Television Medical Dramas Research Articles

Am I Dying Doctor?": How End-Of-Life Care is Portrayed in Television Medical Dramas

Am I Dying Doctor?": How End-Of-Life Care is Portrayed in Television Medical Dramas

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This article examines contemporary American medical television dramas and their intersections with 19th century literary realism asking how technical language and sentimental speech are connected in these cultural representations of illness and medical discourse. I argue that they share a common effort of medical realism: Questions of medical knowledge, diagnosis and the delimitations of the normal and the pathological not only inform the thematic content of these genres, but also mark the narrative techniques of description, characterization and imagery. Because the rational professionalism, since the founding of modern medical science, carries with it a specific truth privilege, it presents itself not only as the possibility for medical treatment, but also as an answer to our existential troubles. I consider this double authority of medical practice and social therapy a model for the medical realism at play in modern hospital dramas. They borrow the scientific authority of medicine in order to present characters who are first and foremost bodies and who are therefore potentially pathological. Furthermore they borrow the interpretive authority of medicine to develop a diagnostics, which can determine the normal and the pathological on a social scale.

Hospital doctors' Opinions regarding educational Utility, public Sentiment and career Effects of Medical television Dramas: the HOUSE MD study.

To evaluate the opinions of practicing clinicians on medical television dramas and the effects these series have on society as well as their own practice. Observational study using a structured questionnaire disseminated among doctors of all grades and specialties at one tertiary centre and two large secondary care district general hospitals in Wales, United Kingdom. Three hundred and seventy-two questionnaires were distributed over a 3-month period, with 200 completed questionnaires received (response rate, 54%). Frequency and reasons for watching these programs, and opinions regarding realism, educational value and public perception, evaluated by doctors' grades and specialties. Identification of work practice with any observed traits in fictional doctors was also analysed. 65% of doctors surveyed admitted to watching these programs on more than one occasion. Junior doctors (interns and resident medical officers) were more regular viewers. Most doctors who admitted to watching medical dramas did so for entertainment purposes (69%); 8% watched for educational purposes and, of these, 100% watched House MD, 82% felt that these dramas were unrepresentative of daily practice, and 10% thought that they accurately portrayed reality. Most of the positive responses were from junior doctors. 61% of doctors identified some aspect of their clinical practice with another doctor (fictional or non-fictional; most junior doctors identified with a fictional doctor, compared with non-fictional role models for more senior practicing clinicians. This survey shows that a large body of the medical workforce watches medical television dramas and that such programs exercise a growing influence on the practice of junior doctors, particularly those in physicianly specialties. The reasons for certain role model selections remain unknown and may require further evaluation.

La destruction créatrice du Dr House: Ordre et désordre sous couvert de sécurité

We are presenting here a reading of House, a popular television medical drama, through the prism of the imaginary. This show juggles with reality and fiction in such a way that it is sometimes difficult for us to make a distinction between what we know about the medical environment and what images and words suggest. House’s main and eponymous character, Dr Gregory House, appeals to the viewer through his ambivalence. Indeed, he is both obnoxious – often spiteful, callous and unsympathetic towards his patients, his close friends and colleagues, always flouting hospital rules – and captivating in the practice of his profession as well as in the relationships he maintains with the members of his team. This ambivalence makes him the author of a “creative destruction”, which takes us from one world of feelings to another, using our emotions. Thus a dialogical process takes place, which can be perceived using the framework of interpretation provided by imaginary sociology, in particular its structures elaborated by Gilbert Durand.

Educational Storylines in Entertainment Television: Audience Reactions Toward Persuasive Strategies in Medical Dramas

Medical television drama series provide an important source of health information. This form of entertainment-education (E-E) can be used to influence knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors toward health-related issues. In the literature, E-E is generally regarded as a persuasive strategy in itself, whereas in an increasing number of E-E programs, several different persuasive strategies are used. An important question is how the audience ethically evaluates these strategies. The aim of the present study is to examine viewers' ethical judgments toward the use of three persuasive strategies in E-E: product placement, framing, and persuasion toward a controversial position. A survey among 525 viewers of 5 popular medical dramas demonstrates that viewers evaluate the use of the currently investigated attitudinal statements about potential persuasive strategies in E-E as being immoral and that viewers prefer neutral storylines. Adopting a strategy that viewers find inappropriate may interfere with the intended prosocial effects of E-E. A broader understanding of the appropriate and inappropriate uses of persuasive strategies in E-E is indispensable for effective E-E productions.

An assessment of resuscitation quality in the television drama Emergency Room: Guideline non-compliance and low-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation lead to a favorable outcome?

ObjectiveTwo earlier studies found that outcome after cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in the television medical drama Emergency Room (ER) is not realistic. No study has yet evaluated CPR quality in ER. DesignRetrospective analysis of CPR quality in episodes of ER. SettingThree independent board-certified emergency physicians trained in CPR and the American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines reviewed ER episodes in two 5-year time-frames (2001–2005 and 2005–2009). Congruency with the corresponding 2000 and 2005 AHA guidelines was determined for each CPR scene. PatientsNone. InterventionsNone. Main outcome measuresTo evaluate whether CPR is in agreement with the specific algorithms of the AHA guidelines. Fisher's exact test and Mann–Whitney-U-test were used to evaluate statistical significance (P<0.05). ResultsA total of 136 on-screen cardiac arrests occurred in 174 episodes. Trauma was the leading cause of cardiac arrest (56.6%), which was witnessed in 80.1%. Return of spontaneous circulation occurred in 38.2%. Altogether, 19.1% of patients survived until ICU admission, and 5.1% were discharged alive. ConclusionsOnly one CPR scene was in agreement with the published AHA guidelines. However, low-quality CPR and non-compliance with the guidelines resulted in favorable outcomes.

“Fact” and “fiction”: enlivening health care education

This paper aims to demonstrate how close analysis of cultural narratives can be employed as effective pedagogical tools in the explication and critique of specific workplace issues relevant to health management education. Two narratives have been selected to illustrate this point: the apparently "fictional" UK-based medical television drama series Bodies (2005-2006) and the apparently "factual" report of an Australian state government public inquiry into acute health care, the Garling Report. Through their demonstration of how analyses of selected segments of these texts can be used in health management education, the authors conclude that the comparative analyses of ostensibly "fictional" and "factual" narratives allow for analysis and critique of the inadequacies of new public management (NPM) applied to the health care industry, leading to a greater understanding of wider ideological effects on public perceptions. The authors argue that these understandings enliven students' learning experiences, and that such comparative analyses should be applied more widely across health management education to develop students' critical skills and openness to exploring alternative models. Comparative analysis of cultural texts is novel in health care education, and allows for the interrogation of ideology and its effects.

Grey’s Anatomy and Communication Accommodation: Exploring Aspects of Nonverbal Interactions Portrayed in Media

This study explores nonverbal communication measured in a television medical drama using the NAAS framework for investigating doctor-patient interactions viewed through the lens of communication accommodation theory. It aims to find how doctors in the television series Grey’s Anatomy exhibit a select set of nonverbal communication elements to accommodate their fictional patients. Of significance, the study draws attention to the impact of televised medical programs on real-life doctor-patient encounters, focusing on under-researched aspects of communication in this context. Eight episodes of the series Grey’s Anatomy were coded for four nonverbal behaviors during physician consultations with a single patient in each program. Only the first and last minutes of conversation were included in the analysis. Descriptive statistics demonstrate how doctors and patients behave in general across all episodes. A factor calculated from differences of proportions between patient and physician behaviors indicates whether doctors accommodate patients and consequently influence patient satisfaction. The analysis finds that the amount of nonverbal behavior between the parties was balanced, with doctors accommodating and not accommodating in equal frequency. The study discusses the implications not only on medical drama but also on the professional medical field, noting that television not only reflects real-life but also can establish communication expectations for better or worse. Utilizing the NAAS to understand how fictionalized interactions occur informs the medical community on how better to prepare doctors for patient communication.

The Motives for and Consequences of Viewing Television Medical Dramas

Although television medical dramas have been popular for a long time and have delivered health- and medical-related information to audiences, few studies have focused on audience's view. This study explores motives for and consequences of viewing medical dramas from the uses and gratifications (U&G) perspective. A survey identified college students' motives toward medical drama viewing and the relationship of the motives with individuals' health information orientation, audience activity (selectivity, attention, involvement), and their use of health information learned from the dramas. Although viewers' primary motive for viewing medical drama was not to gather health information, only health information motive, among all motives, directly predicted use of health information from medical dramas. Viewers' entertainment-related motives toward medical drama viewing indirectly and positively predicted use of information in the dramas via involvement with those dramas, and indirectly and negatively via attention to the story in those dramas. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

L’infermieristica tra etica ed estetica. La professione descritta dai media

Nurse's role, according to the media, does not fit the role and evolution that nursing had in these last years: nursing remains unknown to public. Objective of research is to define how nurse's image is described by media. analysis of two newspapers, at national and local level with respect to articles about nurses, taking into account numbers of articles, position, topic (malpractice, frauds/crimes, job/economical cuts, praise). A second part of research has been focused on online newspapers, by using key words. Analysis of television medical dramas about presence of nurse, competences, relationship with physician/patient, social elements, context of work (acute or chronic), impact on patients welfare, and eventually ethical-deontological aspects has been carried out. on three hundred articles related health context, thirty-nine talk about nurse; five of those are in first page. 39% of articles regards frauds/crimes, 19% job/economical cuts, 15% malpractice. With respect to online articles, 66% concerns frauds/crimes. In medical dramas there is small attention to nurse who has generic competence as well as other health professional but doctor. The nurse character is played only by women. a low level of professionalism comes out both from newspaper and television. A specific professional identity is often absent furthermore nurses are relegated to a role of weakness in work and private circumstance.

Medical dramas on television: A brief guide for educators

The popularity of medical television dramas is well-established and medical educators are beginning to recognize the power of medical media as a potential tool for education. The purpose of this study was to view a number of medical dramas and consider their potential use in medical education. A total of 177 episodes from eight popular television medical dramas produced between 1990 and 2009 were systematically viewed and analyzed and a brief guide was developed for each drama. The dramas analyzed contained a wealth of material applicable to medical education. In our experience, each drama may be best suited to a particular educational use: for example, clips from “ER” and “Scrubs” offer more examples of teaching and learning than “House” and “Grey's Anatomy”, which are perhaps better suited for topics on ethics or team work. We hope that this brief guide will encourage others to consider integrating this material into their teaching, and to explore how television drama may be used most effectively in medical education.

423 Not Your Grandmother's Doctor Show: Bioethics and Professionalism in Television Medical Dramas

Study Objective: Television medical dramas are tremendously popular. In order to assess the possible affect of these dramas on the perceptions of the general public and their potential value in the education of residents and students, it is first necessary to identify what is actually portrayed in these programs. The purpose of this study was to systematically analyze the bioethical and professionalism content of popular medical dramas on television. Methods: In this retrospective cross-sectional study, consecutive TV episodes of 11 popular television programs (eg, House, Boston Med, ER) were viewed to identify all incidents in the programs that involved ethical issues, as well as those involving questions of interpersonal relations or professionalism. The most recent, complete season of each TV program was analyzed (total, 186 episodes). An incident was defined as a conversation between, or actions taken by, characters that involved a bioethics or professionalism issue. Our classification scheme for bioethical incidents was adapted from a recent study by the Johns Hopkins Institute of Bioethics (19 categories); our codes for professionalism were adapted from an Association of American Medical Colleges report (18 categories). Since it was not feasible to evaluate every interaction over the course of the 135 episodes, we limited our coding to those interactions that were exceptional or conspicuously offensive. After coding, all incidents were characterized as “negative” in the sense of violating a norm or “positive” by exemplifying it. A second investigator performed a blinded critical review of a random sample of 10% of the programs to determine reliability using kappa statistics. Descriptive statistics (95% confidence intervals) and frequency tables were used describe data. Results: A total of 186 TV episodes were analyzed: 340 bioethical incidents (mean, 1.8 incidents/TV episode) and 829 professionalism issues (4.5/TV episode) were identified. The same 4 programs with the most bioethical incidents also had the most issues involving professionalism. Consent was the most frequently observed bioethical issue. Of 37 total incidents, 43% (16/37) involved exemplary consent discussions, while the remainder were inadequate, such as physicians lying to patients in order to obtain consent. There were 33 incidents of ethically questionable departures from standard practice. Most of these incidents depicted physicians acting unethically in their pursuit of a favorable outcome for a patient. The majority of professionalism issues (66%) were negative. Incidents relating to sensitivity to patient's pain, emotional state, physician integrity, risk-taking, and sex/ethnicity issues were the most frequently observed across all the series. Caring and compassion when dealing with patients was particularly noteworthy, because it is the only virtue of professionalism identified in which the exemplary portrayals outnumbered the lapses in professionalism. Conclusion: Television medical dramas contain many perplexing ethical issues and examples of egregious professionalism which, in an educational setting, could help to engage students and residents in discussions of the appropriate management of such issues. Unfortunately, the general public will inadvertently pick up on details that will shape their understanding of the medical profession - good or bad.

Depiction of Seizure First Aid Management in Medical Television Dramas

The objective of this study was to investigate whether medical television dramas portray proper seizure first aid. Episodes of the four highest-rated US medical dramas ("Grey's Anatomy," "House M.D.", "Private Practice," and "ER") were screened for the presence of seizures. "Patient" age, sex, semiology, and etiology were recorded. The appropriateness of seizure first aid management was determined by comparison to the Epilepsy Foundation of America (EFA) guidelines. Among 364 television programs, 65 seizures (in 59 individuals) were identified (30 males; 29 females). Seizures were primary or secondarily generalized tonic-clonic in 53 (81.5%) cases. Other seizure types included complex partial (5, 7.7%), simple partial (1, 1.5%), myoclonic (1, 1.5%), absence (1, 1.5%), and psychogenic (1, 1.5%). On 63 occasions (96.9%), first aid was performed by a health care professional. First aid management was judged appropriate in 21 (32.3%) seizures, inappropriate in 28 (43.1%), and indeterminate in 16 (24.6%). Inappropriate practices included holding the person down (17, 26.2%), trying to stop the involuntary movements (10, 15.4%) and putting something in the person's mouth (11, 16.9%). The first aid management of seizures performed by actors portraying health care professionals was inappropriate in nearly half of all cases. Inaccurate depiction of seizure first aid management may contribute to misinformation of the general public. The television industry could easily incorporate the simple first aid EFA seizure guidelines as a public service without sacrificing dramatic impact.

Perceived Realism of Television Medical Dramas and Perceptions About Physicians

This study investigated whether and how dimensions of perceived realism of television medical dramas are linked to perceptions of physicians. The three dimensions of perceived realism were considered: plausibility, typicality, and narrative consistency. Data from a survey of college students were examined with confirmatory factor analyses and hierarchical regression analyses. Across the three dramas (ER, Grey’s Anatomy, and House), narrative consistency predicted positive perceptions about physicians. Perceived plausibility and typicality of the medical dramas showed no significant association with perceptions about physicians. These results illustrate the importance of distinguishing different dimensions of perceived realism and the importance of narrative consistency in influencing social beliefs.

The Depiction of Illness and Related Matters in Two Top-Ranked Primetime Network Medical Dramas in the United States: A Content Analysis

The effectiveness of entertainment-education is evidenced in previous research; nevertheless, content analytic research on the health content in such programs has been relatively meager in comparison to the large amount of content analyses of health content in news or ads in print media or on television. To address this issue, the current study content analyzed the portrayals of illnesses and related matters in 127 episodes aired from 2000 to 2007 of two top-ranked television medical dramas in the United States (Grey's Anatomy and ER). Results indicated that the two shows portrayed a wide range of illnesses and diseases, with injury, cardiovascular disease, and cancer being the top three most frequently portrayed. Moreover, equal numbers of men and women patient characters were portrayed, Caucasians and African Americans were the top two portrayed races, and the elderly were underrepresented. Last, the shows framed illness and health mainly from a medical perspective in references to the illness's causes, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Bioethics and professionalism in popular television medical dramas

Television medical dramas sometimes depict medical professionalism and bioethical issues, but their nature and extent are unclear. The authors systematically analysed the bioethical and professionalism content of one season each...

Television Medical Dramas as Case Studies in Biochemistry

Several case studies from popular television medical dramas are described for use in an undergraduate biochemistry course. These cases, which illustrate fundamental principles of biochemistry, are used as the basis for problems that can be discussed further in small groups. Medical cases provide an interesting context for biochemistry with video clips promoting student engagement, and subsequent group discussions enhance class participation and integration and retention of complex material.

Resuscitation on television: Realistic or ridiculous? A quantitative observational analysis of the portrayal of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in television medical drama

Introduction Patients’ preferences for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) relate to their perception about the likelihood of success of the procedure. There is evidence that the lay public largely base their perceptions about CPR on their experience of the portrayal of CPR in the media. The medical profession has generally been critical of the portrayal of CPR on medical drama programmes although there is no recent evidence to support such views. Objective To compare the patient characteristics, cause and success rates of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on medical television drama with published resuscitation statistics. Design Observational study. Method 88 episodes of television medical drama were reviewed (26 episodes of Casualty, Casualty, 25 episodes of Holby City, 23 episodes of Grey's Anatomy and 14 episodes of ER) screened between July 2008 and April 2009. The patient's age and sex, medical history, presumed cause of arrest, use of CPR and immediate and long term survival rate were recorded. Main outcome measures Immediate survival and survival to discharge following CPR. Results There were a total of 76 cardio-respiratory arrests and 70 resuscitation attempts in the episodes reviewed. The immediate success rate (46%) did not differ significantly from published real life figures ( p = 0.48). The resuscitation process appeared to follow current guidelines. Survival (or not) to discharge was rarely shown. The average age of patients was 36 years and contrary to reality there was not an age related difference in likely success of CPR in patients less than 65 compared with those 65 and over ( p = 0.72). The most common cause of cardiac arrest was trauma with only a minor proportion of arrests due to cardio-respiratory causes such as myocardial infarction. Conclusions Whilst the immediate success rate of CPR in medical television drama does not significantly differ from reality the lack of depiction of poorer medium to long term outcomes may give a falsely high expectation to the lay public. Equally the lay public may perceive that the incidence and likely success of CPR is equal across all age groups.

Leslie J Reagan, Nancy Tomes and Paula A Treichler (eds), Medicine's moving pictures: medicine, health, and bodies in American film and television, Rochester Series in Medical History, University of Rochester Press, 2007, pp. ix, 343, £50.00, $85.00 (hardback 978-1-58046-234-1).

Leslie J Reagan, Nancy Tomes and Paula A Treichler (eds), Medicine's moving pictures: medicine, health, and bodies in American film and television, Rochester Series in Medical History, University of Rochester Press, 2007, pp. ix, 343, £50.00, $85.00 (hardback 978-1-58046-234-1).

Medical and Nursing Students' Television Viewing Habits: Potential Implications for Bioethics

Television medical dramas frequently depict the practice of medicine and bioethical issues in a strikingly realistic but sometimes inaccurate fashion. Because these shows depict medicine so vividly and are so relevant to the career interests of medical and nursing students, they may affect these students' beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions regarding the practice of medicine and bioethical issues. We conducted a web-based survey of medical and nursing students to determine the medical drama viewing habits and impressions of bioethical issues depicted in them. More than 80% of medical and nursing students watch television medical dramas. Students with more clinical experience tended to have impressions that were more negative than those of students without clinical experience. Furthermore, viewing of television medical dramas is a social event and many students discuss the bioethical issues they observe with friends and family. Television medical dramas may stimulate students to think about and discuss bioethical issues.