I learned to be a doctor from TV
For the majority of us, we learn about medicine from TV drama. Decades of it. My first memories involved a gurney, racing down a corridor and through double doors (Be Casey). Or a world where white smocks were mandatory (Kildare) I did not understand what was on display, and I din not actually need to. The information was carefully removed from reality, to keep fake doctors from doing their rounds.
Most of us, still, have no idea about what the vocabulary means. And I checked with a specialist: they do not jump start patients with paddles, yelling Clear at every opportunity. Most of the time, there are quiet moments of beeps, between intense emergencies. Why, I don’t even think that sirens sound the same, if you are in the rear of an ambulance. Just good TV.
I am glad that progress is made, regularly. Can you imagine watching someone putting his back into a bone saw, while the patient bites down on a thick leather strap? Good cinema, but far removed from the reality.
I have no desire to get better in a surgery. Or a bedside. Tap my elbow with a rubber mallet, but do it at home. Going back to Casey, we no longer use chalk and slate-boards to instruct, so it is a great thing that the hospital of ’20 is very different from that of ’20. A century means a lot.
Happily, my medical career never involved more than giving out an aspirin or two. My gain was education not patient care.
