The television show Scrubs follows the misadventures of a group of interns as they make their way through residency at Sacred Heart Hospital. It is a comedy, and unlike medical dramas like House and Grey's Anatomy, the characters resemble people you might actually meet in a real hospital.
For example, there is Dr. Todd Quinlan, who calls himself, "The Todd". He is a surgical resident who is a very proficient surgeon, but shamelessly brags about his attractiveness, skills and pretty much everything else. He gives off an air of being the big man on campus and a ladies' man. His signature move is the variation on the celebratory high five.
While not every surgeon is this way, there are a few that truly embody the old joke, "What's the difference between an OR nurse and a nun? A nun only works for one God." This indicates that surgeons have no problem with their confidence levels!
Another example is Dr. Perry Cox, the attending physician to the interns and residents. He is an exceptional physician, but cruelly (and hilariously) criticizes the interns to the point of shame. At every turn, he teases, berates and mocks the interns and residents because of their mistakes.
With all due respect to doctors, some have an intolerance for incompetence that comes across as rudeness, on the floor. Often, attending physicians will push medical students and residents to see how far their capabilities stretch, much like Dr. Cox.
The third character that you will likely meet in the hospital is Laverne Roberts, one of the main nurses. Laverne is often seen sitting at the nurses' station, delivering sassy lines to the immature doctors. She has the air of being a battle-ax type of nurse who has been around the block, seen all there is to see, and is a little burned-out.
With the average age of registered nurses in the profession between 44.5 in 2012, and climbing, expect to see plenty of older nurses that deliver the same type of sass that Laverne does.
Obviously, these characters from Scrubs are dramatized to make for entertaining television, but there is enough reality that you may do a double take as you begin your career in health care. However, to address one of the inaccuracies of the show, the residents do a lot of things that in real life, the nurses would do! This includes spending time bonding with patients and taking the patients to X-ray, for example. These are all responsibilities of a nurse! In fact, the nurses in Scrubs are more like props than the health care professionals they are in reality.
Photo Source: Flickr
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