I can no longer watch medical dramas on t.v. because I get too angry. There’s always too many flaws, mistakes, or complete inaccuracies. I’ll sit there and constantly point them out to Kurt and then feel the need to explain why the show is wrong or what would actually happen in the hospital. I’ve started compiling a list of what I feel are my biggest pet peeves when it comes to medical dramas. It goes a little like this:

5.) Doctors doing the nasty! In what world is it okay for doctors just to go have a quickie in a storage room!? Which f.y.i. isn’t just located in a random hallway, it’s usually on a unit meaning anyone could just walk in at any moment and catch you in the act and no, you cannot lock the door from the inside so you can have a little privacy! That drives me nuts! Plus why are all these doctors bed hoping in the first place!? Don’t they know the risks associated with having casual sex? Oh! and I’ve never actually seen any doctor sitting in the cafe just casually eating lunch. No, most of the time (from my experience) they’re eating at the desk in the nurses station while flipping through patient charts causing complete and utter destruction.

4.) Bio-hazard bags in the hallways! I saw this on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy on Thursday night and I almost screamed at the t.v.! Why oh why would you leave BIO-HAZARD bags in the hallways!!!??? What if some patient or family member thought it was a garbage and opened it up! Do you know what kind of stuff goes into those bags!? No! Bio-hazard bags belong in patient specific rooms! They’re bright red and labelled bio-hazard for a reason. They only take bio-hazardous materials and must be disposed of in a very specific way so no, they would not be placed in the hallway for anyone to use!

3.) Non-existent maintenance staff/service associates! Who do you think is keeping the hospital clean!? Certainly not the doctors! I’ve never seen any medical show where they at least in the back around show someone buffering the floors or emptying the linen/garbage bags. Even if they’re just extras at least give me the peace of mind that someone is keeping the hospital up to code on cleanliness!

2.) Nurses! This is followed so closely behind my number one pet peeve it was hard to choose. But for the love of God why aren’t there more nurses!? Do you know how much we take care of patients!? Like c’mon throw us a bone! Half the time when you see the nurses, they’re portrayed as being quite uneducated when it comes to anything medical. Yes, we take doctor’s orders and yes we don’t go to school for anywhere near as long as doctors but let me tell you there are some AMAZINGLY smart nurses out there who could put a few doctors to shame! We’re front line staff but yet when portrayed on most medical shows, we come off as being ditsy and beneath the holier than holier doctors.

And my number 1 pet peeve when it comes to ANY show that has a patient in a hospital bed is…..

1.) SIDERAILS!!!!!! I cannot stress enough how much this pisses me off! Occasionally, I’ll see a show where someone is in a hospital bed and one side rail might be up. Okay fine. But when both are down all I can think about is who’s going to type up that long ass incident report when that patient falls out of bed! Seriously they suck and take so much time! I understand that visually it’s more appealing for the rails to be down especially during up close scenes between the actors but side rails down is an absolute no-no! Safety should come first! And every time they’re down my brain immediately goes back to nursing school and I think “well someone failed clinical placement today”. It’s maddening so please television shows, stop doing it!

Well, there you have it! My top 5 biggest pet peeves when it comes to hospital dramas! Stay tuned for more because I’m positive there will be!