Anyway, what’s the big deal with TV? They show that when ER was big, applications for ER spots went up. It’s the nature of the beast.

Also, did you know that it is no longer a requirement for internal medicine residents to perform a certain number of procedures to graduate? You won’t get credentialed to do them, but you are still board eligible. This surprised me…but I guess you would just be limiting your own practice abilities.

One more thing – I love the Glidescope.

Anon #1

Second… Anonymi (whatever the plural is for Anonymous).

You’re correct. It is getting harder for the less experience to gain experience. This is a function of societal demands, and less an individual trainer issue. As our society has increased its demand for safer care this has been translated into our training programs as not allowing students to essentially learn (practice) on real live patients. Everyone knows the phrase “See one, do one, teach one”. However, few of you will every actually see this in practice.

Ethically, this seems to make sound sense. Practically, it is clear that we are not fully achieving the goals of graduating independant practitioners ready to go take care of patients straight out of residency. This is a well known concern at the highest levels of education, and there is a considerable amount of effort directed at making changes in the educational system that meets with societies demands, but achieves the goal of training people to become the best physicians in the world.
JFS

So when the old fogey docs complain about new ones being incompetent, it’s because YOU wouldn’t let us do anything.

I did notice that in my residency, procedures get passed on to the most experienced, so young people have a hard time learning them. I was a medicine resident and the anesthesiologists NEVER let us intubate if they were there. So, how are we supposed to learn and keep our skills up? Now that I am a hospitalist, I make a point to do the procedures myself despite the fact that it isn’t cost-effective just so I don’t “forget” some day. It is tempting to call IR though…

And Nurse Hathaway was on last week, she’s a transplant coordinator in Seattle, married (presumably) to Dr. Ross.

Next week is the very last show. It’s been a pretty good run, all things considered.

And if students are going to learn from TV, it’s a darned bit better they learn from ER than Gray’s Anatomy.

I did a series on of the ways that TV shows and movies incorporate components of medical practice on my blog here.

No, more likely someone saw an idea for a funny article that would get play in the press — and it worked. But it’s still BS.