TV’s influence
The entertainment industry has milked the medical angle for years and continues to recycle it. All those beefy docs and angry vixen nurses. All those gladiators who face a daily battle with blood, guts and carnage at every-second-counts speeds, and possess a superhuman intellect we can only dream of. Come on now! What’s not to like??
Entertainment has definitely swayed many confused college grads into the medical profession. For my generation, it was ER. The day after the show, students were buzzing about what heroics Dr Carter and co had performed the night before. About how some rad time-dependent (completely insane and obscure) diagnosis had been made in a snap. WOW! A show firmly based in ‘reality’. How many of my own emergency med colleagues were swept up by the ER phenomenon and chose their specialty based on the series?
Keeping it real
It amazes me how many blunders and fantasies these shows play out to the public. They feed the viewer certain expectations of what we do, and now some viewers consider themselves ‘in the know’! Yeah right, it’s that easy.
The blatant medical errors I see on TV med shows slay me. It’s very misleading, and the studio has hired some schmuck doc to oversee this but disregards the advice as it’s not entertaining enough to show the truth. Consider the Hollywood version of a cardiac arrest where you see the dreaded ‘flat line’. The ‘docs/paramedics’ will shock the patient back to life……..malpractice, call me a lawyer!! In truth, it’s not as sensational as that.
However, all being said, I do feel honored that the entertainment industry has chosen my specialty in some form. If you want to subscribe to that, don’t let me disappoint you.
P.S. Autographed copies of this article are available at Tempo HQ.
By Dr DMS
