Medical dramas often draw in audiences with intense emergencies and heroic doctors. But, in such dramatic shows, the drama is prioritized over facts. The doctors in Grey’s Anatomy , House , and The Good Doctor perform surgeries and diagnose new diseases every day and in a nick of time, which does not happen in the real world. The real-life healthcare scenario involves teams of nurses, technicians, and many more who play crucial roles. Here is a list of 19 things these medical dramas tend to get wrong about the healthcare industry.
19) Instant Diagnoses
Medical dramas often show Doctors diagnosing their patients in a day and most of the time by just listening to their symptoms. In real life, diagnosing a patient requires time and multiple tests and consultations. In the show House, Hugh Laurie’s Dr. Gregory House is known for his instant diagnosis based on assumptions. However, diagnosing is a time-consuming process that requires several tests that may take days or months and also requires careful consideration.
18) Patient Cooperation
In medical dramas, patients are often shown to follow instructions given by medical staff without any question. However, patient cooperation in a real healthcare setting can become a daunting task. Some patients may be non-compliant or may have difficulties understanding or following medical advice, thus complicating their care and recovery. In shows like Grey’s Anatomy , patients appear more compliant and agree to their treatments. but in real life, they might refuse to take prescribed medications, or skip follow-up appointments, complicating the recovery process.
17) Skiping Consent
In medical dramas, doctors are shown sometimes to skip obtaining consent from patients before executing procedures. In reality, getting consent is a key legal and ethical dimension in health care. Popular shows ER has shown doctors and surgeons performing emergency surgeries without explicitly obtaining consent from the patient. In real real-life setting, the patient should be educated on the potential risks, benefits, and alternatives to the proposed treatment and should be consenting without coercion.
16) Unrealistic Recoveries
In medical dramas, patients, after whatever severe injury or illness, rapidly recover or at least appear to be recovering miraculously. Such unrealistic quick recoveries raise false expectations of the speed and likelihood of recovery in actual health care. In shows like House , patients more often present rare and immediately life-threatening conditions that, after a dramatic journey of diagnosis, make quick and complete recovery. By depicting unrealistic recoveries, medical dramas create a distorted view of the healing process and the challenges patients face.
15) Forming Romantic Relationships With Patients
Medical dramas, sometimes show interactions between doctors and their patients bloom into romantic plotlines. In reality, such relationships are considered highly unethical and are normally prohibited. In Grey’s Anatomy , Katherine Heigl’s Dr. Izzie Stevens has a romantic relationship with a patient Denny Duquette, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who is waiting for a heart transplant. The love affair evolves into a major story arc with ethical dilemmas and conflicts with hospital policy. In the real world of health care, such relationships are deemed unethical and absolutely prohibited.
14) Spending Time With Patient
Medical dramas show long doctor-patient conversations and personalized care. It is the plot that makes for good drama, but in reality, the time open to doctors for each patient is cut short by busy schedules and the generous demands of the very healthcare systems. In Grey’s Anatomy , Justin Chambers’ Dr. Alex Karev is often depicted spending hours with his pediatric patients, getting to know them personally, and providing emotional support. While loving and caring, such acts from doctors seldom take place in real life, where scheduling constraints and the number of patients are the order of the day.
13) Operating Room Drama
Medical dramas often depict operating rooms (ORs) as high-stakes environments filled with dramatic confrontations and emotional outbursts. In reality, ORs are highly controlled, professional settings where teamwork and focus are paramount to ensure patient safety and successful outcomes. For instance, Grey’s Anatomy paints an often-prevalent picture of the operating room where surgeons are arguing and confronting each other. Such behaviors would be totally inappropriate in the practice of real-life healthcare.
12) Doing Frequent Surgeries
By depicting surgeons performing multiple difficult surgeries on the same day, the medical drama creates an unrealistic image of the demands and capabilities of surgical practices. In reality, surgeries, especially major ones, require so much pre-operative preparation, intra-operative precision, and post-operative care that they minimize any possibility of more than a few surgeries being performed in a day. While this may make for exhilarating fast-paced television, it doesn’t accurately portray the hectic realities of surgical practice.
11) Working Under Influence
Medical dramas often depict doctors working under the influence of alcohol and drugs, providing storylines with an added dimension of drama. In real life, this behavior is highly unethical and dangerous and warrants serious disciplinary action, including the loss of a medical license. For instance, in Nurse Jackie , the central character Jackie Peyton, played by Edie Falco, is a nurse struggling with an addiction to prescription painkillers. That sets up the tension of watching a woman with dragons of her own personal issues be a good nurse while showing the impact of the addiction itself.
10) Lone Doctors In The ER
In medical dramas, the storyline often shows a single heroic doctor making critical choices on his own in the ER. The truth is that an ER is a team effort with many different types of health workers working in coordination to get the job done efficiently. The show, The Night Shift constantly portrays Eoin Macken’s Dr. TC Callahan dealing with multiple critical cases single-handedly, making life-and-death decisions with limited input from the rest of the team. While this is compelling TV, that is not how ERs operate in reality.
9) Ignoring Paperwork
One other aspect of the narrative of the medical drama is that it rarely accounts for the massive amounts of paperwork and administrative files that healthcare professionals have to deal with. This presents a rather unrealistic picture of the daily workflow concerning healthcare setups, where documentation is an important part of patient care. For instance, in House , Dr. Gregory House and his team rarely complete any of the massive documentation for patient care; they diagnose and treat! In real life, there is a requirement for all patient contact, diagnosis, and treatment to be recorded in great detail in the medical record.
8) Simplifying Procedures
Due to narrative and time restraints, medical drama sequences often downplay the complexities of actual medical procedures. Hence, some real-life approximations are simplified and even rendered inaccurate. For example, brain surgery might take several hours to complete, but within a few quick minutes on The Good Doctor , we watch Freddie Highmore’s Shaun Murphy perform that surgery with relative comfort and speed, rarely reflecting or minimal depiction of the complex steps involved.
7) Perfect Appearances
Whatever Hollywood produces in medical dramas, one thing is constant: doctors and nurses are always stunningly beautiful. They are impeccably groomed and stylish even during the most stressful working hours. The reality for healthcare professionals is quite different. They put in long hours in stressful environments, and their looks often reflect the demands of their job. In The Resident , Matt Czuchery’s Dr. Conrad Hawkins and his colleagues are often shown looking impeccable, even during long and grueling shifts.
6) Doctors Doing Everything
In medical dramas, doctors are shown carrying out a variety of activities, from diagnosing the patient to performing surgery and sometimes even doing administrative work. However, in real life, these duties are usually divided among different specialists for the sake of providing the most effective and efficient care for the patient. In the show House , Hugh Laurie’s Dr. Gregory House and his team of diagnosticians are often seen diagnosing very rare diseases and performing complicated procedures like lumbar punctures, biopsies, and sometimes even minor surgeries. In real life, such procedures are performed by specialists.
5) Overuse of CPR
While medical dramas tend to portray CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) as almost always successful, often with characters making miraculous recoveries, the reality is the opposite. CPR, in general, has a low success rate for resuscitation, and these miraculous outcomes are rarely the case. For instance, in shows like Grey’s Anatomy , a character might perform CPR on a patient, and after a few chest compressions and breaths, the patient miraculously wakes up and starts talking. By overusing and oversimplifying CPR, medical dramas create unrealistic expectations about its effectiveness.
4) Frequent Emergencies
Medical dramas often depict hospitals with constant emergencies creating a sense of perpetual crisis. While some emergencies do take place, they are not as frequent and chaotic as is portrayed on TV. There are certain systems and protocols in place for hospitals to manage emergencies professionally. In the show ER , the emergency room is found to be always active, with doctors and nurses rushing to attend to one emergency case after another. While this scenario makes thrilling television, there are indeed downtimes in real life between emergencies.
3) Romantic Entaglements
While romantic entanglements among hospital staff members form a significant part of the plot in medical dramas, the relationships that ensue tend to be intense and melodramatic, thereby enhancing the substance of the show’s storylines. However, in real-life hospital situations, such relationships are less common and can be disruptive to the professional context instead. In Grey’s Anatomy , Ellen Pompeo’s Meredith Grey and Patrick Dempsey’s Derek Shepherd had an intense and complicated relationship, and they often brought their personal issues into the workplace, which in real life is unprofessional and ignorant.
2) Ignoring Specialities
Medical dramas tend to show doctors performing all types of medical procedures and surgeries, regardless of their specialization. However, in real life, doctors are specialized, and they typically only perform procedures that are within their specialty. In the show Scrubs , Zach Braff’s Dr. John “J.D.” Dorian, often appears to do a wide range of activities from diagnosing to performing procedures that should only be done by specialists. By ignoring the importance of medical specialties, dramas can create an unrealistic portrayal of the healthcare industry.
1) Heroic Surgeons
Medical dramas often show their doctors as heroes which results in overlooking the other staff members who are also crucial in ensuring patient care. In the show The Good Doctor , Freddie Highmore’s Dr. Shaun Murphy is often depicted performing complex surgeries on his own, making split-second decisions without much input from his colleagues. In real life, surgery is a team effort in the actual sense. For instance, several people are involved during heart surgery: a cardiothoracic surgeon, an anesthesiologist, scrub nurses, perfusionists running the heart-lung machine, and surgical assistants, with each member ensuring the safety of the patient and the success of the procedure.
