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Finally, the medical professionals onThe Pittare closing out their extremely stressful shift in the ER.
A physician who holds an M.D.
In other words, hes a real-life comp for Dr. Robby.
Ive heard some people say thatThe Pittis the most realistic depiction of emergency medicine on television, perhaps ever.
Does that ring true to you?Oh, absolutely.
Shes working full-time, and Ive got ER shifts.
I dont think I even finished the series.
We had seen the ads forThe Pitton HBO.
Its a wonderful resource outside of the more traditional lectures and things we do in the formal residency-training program.
I believeit also consulted on the show.
But surely you still went into the show with some skepticism.Of course.
And we understand why.
The purpose of these scenes is to best serve the plot, right?
Its been such a joy.
Im constantly pausing and saying, Thats what we do!
Thats the thing I told you about!
Obviously, I edit too.
This would actually be more bloody and so on.
And she is constantly saying, Hey, can you quit pausing?
What stands out to you about the show?I really like the format.
Unlike other shows, it doesnt linger in long dramatic plotlines.
Its a lot lessGreys Anatomyin that sense.
Theres a lot more computer work.
Theres a lot more phone calls.
Theres a lot more interruptions, right?
All of that is very accurate.
Dr. Robby is constantly jumping around, and thats really close to what being an attending physician is like.
Youre trying to do the medicine, but youre also there for the education of your medical residents.
Thats really wonderful to watch, but you also see aspects where hes human.
And youve got administrators, who I think are a bit dramatized and more vilified than usual.
How many times per day do administrators actually visit an emergency department?Very, very few.
When youre an attending on shift, your job is to care for patients and train your learners.
you’re free to imagine how that would be an incredible disruption to patient care.
It isnt typically expressed as interpersonal conflict.
Theres a lot of us saying, How do we get better?
But the issues are real.
Clinicians and nurses are not sitting around and choosing who they want to see.
Theres just so much going on.
Its almost an explanation of how we want to get to everybody in time but sometimes cant.
People are constantly busy.
But he is very skilled in terms of his clinical ability.
Can he do better?
But weve all had those days, right?
As an attending, one of the hardest things we do isnt the cardiac arrest or the complicated procedures.
Were all trained to feel comfortable to handle those.
Its the end-of-life care, the abuse cases those things stand out to you in a shift.
Its the ethics, too.
You see that Dr. Robby wants to help that kid, even though hes not actually a registered patient.
You see other residents say, Did you do the right thing?
Do we have enough here?
There are clear-cut cases, but theres a lot of gray too.
So there are situations where you want to help but you just cant.
But thats gonna have to come at the permission of the guardian.
Would we ever go behind a guardian?
Then, the series shows a doctor overstepping ethical bounds and taking justice into her own hands.
So she threatens the patient, whos in a vulnerable state.
I thought that one was a little dramatized.
Ive never met a physician whod do that.
There are so many of these moral conundrums in this one shift.
Have you had shifts like that?Not that often, actually.
If things were like this every day, the burnout would be hard to overcome.
With a show like this, you have to pack a lot into the shift to make good TV.
Is that a Google doc?Thats the track board of electronic medical records.
It might look like a Google doc from afar.
Its not first come, first serve; its the sickest patient first, so theres constant triaging.
We dont have a central screen, and our charge nurses are managing who goes into what rooms.
We just keep moving from room to room, and your next room is your next patient.
They just needed a moment, and they ended up being completely fine.
It absolutely can happen.
But in terms of fully passing out, just one.
How do you feel about the scrub machine?That is highly accurate and quite hilarious.
The two compartment bins, the wrong sizes, the does not detect absolutely.
What happens to Dr. Whitaker (Gerran Howell) is deeply accurate.
We all have changed scrubs multiple times.
Weve all gotten multiple types of body fluids on us.
We all carry backup scrubs.
I carry my own personal backup scrubs in my work bag.
The Pitttouches on this a bit, but there doesnt seem to be much eating going on.Absolutely.
We certainly dont eat in the clinical area.
We see it as kind of cruel if we eat in front of them.
A lot of emergency-medical clinicians just dont eat.
They will do their whole shift with either a granola bar in their pocket or lots of coffee.
You dont really get a mandated break for meals.
We all have our different tricks on how to take care of ourselves.
Were eating before and after shift and things like that.
We have that protocol here at Hopkins.
I also like how they use something called the LUCAS machine, which is the auto CPR gear.
Thats the machine we use.
How common is it to have a super-young resident?Ive certainly never had a child prodigy.
But Ive never had somebody that young.
But never say never.
Which character do you relate to personally?I think every attending will probably say Dr. Robby.
Why would you spend your days off watching a show that so effectively re-creates the stresses of your job?
For a lot of us, its a huge part of our identity.
Its a huge part of our purpose in life.
I love my specialty.
So this kind of stuff doesnt stress me.
