Because everything that you see on TV is NOT real!

I was watching Law and Order the other night. I love this show although it does get old sometimes. Well the other night, Detective Benson was driving Detective Stabler's wife to the doctor's offcie when they were hit by another vehicle, striking the passenger's front door and rendering Kathy (the wife) unconscious and pinned. Well once EMS arrived and they realized that she couldn't be removed immediately, Olivia begged until they let her re enter the vehicle without it being stabilized and without any personal protection gear. Furthermore, the medic on scene allowed Olivia to start an IV on her.

Number one, I am assuming that she doesn't have a license to do any medical procedures, nor does she have any training. Now many of our procedures are not that difficult, they just take a little practice. So I was totally blown away when the medic handed Olivia an IV catheter and told her he would walk her through it--AND then proceeds to tell her how to start an IV upside down.

Ok--this is where my problem is....I like to think that I am fairly skilled at IVs. Yes, I have my share that I miss as all providers do. But it took a number of year before I could successfully stick a line upside down. And I'll only do it if the patient's condition warrants it because the miss rate is higher. No WAY would I have done it on my first attempt AND have success.
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Now onto ER---

They are frequently doing things that would never happen in the real world.

WE DO NOT SHOCK ASYSTOLE.....Period!!! Asystole (flat line) is a non shockable rhythm according to the AHA. And you don't just give drugs until the patient is successfully resuscitated. Codes follow a prescribed set of algorithms until there is nothing else that you can do or the patient is resuscitated.

We don't have time to just "hang out" with the nurses and doctors chatting and cutting up--and most of them don't want to even bother with us anyways.

Patients do not always have a blood pressure of 120/80 and a heart rate of 80. Yes, I know that is "normal" but very rarely in my career have I had a patient that has "perfect" vital signs.

I just get so sick of people thinking that these medical and legal drama shows are how things work in the real world....It make our job much much harder than it has to be.