Letters to the Editor
-
Thank you,
Sallie Tisdale, for a straightforward, non-ironic, and meaningful piece of writing. From the trenches, with intelligence and verve.
And thank you, Salon, for giving us Sallie. I sure hope she will be a regular. She has a lot to offer, and to my mind is an excellent fit for Salon.
-
It's called escapism.
Thank you for needlessly explicating why people don't, after hard and ugly days at their own jobs, come to yours for entertainment. The observation that "gee, people in my profession on TV sure are a lot prettier than I am and have it a lot easier than I do" is probably about as old as the cathode ray tube.
Do the editors at Salon really think people don't know what yucky and banal horrors go on in hospitals because we watch too much "House"? This article insults my intelligence.
-
great article
i'm a junior resident, and i've always had the same complaints about House. AND, I think Scrubs is by far a more accurate representation of what goes on in Ordinary Hospital.
good work bringing this to the light, i know far too many people that think House is actually a good show.
-
you seem upset
that in this 'fantasy-reality-based' drama doctors get to do everything and make fascinating diagnoses. are you worried that makes you any less of a nurse or that nurses play any less of a role because people believe what they see on House. tough then. go to medical school and shoulder the bills and general lack of respect that comes from ever-increasing administrative and litiginous burderns, and from mid-levels such as yourself, that feel they do not get enough 'credit' but don't wish to assume ultimate responsibility. if the only doctor you seem to appreciate is the one that makes mistakes or fawns over the tough-minded nurse, then I guess it makes sense to make doctor-bashing a cause celebre for you and then write an essay about it because you personally cannot stomach a show like 'House' - a show that brings out all the good things about why doctors toil endlessly with no recognition (or renumeration) for the few times a fascintating potentially life-saving diagnosis is made. try not to bring everyone down with your pettiness.
-
It's TV Darling
Real life does not make good drama. Drama makes good drama. The PICs
have to give us something we will actually watch, and our real selves and
those of our "colleagues" don't cut it.
I love "House" even though I know very clearly that it's not about
reality. I prefer my entertainment to be about the glamorized version.
What reality would be if it weren't so, ugh, real.
If you want to watch reality, you can pull an extra shift at
Ugly Hospital on Tuesday nights.
-
Media, media, media
I am a Registered Nurse, but I have never seen any of these shows and never will.
This is always the thing with media representations. Whenever you read an article about something that you actually know something about yourself, you will nearly always think "what a load of old cock!"
As I write I am sitting at home listening to a wonderful 1951 Stan Kenton rendition of Street of Dreams. It is perfect relaxation, but if I was a trombonist, I would probably be bitching about how you can't hear the trombone and the saxophone is hogging the limelight,and what the hell does the sound engineer think he is doing!
-
TV
I thought your article was great, Sally.
My husband has been fighting a serious cancer since last September, and I've come to realize how much we rely on the the oncologist's support staff for information and care. His doctor is really good, but mostly we deal with extremely competent oncology nurses. For his next round, we've moved to my version of a "beautiful" hospital, but it's rarely the doctors that we interact with.
I think the various CSI shows have the same problem as House. If you watch them, you would think there is no such thing as detectives....that the (very attractive, sexually active) crime scene investigators are the only ones involved in solving a crime, interviewing witnesses, etc.
The real world isn't so glamorous.
-
Reality?
Your reality, Sallie is scary as hell. No physicians available? Why do you
continue to work in a situation like that? It is unsafe for you and the patients.
You have a professional license to uphold. We all know 'House' is not the real world. But,
I hope your reality is not the real world either. I am a nurse of
25 years experience, and I would never allow this type of care to continue.
If this is yoru real world, God help you and your patients, because it does not
look like anyone else will.
-
house is so stupid
I watched it a few times and just cannot understand what anyone gets from it. Dumb! I've been inside a hospital maybe 5 times in my life, and the glaring unbelievablity of it drives me nuts. It says a lot to me that the 20 year old I work with, who also thinks Britney Spears is like teh best singer ever, loves it and talks about it all the time.
Also, good writing. I enjoyed this article more than anything I've read on Salon in months. Thanks!
-
OK. One is TV and the other is real.
Which part of that are you having trouble sorting out?
-
To "...misogynist"
I'm laughing. I had the same thought when I posted my letter: No matter that I'm female, the fact that I thought this article was silly will surely be viewed as a misogynistic attack on its writer.
It's like Ms. Walsh is preemptively making the ad hominem attacks so we don't have to.
(Which is not, not, not to say that there isn't a big and often ugly problem with misogyny on the web.)
-
I like to think...
I was in the hospital a few years back for a sudden, very scary illness, which thanks to some exceptional hospital staff - including some of the kindest nurses and doctors I've ever met - I got through it.
Being in the hospital is shocking. I was scared to the point where I had nightmares about it for months afterwards. My husband was equally terrified.
Way, way deep down I think we both had this fantasy that ran something like a plot on "House." On the top floor of the hospital, in a quiet room encased in smear-free glass, a bunch of geniuses in white robes debated my fate and cure. No it didn't really happen that way...but maybe somewhere back in my unconscious I felt better thinking that that was what was going on. I mean really, I had no choice but to trust them, did I?
I think that maybe the driving force behind "House" is an almost archetypal need for answers. The character of Gregory House utterly rejects God, but seemingly only because he seeks to be God's substitute on Earth (although he'll deny it with every vicodin he pops and insult he swings like a rightous sword of justice). House is the slightly angry trickster god figure who can help, but will only if it amuses him.
I totally understand why a nurse would find the lack of realism, and the subsequent unrealistic expectation from patients very frustrating. For the rest of us, we like to believe in House, just like deep down we still like to believe in Santa Claus and other fairy tales.