So, I did a rare thing the other night: I watched Grey’s Anatomy.

I generally avoid the show for two main reasons:

1. I work in the ICU, so the last thing I want to see is the ICU (or whatever make-believe “unit” it is where they practice) when I’m not there.

2. It portrays doctors as NURSES and nurses get NO credit!

Three examples: Dr. Meredith turning a patient?? Dr. in OR with concrete-block-boy pushing D50 and Insulin ( a common IV cocktail used to decrease fatally-high levels of potassium)?? “Figuring out” to put a foley in the patient?

In my time as a nurse, I have never seen a doctor do any of these things.

ONCE in a while, I’ll get a rare, rare doctor (resident, mind you) to help me pull up a patient, but usually that’s b/c the patient is in respiratory distress and needs a position change to breath, and I have only seen a doctor push a med ONCE, and it was again, a resident, TPA, and during a code (b/c that’s hospital policy).

And the foley catheter?? NO nurse would allow a patient to even ENTER the ICU (much less bolus them with excessive fluids) without making sure they have a way of excreting it. The day I see a physician insert a foley into a patient, is the day I enroll in medical school.

So, this is my question…why no love for nurses? Nurses not only DO these things (most without being asked, mind you), we double check them before we do, know when they’re needed and usually are the ones asking doctors for orders for them…so, why, when positive media-attention is needed for nurses MOST…are these super-unrealistic-suave-RESIDENTS getting the credit?

I noticed another thing while suffering through the show…when the young boy fell down and had a seizure, what did Dr. Grey immediately do?

She yelled, “NURSE!” Because, even her distorted, fictional, unrealistic character-self knew that the nurse would be the one who knew exactly what to do.

It’s about time that Hollywood woke up to the fact that nurses are the award-winning, exciting, realistic, intelligent, juicy people they need to be spotlighting on prime-time TV. Then, maybe we’ll start to see a break in this nursing shortage.