The Medical Fairy Tale that is Grey's

We all know that surgeons have to be trained for several years after medical school, and that even "minor" procedures require careful planning and the coordination of several non-surgeons, from a patient's nurses and primary physician to the guys from transport who transfer patients and relatives involved in someone's care.

However, watching surgery on a medical show makes transplant procedures and open-heart surgery appear simple, even to the person who knows better. Incision, incision, witty banter, a few deft hand movements, more witty banter, and it close up! The involvement of scrub nurses and anesthesiologists, is of often neglected, as well as post-op recovery. A surgery that often lasts over 10 hours is condensed into a 5 minute scene, and none of the surgeons show a trace of physical fatigue or a drop of sweat, let alone faded eyeshadow. 

I hate to say that watching Grey's has affected my view of medicine, because that statement almost makes it sound like I've begun to expect all male doctors to look like George or Derek. The latter is certainly not true. If it were there would probably be a lot more people applying to volunteer in hospitals (not that volunteers have much contact with doctors, if any).

While there are many amazing, almost surreal moments in medicine, especially in the hospital setting, the world of Seattle Grace is a worse fairy tale (in terms of its potential to mush your brain) than those adapted by Disney. Even if the doctors were semi-ordinary looking, the narrow focus on surgeons to the exclusion of other doctors, nurses (especially nurses), orderlies, social workers and chaplains produces the illusion that the work of the non-surgical staff is not significant enough to warrant mention outside of romantic trysts or searches for future organ donors (brain-dead patients on life support who only show up when a cuter patient needs a new heart or liver). I'm not knocking surgeons, but I think they get enough recognition and quasi-deification in the non-fictional world. 

Having spent almost all of my time volunteering around transport staff, social workers, and nurses, I realize that part of my opinion about non-surgical staff is shaped by these experiences. However, I think most people don't see, or at least better appreciate, the roles of these individuals until they or someone they are close to is hospitalized. And though people shouldn't rely on TV for a realistic picture of life, maybe medical shows could be used to provide a more inclusive picture of medicine*.

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* = I've only seen one season of it, but the drama series St. Elsewhere has the most balanced presentation of medical staff I've seen on a medical show. While the main characters are surgeons and medical residents, there are several specialties represented (emergency medicine, cardiovascular, OB/GYN, general medicine…), and nurses and orderlies get a respectable share of face time and dialogue.