Young Doctors
MY EXAMS ARE OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (thanks for asking)... SO.. as promised, the posts should hopefully get more interesting from here on.
First up, is a new reality TV show in Australia called 'Young Doctors'. It revolves around what a few junior doctors get up to at John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle. I watched an episode because I couldn't think of how my life (or one similar to mine) would be remotely interesting to watch. I was right.. it wasn't. Not any of the doctors' faults of course.. it's just, watching it on tv is like having my day recorded and then summarised in the most appalling fashion and then watching it over dinner. It was a snooze fest... and completely unrealistic.
I think the point here was for the audience to go "wow, this doctor really knows what she's doing." but firstly, that's not how it would have happened in real life. You don't just see a patient and go "yup, appendicitis". You talk about why you think it's appendicitis. And secondly appendicitis is about the most common no-brainer in medicine. Surely the producer could have found something slightly more interesting to tape? I mean, it was a non-scene in my opinion. (not saying that the doctor isn't smart - just saying that scene said nothing about her abilities).
And then there's the tagline, which annoys me.
The Social Network had a pretty good one-liner - "You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies". It's quite catchy, and as an audience you can relate to it because we're all on facebook and we've all made enemies. And it's fairly realistic. But this whole doctor tagline, about being in your 20s and having someone's life in your hands. I mean look, it's not that remarkable that as a 20+ year old you have responsibilities. And I suppose if you don't dramatize a bit you won't get a viewership but no junior doctor really has a patient's life in their hands.
Granted, we have the potential to impact a persons' life but in reality, the influence a junior doc has on a patient's treatment is close to zilch. It's the registrars that actually make a difference. They're the ones making a lot of day-to-day calls, and the consultants of course. And then there's the fact that as a tagline it just isn't catchy. It sounds like something I might have written on an uninspired day in scriptwriting class.. and I'm not a fancy TV producer.
So all in all, when it comes to this show, I was quite unimpressed. I suppose the real test will be whether non-medical people enjoy the show. And if they do, then my opinion really doesn't matter at all.
Consultant: "So Dr. X what do you think this patient has?"Junior Doctor: "I think he has appendicitis."
I think the point here was for the audience to go "wow, this doctor really knows what she's doing." but firstly, that's not how it would have happened in real life. You don't just see a patient and go "yup, appendicitis". You talk about why you think it's appendicitis. And secondly appendicitis is about the most common no-brainer in medicine. Surely the producer could have found something slightly more interesting to tape? I mean, it was a non-scene in my opinion. (not saying that the doctor isn't smart - just saying that scene said nothing about her abilities).And then there's the tagline, which annoys me.
"They are all aged in their 20s and all will have someone's life in their hands."When I was in scriptwriting class, I was told that you always need a single sentence tagline. Sorta like, if you only had one sentence to hook an audience (or pitch to a production company) what would you say?
The Social Network had a pretty good one-liner - "You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies". It's quite catchy, and as an audience you can relate to it because we're all on facebook and we've all made enemies. And it's fairly realistic. But this whole doctor tagline, about being in your 20s and having someone's life in your hands. I mean look, it's not that remarkable that as a 20+ year old you have responsibilities. And I suppose if you don't dramatize a bit you won't get a viewership but no junior doctor really has a patient's life in their hands.
Granted, we have the potential to impact a persons' life but in reality, the influence a junior doc has on a patient's treatment is close to zilch. It's the registrars that actually make a difference. They're the ones making a lot of day-to-day calls, and the consultants of course. And then there's the fact that as a tagline it just isn't catchy. It sounds like something I might have written on an uninspired day in scriptwriting class.. and I'm not a fancy TV producer.
So all in all, when it comes to this show, I was quite unimpressed. I suppose the real test will be whether non-medical people enjoy the show. And if they do, then my opinion really doesn't matter at all.
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