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Unbelievable Hospital Scenes From TV

House, MD, seems to be the worst of all culprits. Just the following one-minute promo shows you more “scenes you’d never see in a hospital” than you could ever imagine, from waking a patient by slamming his cane on the bedside table (0:10) to showing a cleaver to a patient who was told just needed surgery (0:34) to playing video games and having lunch in a comatose patient’s room (0:41) to ogling a female doctor and making crude comments. One has to wonder if anyone like Dr. House actually exists.

Nurse Dramas

Maybe it was the result of the outcries from nurses and nursing groups over the misrepresentation of nurses in entertainment that made the TV establishment decide to try this nurse show.

In Nurse Jackie, we have the title character doing drugs and one of the doctors Twittering (1:22) during an emergency.

Medical Comedies

In the 1960s, Diahann Carroll’s character, Julia, broke down some color barriers in nursing—so much so that there was a Julia Barbie doll for girls to have for their very own, nursing cap and all. However, as much as she made inroads in how minorities may have been seen on TV, she sure didn’t make any inroads against the “pretty nurse” mentality. Here’s a clip from a 1968 episode with Lloyd Nolan.