# Study says young docs learned wrong procedure from TV medical dramas
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-says-young-docs-learned-wrong-procedure-from-tv-medical-dramas/491736
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [April 2, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-says-young-docs-learned-wrong-procedure-from-tv-medical-dramas/491736 "2009-04-02T17:36:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-says-young-docs-learned-wrong-procedure-from-tv-medical-dramas/491736/1 "2009-04-02T17:36:25Z")
[This is](http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1419824)… kind of surprising.
> [@](#):
>
> When physicians at an Alberta hospital asked why so many medical students and residents were using a faulty technique for inserting life-saving breathing tubes in patients, they received an unexpected answer: It’s television’s fault.
> .
> .
> .
> Dr. Brindley said he and his colleague, Dr. Craig Needham, noticed that many students and residents - medical-school graduates training in specialities such as anesthesia, surgery and emergency care - positioned the head incorrectly.
>
> Such a slip-up can make bad outcomes more likely when time is of the essence and “it’s a matter of life and death,” he said.
>
> To find out where the faulty knowledge was coming from, the physicians surveyed 80 students and residents. Many said they learned through “trial and error,” but a large proportion indicated they had picked up tips from white-coated TV characters.
>
> ER was the program most commonly cited by the students, so Drs. Brindley and Needham analyzed a season of the show. Some aspect of the head positioning was wrong in all 22 intubations that could be fully viewed on screen, their paper says.
Someone tell me this isn’t so.
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### Author:  [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2009, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-says-young-docs-learned-wrong-procedure-from-tv-medical-dramas/491736/2 "2009-04-02T17:40:29Z")
I know the phrase, “Watch one, do one, teach one” is not uncommon for certain medical procedures, but I think they need to emphasize that you watch a real physician, not a TV one. 😛 And yes, I heard this on the news before April 1, so it’s not a joke. (Unless someone’s republishing off The Onion again.)
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### Author:  [@Nicest\_of\_the\_Damned](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nicest_of_the_Damned)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-says-young-docs-learned-wrong-procedure-from-tv-medical-dramas/491736/3 "2009-04-02T17:44:34Z")
> [@](#):
>
> “The important lesson here is that we can’t leave medical education to chance alone.”
Uh…I find that a little disturbing. Did that ever really sound like a good idea?
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### Author:  [@Neverending\_Elbow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neverending_Elbow)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-says-young-docs-learned-wrong-procedure-from-tv-medical-dramas/491736/4 "2009-04-02T17:44:38Z")
This is just too stupid for words.
OK, you start medical school and you have some wrong ideas from watching tv shows, but shouldn’t those misconceptions be rectified during studies? Why would they be let loose on patients without being shown and tested on such an often performed procedure?
I’m not sure where the fault lies, but it’s not tv, because people smart enough to get into med school should know ER or any other such drama is not a good replacement for textbooks and in-class instruction.
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### Author:  [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2009, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-says-young-docs-learned-wrong-procedure-from-tv-medical-dramas/491736/5 "2009-04-02T17:47:16Z")
You mean it _is_ lupus?
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-says-young-docs-learned-wrong-procedure-from-tv-medical-dramas/491736/6 "2009-04-02T18:01:16Z")
> [@Duke](#):
>
> You mean it _is_ lupus?
It often is, yes.
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### Author:  [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-says-young-docs-learned-wrong-procedure-from-tv-medical-dramas/491736/7 "2009-04-02T18:05:06Z")
I guess I probably shouldn’t have filed all those motions I saw on “Law and Order,” then.
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### Author:  [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2009, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-says-young-docs-learned-wrong-procedure-from-tv-medical-dramas/491736/8 "2009-04-02T18:14:41Z")
Paramedics have a really hard time with intubation, too. The error rate is [over 20%](http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/25/2/501).
I think the issue is that intubation technique is poorly understood by lots of people teaching and practicing it, and there just aren’t enough occasions where you have to intubate to keep your skills honed. A paramedic is more likely to have to intubate in a stressful emergency situation than a doctor, too, so I would expect screwups from doctors to be an even higher percentage.
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### Author:  [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2009, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-says-young-docs-learned-wrong-procedure-from-tv-medical-dramas/491736/9 "2009-04-02T18:21:51Z")
This is why They don’t allow TV shows about tax lawyers.
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### Author:  [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-says-young-docs-learned-wrong-procedure-from-tv-medical-dramas/491736/10 "2009-04-02T18:23:56Z")
I would just like to say I cannot take the word intubate seriously. It sounds like crap you would make up if you didn’t know a damn thing about what you are doing but are trying to impress.
“Ok first you take this tube and umm in…tube…ate them, then you look for the wound and de-hair-ify around it before you grab the scalpel and inter-blade-acate through the skin.”
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### Author:  [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-says-young-docs-learned-wrong-procedure-from-tv-medical-dramas/491736/11 "2009-04-02T18:23:58Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#):
>
> This is why They don’t allow TV shows about tax lawyers.
Well that and with all the trim and excitement in a tax lawyer’s life, they’d have to put it on HBO.
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### Author:  [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2009, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-says-young-docs-learned-wrong-procedure-from-tv-medical-dramas/491736/12 "2009-04-02T18:24:15Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#):
>
> This is why They don’t allow TV shows about tax lawyers.
Nah, it’s because they don’t have as many sexy affairs with their co-workers.
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### Author:  [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-says-young-docs-learned-wrong-procedure-from-tv-medical-dramas/491736/13 "2009-04-02T18:28:54Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#):
>
> This is why They don’t allow TV shows about tax lawyers.
_slow zoom over the shoulder of Burly Manly Lawyer, reading a complicated looking paper_
_flash to his eyes suddenly going wild_
“But… but this is WRONG ! He can’t do that ! ASSISTANT ! Bring me a 387B-2 form, NOW ! I can still salvage this !”
I’d totally watch it.
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### Author:  [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-says-young-docs-learned-wrong-procedure-from-tv-medical-dramas/491736/14 "2009-04-02T18:29:55Z")
It really isn’t a big deal for the students to start out clueless. It is pretty standard for medical schools to require medical students to rotate in anesthesiology to practice doing intubations under controlled circumstances on healthy patients before there is any chance they’ll be doing emergency intubations.
My own school required us to learn how to intubate properly at the end of our 2nd year (before we had any contact with hospital patients at all).
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-says-young-docs-learned-wrong-procedure-from-tv-medical-dramas/491736/15 "2009-04-02T18:51:12Z")
> [@wolfman](#):
>
> I would just like to say I cannot take the word intubate seriously. It sounds like crap you would make up if you didn’t know a damn thing about what you are doing but are trying to impress.
Do you have a similar issue with “incarcerate”?
QtM, who as intubated the incarcerated, and also reduced the incarcerated hernia of the incarcerated patient.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-says-young-docs-learned-wrong-procedure-from-tv-medical-dramas/491736/16 "2009-04-02T19:04:01Z")
[Gives **QtM** his best Leo DiCaprio “serious” look]
Do you concur, doctor? Do you _concur?_
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### Author:  [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2009, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-says-young-docs-learned-wrong-procedure-from-tv-medical-dramas/491736/17 "2009-04-02T19:15:21Z")
About all that porn I’ve been watching…
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2009, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-says-young-docs-learned-wrong-procedure-from-tv-medical-dramas/491736/18 "2009-04-02T19:21:01Z")
Well, actually, the Stuart Markowitz character from _L.A. Law_ should be an inspiration to tax lawyers everywhere. He bagged the tall hot blonde and when thrown into a paintball game, turned into (in the words of his coworker Douglas) “Rambowitz.”
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### Author:  [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2009, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-says-young-docs-learned-wrong-procedure-from-tv-medical-dramas/491736/19 "2009-04-02T20:01:39Z")
In a world where a Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court uses the [actions of a fictional character to justify the torture of non-fictional, Real Life human beings](http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/06/scalia_and_tort.html), it certainly doesn’t surprise me. Much.
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### Author:  [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2009, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-says-young-docs-learned-wrong-procedure-from-tv-medical-dramas/491736/20 "2009-04-02T21:00:51Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#):
>
> In a world where a Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court uses the [actions of a fictional character to justify the torture of non-fictional, Real Life human beings](http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/06/scalia_and_tort.html), it certainly doesn’t surprise me. Much.
The pendant in me wants to point out that [Scalia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalia) is a Associate Justice of the SCOTUS, not Chief Justice of the United States. But since Scalia really said that a TV show is a model for the law, I find it difficult to continue my pendantry and refer to him as “Mr. Justice”. If some bonehead falsely accuses me of being a terrorist, I shan’t expect much justice from Scalia. Even if I can use Gilligan’s Island as precedent. :rolleyes:
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