I spend a lot of time in hospitals. A couple of long-term health issues put me in the hospital again this week, and I ended up having a lot of free time to revisit an old Netflix-binge favorite- Scrubs. While I was laughing at J.D. and Turk’s hijinks and wishing J.D. and Elliot would just get together already, I noticed some similarities and differences between the show and real hospital life. Listen up, pre-meds- these are my eleven comparisons between the show and real life.
1. The hospital staff really do have to live in the hospital sometimes.
There are rooms specifically for staff to take naps in while they’re on call. After all, shifts can last anywhere from 8 to 24 hours.
2. The hospital staff really does care about their patients.
They might show it in unconventional ways, but with such a high-stress, committed jobs, you have to have some kind of love for patient-care. Whether it’s holding your hand during a tough time or sitting and watching Project Runway with you during a slow time, (my nurses were seriously the best) the hospital staff truly care about their patients.
3. Tylenol and Ibuprofen really are used kind of recklessly.
Remember when Dr. Cox threw a bunch of Ibuprofen in a patient’s mouth? Like, several times? Yeah, that’s kind of the truth. They’d never actually hurt you, but Ibuprofen and Tylenol are kind of a cure-all solution for pain in hospitals.
4. Students are allowed to shadow and occasionally treat patients with simple procedures.
Yeah, it’s just as scary for the patient as it was for J.D. and Elliot when a med-school student sticks you with an IV. Even so, they usually don’t get it wrong- and they’re not going to hurt you. If they made it this far in school, they can insert an IV. However, they’re never going to do it alone. There’s always a professional there to supervise.
5. Lunch tends to happen around 4 or 5 P.M.
You know how Elliot constantly seems kind of tired, starving, and strung out? Yeah, there’s a reason for that. Shifts are often twelve hours long, starting at five or six in the morning, and lunch can happen anywhere from noon to- quite honestly- dinner time. It takes a lot of dedication to work in a hospital, and I couldn’t admire the people that do it any more.
6. Deaths happen all the time- and the doctors have to move on quickly.
Two deaths- that I know of- occurred in rooms near mine during my most recent stay at the hospital. It’s a lot of noise, and there’s a lot of people running around for a while- and then it gets very quiet- and, before you know it, the hospital staff is back to business as usual. They come back into your room like nothing happened at all, maybe a little red in the eyes but otherwise putting on a smile. It may seem cruel, but death is a natural and accepted part of the job description in a hospital, and it’s a natural part of life too. You just have to be strong to face it every day.
7. There’s no way you could have a romantic conversation during an MRI.
Remember when J.D. scores a date with a woman getting an MRI? That would be really difficult, for two reasons. For one, unless J.D. was specializing in radiology, he never would have been down in the MRI room in the first place. Second, and more importantly, even if J.D. was there, MRI’s are distinctively loud. Seriously, it sounds like being in the front row of a rock concert and using a hammer-drill at the same time. Unless they were actually screaming at each other, there’s no way they could have their adorable moment in the machine.
8. A lot of the patients are going to be old and upset, not young and beautiful.
Scrubs is kind of accurate about this reality sometimes, but a lot of their patients are young, beautiful people, even in the hospital bed. After all, the show is in Hollywood. Real hospitals, on the other hand, are not Hollywood. Lots of the people are old and grumpy- and reasonably so. They’re usually not optimistic about being discharged, after all. The young people might be beautiful, but they’re definitely not going to have the perfect hair and makeup the show would lead you to believe. I wasn’t allowed to shower during my last stay, and my hair got so messy the nurse had to put into pig tails. Those cute male doctors were not interested.
9. Lots of emergency room cases aren’t very dramatic at all.
Sure you’re going to get drug overdoses, car crashes, and trauma victims- but a lot of the time you’re just going to get people who were too uncomfortable to wait until morning. The ER is a lot more running tests and asking where it hurts than it is rushing to save lives- but honestly, while it might bore the doctors, that’s a really good thing.
10. The staff make life-long friendships- although maybe not romances.
Let’s face it- a relationship like the one Elliot and J.D. had would be considered really inappropriate in the workplace. However, working in a hospital requires such constant communication and emotional support that it’s really inevitable that the staff will make significant relationships with one another. It’s easy to see, even as a patient, that working in such a high-stress environment together nearly every day forges strong friendships.
11. It is absolutely possible to balance a family and full-time hospital employment.
Nearly all of my nurses, doctors, and technicians had a story to share about their spouses and children when I asked. No matter what the stereotypes are, it is absolutely possible to have a family and a full-time job in medical care. And I could tell from just one conversation, those people truly loved their families.
I’m so thankful for the support and care I’ve received from hospital staff and doctors over the years, and while Scrubs may not exactly represent the true nature of their jobs, it’s a pretty good comparison to the emotional and effort hospital staff put into their work. Plus, it’s just a kickass show to binge watch.
