# ER mistakes blamed on medical dramas



## karaya (Apr 1, 2009)

Seems like some of our future docs watch just a tad bit too much TV!

http://www.ems1.com/medical-clinical/articles/477974-ER-mistakes-blamed-on-medical-dramas


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## reaper (Apr 1, 2009)

Didn't we all learn street medicine from watching Emergency!


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## Veneficus (Apr 1, 2009)

This article doesn't begin to touch it. a large majority of my classmates take everything they see on TV as gospel. Some even watch reruns of house to learn rare diseases an treatments. 

In class it was offered as an answer that emergent tracheostomy is the first choice for patients with difficulty breathing, because they see it on tv all the time.

My favorite is the ER chopper crash epidsode. Firefighters trying to evacuate the building wearing SCBAs and full turnouts and doctors wearing white coats running n the same building tubing patients feet away from the flames. 

I can't stand those shows. Watching them should be a disqualifying offence for getting into med school.


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## Sasha (Apr 1, 2009)

> I can't stand those shows. Watching them should be a disqualifying offence for getting into med school.



You cannot resist the power of House!


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## flhtci01 (Apr 1, 2009)

*I feel so stupid*

You mean to tell me that I could have watched TV and became a doctor when I was really studying to become a medic? :sad:


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## firecoins (Apr 1, 2009)

Veneficus said:


> In class it was offered as an answer that emergent tracheostomy is the first choice for patients with difficulty breathing, because they see it on tv all the time..



you mean it isn't the first choice?


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## 8jimi8 (Apr 1, 2009)

"what some see as chronic flaws in the system of training Canada's physicians..."

LOL

no more tv for med students up in canadia!


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## mikie (Apr 1, 2009)

*I couldn't agree more*



Sasha said:


> You cannot resist the power of House!



My favorite though on that show is needle decompressions. They pull out a syringe from no where and STAB it into the chest from a few feet up with a fast swinging motion.  Anyone here that good?


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## fortsmithman (Apr 1, 2009)

I used to watch St Elsewhere and as a young kid Marcus Welby MD and Quincy, and Crossing Jordan, and House with a bit of ER.  With all those shows Would I be a specialst or GP.
LOL :wacko::wacko:


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## Buzz (Apr 1, 2009)

People need to learn to take that stuff with a grain of salt. 

I do watch House, Scrubs, and ER...and little things used to drive me crazy about watching them. I got over the inaccuracies and just learned to enjoy the humor and story lines.  I also watch shows on Discovery Health like Mystery Diagnosis (actually see quite a few of "House" cases pop up here), Diagnosis X, and Code Blue which are a bit more careful about the manner they portray things.


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## Veneficus (Apr 1, 2009)

Buzz said:


> People need to learn to take that stuff with a grain of salt.
> 
> I do watch House, Scrubs, and ER...and little things used to drive me crazy about watching them. I got over the inaccuracies and just learned to enjoy the humor and story lines.  I also watch shows on Discovery Health like Mystery Diagnosis (actually see quite a few of "House" cases pop up here), Diagnosis X, and Code Blue which are a bit more careful about the manner they portray things.



I think people need to figure out that what they see on tv isn't real. It is designed to be entertaining. 

But it is reality that I see my classmates, who have no experience outside of school believe those shows like they are offering free pointers. 

Clearly this was serious enough for an inquiry. 

"Don't worry about your surgery Mr. Smith, I saw how to do it on a tv show last week."

Medical professionals should know better than to use primetime TV as an educational resourse. It is not the shows I have issue with.


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## nomofica (Apr 1, 2009)

Wait, wait, wait... University of Alberta?!


... One of the most advanced hospitals in the world, and they're learning from medical dramas?!

/facepalm
I think I've just lost a tad bit of faith in these guys. I'd better keep tabs with my buddy in med school at the UofA to make sure he isn't doing the same...


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## Buzz (Apr 1, 2009)

I can see this becoming a problem though...

Pretty soon priests will be attempting trachs with pocketknives and eyedroppers.


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## mikie (Apr 1, 2009)

Buzz said:


> ...I also watch shows on Discovery Health like Mystery Diagnosis (actually see quite a few of "House" cases pop up here), Diagnosis X, and Code Blue which are a bit more careful about the manner they portray things.



Don't forget _Trauma- Life in the ER_.


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## Wee-EMT (Apr 1, 2009)

My favorite is when they put the stethoscope on backwards


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## Sasha (Apr 1, 2009)

mikie said:


> My favorite though on that show is needle decompressions. They pull out a syringe from no where and STAB it into the chest from a few feet up with a fast swinging motion.  Anyone here that good?



I love where he's treating the psychiatrist via TV in the north pole or something, and she starts breathing fast so he's like "Stick the needle in your chest!!!" and suddenly she can breathe better. There is no mention of the pnuemo later, no needle still in her chest, and it turns out her problem was a fracture throwing clots!


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## mycrofft (Apr 2, 2009)

*Or a priest doing a crycothyrotomy..*

...with a Tom Mix jackknife and a ball point pen barrel. No, wait, that was Father Mulcahy!

"Deep breath my son...wait, where did that pesky pen barrel go? It was in his neck a second ago...".

I liked a HOUSE episode http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0902016/ where his pt has a seizure due to valium OD (??, if I recall), and he reaches casually into a drawer in their walk in clinic, comes out with a syringe preloaded and needled full of succinylcholine, and jabs the pt. Gimme a break. but entertaining nonetheless.


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## Sasha (Apr 2, 2009)

mycrofft said:


> ...with a Tom Mix jackknife and a ball point pen barrel. No, wait, that was Father Mulcahy!
> 
> "Deep breath my son...wait, where did that pesky pen barrel go? It was in his neck a second ago...".
> 
> I liked a HOUSE episode http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0902016/ where his pt has a seizure due to valium OD (??, if I recall), and he reaches casually into a drawer in their walk in clinic, comes out with a syringe preloaded and needled full of succinylcholine, and jabs the pt. Gimme a break. but entertaining nonetheless.



Saw 5 had, in the very start, someone with his head in a tank of water take a ball point pen out of his pocket, randomly jab it in his trachea, almost bloodlessly, screws out the ink cartridge and everything, and just chills 'til help arrives. Then is out a couple days later with nothing but a hoarse voice and a dressing over his home made trache.


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## curt (Apr 2, 2009)

*It seems you have a rare form of brain cancer- Cerebrohollywoodocytoma*

These shows are obviously and plainly there to entertain, and this should be blatantly apparent to most medical personnel. The simple fact of the matter is that they have to 'dumb it down' and 'amp it up' to be able to sell it to the general public as a medical drama. Some shows do their best to get close to reality while still sticking to those principals, which I think House is one of them, but even the best ones are guilty of some crazy stuff. As an example, House (the show, not the character) has a tendency to shock the crap out of any and everyone with less than a moment's notice and a good reason. V-Fib, yes, of course. Asystole? You bet your narcissistic main character you shock it. Don't even have a set of leads on them? Ride the lightning, baby. Should be doing the normal CPR cycles? Make 'em burn, that jumping means that the electricity's doing the compressions for you, and their heart will either restart or blow up. 

 I like watching House because it's a fun show and it least seems to TRY to get its facts straight for having to spoonfeed it to the public, but I don't take what I see as law or fact by a long shot. You've got to use your brain regarding these sorts of things, and if you want to use them as a learning tool, then go look up that disease and its courses of treatment after the show's over. To actually try and learn from primetime TV is absurd, unless it's a show that's specifically dedicated to giving the facts and not dramatizing for the sake of figures (a wonderful example is Emergency 911, or whatever that show was that was hosted by William Shatner back in the 90's. I think it was a great show both for entertainment and education, grew up watching it, and think it's a shame it got sacked.)


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## Kookaburra (Apr 2, 2009)

mikie said:


> Don't forget _Trauma- Life in the ER_.



Untold Stories of the ER is my fave.


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## amberdt03 (Apr 2, 2009)

Kookaburra said:


> Untold Stories of the ER is my fave.



i like that one as well as trauma life in the er(even though all the episodes are old)


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## Wee-EMT (Apr 6, 2009)

mikie said:


> Don't forget _Trauma- Life in the ER_.



Once I saw the Doctors shock a guy across the abdomen:wacko:


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## Jon (Apr 7, 2009)

The only show that I routinely watch is Scrubs... because it is a "comedy" everyone should know to take it with a grain of salt.

House is interesting... but predictable. Same reason I stopped watching ER many years ago.

In all seriousness - Didn't some folks ACTUALLY learn from Emergency? I recall some discussions that Emergency! actually made a dedicated effort to be realistic and accurate. Of course, now so much of the stuff is dated by better equipment and techniques... but some of it has come full circle - Sending EKG's to the ED Doc?


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