Which Hospital Drama is the most realistic?

[Mysterion]

I hear that Emergency! was fairly accurate for the times.

Watching that show now, it always shocks me at how slow Johnny and Roy move. They pull up to the scence, camlmly get out of their truck, stroll around to the back for the medical kits, then walk slowly up the sidewalk to the house...

Meanwhile over on ER or Grey's Anatomy people are running sprints thorugh the hospitals, vaulting over patients and each otehr, etc.

Maybe it's just the difference in style of making tee-vee shows thirty years apart or something.

 

[JGordon]

I'm not a doctor or nurse, but I've been working in clinics and hospitals for the past 7 years. Of the shows I've seen, Scrubs is the most like an actual hospital. Aside from the obviously over-the-top bits, the interactions of the characters, the friction between the nurses/doctors and the surgeons/GPs, and the types of cases they handle are all the most realistic. ER did pretty good from a medical standpoint, but that was the most active & intense ER on the planet. Real ERs are very boring the vast majority of the time.

House is the scum of the earth in terms of realism. He wouldn't last 1 week as a real doctor, he would be sued and lose his license for all he's done. Haven't seen Grays anatomy or Emergency or some of the others mentioned in this thread.

 

[TheBrew]

Scrubs.

 

[Caretaker]

Grey's Anatomy. With the obvious exception of doctors doing it all the time, apparently, they're pretty good at keeping medical stuff accurate.

My father says if GA was real, he would never go to the hospital on that show. He can only imagine how unsanitary the place is with all the sex going on there.

 

[Star Wolf]

I hear that Emergency! was fairly accurate for the times.

I just saw the first episode befor the law passed allowing paramedics to treat people. They tried to pass the head nurse off as 30 years old.

 

[mr.peany]

From the rest, I recall that ER (again, more towards the early seasons) was the best for revising for medical finals, because it dropped the right hints at the right time to guide you to a diagnosis and work up a management plan. The pacing worked nicely for that.

Interesting. I used to tell coder-trainees to code the cases presented in ER. It was great practice.

Early on, ER did pretty good. The award-winning episode "Love's Labor Lost" in which Greene loses a mother who delivers in the ER, could have been written from a case at the first hospital I worked in. Greene was walking away, thinking it was done, and mom and baby would be fine, and someone called out, "She's bleeding out!" and I said out loud to the TV, "OMG, it's DIC."

Sure enough, it was.

It was such an eerie watching experience--to know exactly what was happening and what was going to happen because you'd seen it happen in real life.

Yes, ive got a similar story. In the episode where Dr. Greenes daughter overdoses on ecstasy, its assumed by him that it's eldest daughter Rachel, however it turns out to be his 8 month old Ella who found Rachel's ecstasy.

Well, whilst studying Paramedics, our lecturer was retelling a story of how he and his partner received a call for an paediatric ecstasy overdose. His partner soon realised the job was at his house, and he assumed that it was his 15 year old son so they called for another unit to attend. It wasn't till they arrived themselves in a purely observing capacity that they discovered it was his newborn who had swallowed the pills that were lying around.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

House is the scum of the earth in terms of realism. He wouldn't last 1 week as a real doctor, he would be sued and lose his license for all he's done. Haven't seen Grays anatomy or Emergency or some of the others mentioned in this thread.

I sure as hell would not want House as my doctor. He's a jerk of the worst kind. I don't care about professional detachment, I think doctors should have something approaching a bedside manner. And they shouldn't be addicted to painkillers.

 

[Trekker4747]

I sure as hell would not want House as my doctor. He's a jerk of the worst kind. I don't care about professional detachment, I think doctors should have something approaching a bedside manner. And they shouldn't be addicted to painkillers.

Keep in mind, House has very severe chronic pain. His "addiction to painkillers" comes from the fact they take away his pain.

And, I think having a doctor as brillant as House who'll stop at nothing, even risking his own life and career, to cure you speaks for something.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Keep in mind, House has very severe chronic pain. His "addiction to painkillers" comes from the fact they take away his pain.

I am aware of that.

And, I think having a doctor as brillant as House who'll stop at nothing, even risking his own life and career, to cure you speaks for something.

Brilliant that he may be, House's attitude suggests that he simply doesn't give a crap. I don't want a doctor like that. I want a doctor who *cares* about saving lives. Not some egotistical jerk.

 

[sidious618]

Scrubs probably.

That said, surely House is not supposed to be realistic.

 

[Trekker4747]

Keep in mind, House has very severe chronic pain. His "addiction to painkillers" comes from the fact they take away his pain.

I am aware of that.

And, I think having a doctor as brillant as House who'll stop at nothing, even risking his own life and career, to cure you speaks for something.

Brilliant that he may be, House's attitude suggests that he simply doesn't give a crap. I don't want a doctor like that. I want a doctor who *cares* about saving lives. Not some egotistical jerk.

Well, as House has pointed out involving emotions can cloud judgement on making difficult decisions. Countless examples of this in the series where House's personal envolvement has clouded his judgement and, to use a quote from him early in the series, "Would you rather have a doctor who ignored you while you got better, or talked to you while you died?"

If House's detachment from the Human factor lets him foucs on the real problem -the illness- then I think that is great. Fact is, many great doctors are great because they detatch their emotions.

 

[hot4_horsfall]

Grey's Anatomy. With the obvious exception of doctors doing it all the time, apparently, they're pretty good at keeping medical stuff accurate.

I'd have to agree the medical part of this show is fairly accurate most of the time however I have seen a few pregnant men on the show, which is why I say most of the time. To be honest the people doing it all the time is the most accurate part tons of people everywhere in the work place are doing it all the time.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I guess I'm the only person who has seen St. Elsewhere or even heard of it.

 

[Lookingglassman]

St Elsewhere.

ER is too stupid. They are doing all kinds of things to a patient and the family members are standing there screaming and asking all kinds of questions. I highly doubt a real ER would allow family members to take up space in an ER whiel they are massaging their loved ones heart or sticking a tube down their throat or sticking needles in their hearts.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

House's personal envolvement has clouded his judgement and, to use a quote from him early in the series, "Would you rather have a doctor who ignored you while you got better, or talked to you while you died?"

If a doctor ignored me, I wouldn't trust them to be working as hard as possible to save my life. How could they, if they don't care?

 

[Aragorn]

Most baseball players say Major League is the most realistic, so I can buy the Scrubs bit.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I guess I'm the only person who has seen St. Elsewhere or even heard of it.

I've heard of it too.

I do not, on the other hand, buy the thing about Tommy Westphall dreaming up 75% of all TV shows that ever existed.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I loved St. Elsewhere. Thought it was better than Hill St Blues. No idea how real any of these shows are. I'm not a medical professional and the last time I spent any time in a hospital I was a year old.

 

[Captain Shaw]

Does anyone here from the UK remember no angels.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Does anyone here from the UK remember no angels.

Yeah, I used to watch it. I don't remember what happened, though. Did it end, or was it just cancelled?