Who doesn't watch Grey's Anatomy these days? I'm sure everyone and their mother does, but you know who doesn't? Real doctors. Grey's Anatomy is a fictional show about the drama that goes on in the hospital, while taking care of patients and the relationships in between. We can all probably say we know how unrealistic it is, but it's still a great show.
I'm sure you're all familiar with Doctor Mike. He's the "hot doctor" that everyone discovered on Instagram, aka the real McDreamy, and the name really doesn't lie. His real name is Mike Varshavski and he's a physician in New York City. If you've watched his videos for a while, he debunks a ton of doctor myths like doctors are so rich, doctors sleep with every other doctor in the hospital, etc. But in a recent video, he reacts to Grey's Anatomy and it's priceless.
At the start of the video, he can be seen watching the first ever episode of Grey's Anatomy where Dr. Webber is giving them a speech. He laughs and says he's never heard a speech given that dramatically on an interns first day, which I'm sure we could all guess. He also mentioned that the doctors do get ready together in the mornings, there are locker rooms like the ones shown in Grey's Anatomy, but he also says that it's true that doctors are awkward. He credits being awkward to hitting the books so much in medical school, so when doctors actually have to interact with people, they don't have the best social skills. He's actually referring to George O'Malley while talking about this!
He also talks about the fact that in Grey's Anatomy, Miranda Bailey says this is hour 1 of their 48 hour shift. He gives a brief explanation that doctors are legally not allowed to work more than 80 hours a week because the Libby Zion Law, which was named after a girl who died after doctors were so overworked that they missed a diagnoses. He also says that the on-call rooms look exactly like they do in Grey's, saying they have to change their own sheets and the mattresses are like plastic.
A clip of Meredith Grey is shown pushing a patient around, and Dr. Mike says, "This is where medical shows get me". He further explains that medical shows make it seem like the doctors do everything, saying how these shows make it seem like they draw the blood, run the tests, even push patients around. But he debunks that quickly by saying they have nurses, MAs, transport staff, etc., who do all of that stuff. He also says doctors were not as mean as they come off in medical shows, as they want you to learn.
He makes a great point that hospital food is gross, and it kind of contradicts the fact they doctors tell and make it a note that patients should eat healthy but the only options to eat that the cafeteria are fast food options. Dr. Mike does admit that he lived at the vending machines and Snickers were his favourite!
He watches a scene with Dr. Alex Karev who is super confident in his diagnoses, and says in the hospital, they would call him a "cowboy intern". A cowboy intern is someone who is super confident in their diagnoses, won't explore other options, and nurses have to catch their mistakes most of the time.
By the middle of the video, he seems to get mad when one patients heart has stopped and no one is doing chest compressions, as thats what he says ultimately saves peoples lives. He also says he's never seen a doctor throw up from nerves while watching Meredith do so, but it is normal to get nauseous when things go wrong.
Towards the end of the video, he watches a scene where Dr. Shepherd has a conversation with a patients parents where they ask him for a new doctor who "knows what they're doing", and Dr. Mike explains that these conversations happen quite often. However, at one point he points out that they're using something called HIPPA which is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which ultimately means they're talking about a patients case using her name in front of others and that's illegal. Uh oh!
After he finishes the episode, he said he was pleasantly surprised even though he said it was super dramatic. Dr. Mike said it took a deep dive into residency, and not so much the lovey-dovey stuff he expected. He's only on the first episode though, so he has a rude awakening! He did mention that the medical accuracy was weak, but he wasn't surprised about that. You can watch the whole hilarious, but educational video below. Dr. Mike has also done this kind of video with The Good Doctor and House if you're super into medical shows!