

Nip/Tuck

While not really a medical show per se, it is the best show that is tangentially related to medicine.

 

[NCF145]

Originally posted by little_late_MD
Nip/Tuck

While not really a medical show per se, it is the best show that is tangentially related to medicine.

I couldn't agree more.

 

[shibby1983]

Oh yeah, there's one thing that I'm confused on, can someone explain it? I thought that whether donor blood is positive or negative for Rh-factor is only an issue for pregnant (or potentially pregnant) women, and that O-positive works fine for everyone else. But on ER, they always ask for o-neg, whether its a man, woman, or child. Are they just saying oneg cus it sounds more dramatic, or am I misinformed?

It's my understanding that you can have a reaction to both Rh factor and the blood type. So for example if you are A- your immune system will not be happy about getting blood from someone who is B- or A+.

Now due to the wonders of genetics and punnett squares a mother can have a child that is Rh+ or if she is Rh-. This causes the mother's immune system to attack the red blood cells that the baby produces. Not good. I think they usually just use some immunosuppressant drugs during the course of the pregnancy to alleviate this.

 

[NCF145]

Originally posted by shibby1983
Now due to the wonders of genetics and punnett squares a mother can have a child that is Rh+ or if she is Rh-. This causes the mother's immune system to attack the red blood cells that the baby produces. Not good. I think they usually just use some immunosuppressant drugs during the course of the pregnancy to alleviate this.

Yeah, it's called erythroblastosis fetalis. To treat it doctors perform an intrauterine fetal blood transfusion to supply healthy blood to a fetus.

 

[Rendar5]

It's my understanding that you can have a reaction to both Rh factor and the blood type. So for example if you are A- your immune system will not be happy about getting blood from someone who is B- or A+.

Now due to the wonders of genetics and punnett squares a mother can have a child that is Rh+ or if she is Rh-. This causes the mother's immune system to attack the red blood cells that the baby produces. Not good. I think they usually just use some immunosuppressant drugs during the course of the pregnancy to alleviate this.

Wouldn't affect the first pregnancy because the blood supplies are still pretty separate. since deliveries are pretty bloody (enough for some nice blood mixing), u wanna give some rhogam (antibodies to Rh factor) so that enough of the Rh+ blood is bound by antibodies before interacting w/ the mother's immune system. usually protects the next fetus to be Rh+. Now if unfortunately you get fetal hemolytic anemia going on (failure to receive rhogam, or failure of rhogam to work), the guy above me explained that. Different blood types don't matter that much between mom and kid because anti-A and anti-B are just IgM, I think, which doesn't cross the placental barrier.

 

[Rendar5]

I find ER to be not very realistic . That's not how ERs generally feel. They take about a full month or two of ER shifts and combine it into one. hmm...maybe several years of it? not sure i've ever heard of a Peter Pan scenario w/ a helicopter going on before. (it took his arm, then it came back for his life? haha).

House is medically realistic in terms of the science. I like it cause they go into the hard-to-find stuff. I've learned good medicine from House. But the show is extreeeeeemely unrealistic in terms of how the hospital is arranged. And I've never heard of "diagnostician" as a subspecialty before, lol. And breaking into someone's house while investigating their illness?!

I find scrubs to be one of the most realistic, if u take out some of the crazy stuff. That has the feel of hospital work to me, lol. And I think the heart of it is pretty realistic.