Medical Dramas, such as the television show Grey’s Anatomy, have become immensely popular due to their portrayal of what happens inside a hospital and their intense, emotional scenes that captivate audiences all around the world. The intensity of these storylines, along with the depth of the characters’ personalities leads me to believe that the medical practices in these shows are not being portrayed accurately, affecting society’s view on healthcare as a whole. 

Grey’s Anatomy implements the use of pathos, an appeal to viewers’ emotions through heartfelt scenes, to distract the audience from the medicine itself, evoking a focus on emotions rather than accuracy of the medical procedures. The personalities of characters in the show are developed strategically, allowing viewers to feel deep connections to them, meaning writers of the show want to keep viewers’ attention. 

This is shown in season seven when Dr. Meredith Grey and Dr. Derek Shepherd work on a clinical trial to cure Alzheimers, but Grey tampers with the trial in an attempt to give a patient a drug instead of the placebo. This should have put Grey’s license and her status as a doctor at her hospital in jeopardy. As a “doctor,” she would absolutely know this.

However, in the show, Grey faces no repercussions for these actions. According to ideaexchange.uakron.edu, the accurate punishment for her actions would have been a termination of her job and possible jail time. The true punishment was not being presented in the show and this can lead viewers to have less trust in medical professionals, along with a false reality of what is ethical or not within practicing medicine. 

Medical dramas can also inaccurately portray different medical procedures such as Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, repeated compression on a patient’s chest, in an attempt to restore both blood circulation and breathing of a patient who endured cardiac arrest. 

According to a study conducted by ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 106 resuscitations were reviewed from varying medical dramas, reporting that survival with Favorable Neuro Outcomes, or having a full recovery after undergoing CPR, occurred in 32 percent of cases. But comparing this to data they used from actual cases, only 6.9 percent of patients survived with FNO. This could lead to viewers falsely believing the effectiveness of CPR, leading to the belief that CPR will definitely save their loved ones, placing an unrealistic expectation on doctors as a whole.

The popularity of these shows and the false information being portrayed, begs the question of how much misinformation has been spread to the audience of medical dramas. Without the proper knowledge of what is really being presented in these shows leads to a lack of trust in doctors, not only negatively affecting medical professionals, but affecting the patients as well. Patients may not believe doctors when given a diagnosis or being operated on, which can lead to some avoiding medical professionals altogether. 

Viewers should always be thinking critically about the mature content they are consuming, to put themselves ahead of the misinformation and to know when to trust these shows in order to foster a stronger connection with the medical professionals around them. 

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