{"id":245,"date":"2014-02-17T14:43:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-17T14:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/philosophy316\/?p=245"},"modified":"2014-02-17T14:45:25","modified_gmt":"2014-02-17T14:45:25","slug":"blame-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/philosophy316\/2014\/02\/17\/blame-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Blame House"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"housepic\"<\/a><\/p>\n

People love to watch the heightened drama of the emergency room and hospital from the comfort of their own couch. They do not have to deal with the emotional stress nor feel faint from the physical sight of blood. All they see are attractive, smart doctors treating patients with ease. But this glamorized medical world is far from reality. Seldom to people recognize the moral dilemmas of medical treatment and professionalism depicted in popular medical television shows like House, M.D. and Grey\u2019s Anatomy.<\/p>\n

Faculty from the John Hopkins’ Berman Institute of Bioethics analyzed depictions of bioethical issues and professionalism over a full season of Grey\u2019s Anatomy and House, M.D. and found that \u201cthe shows were \u201crife\u201d with ethical dilemmas and actions that often ran afoul of professional codes of conduct\u201d (Nauert). Informed consent was the most frequently witnessed bioethical issue. In the total of 49 cases, 43 percent were cited as \u201cexemplary\u201d consent, meaning that the depictions portrayed a balanced discussion with the patient about possible treatment options, and the remaining cases were classified as \u201cinadequate\u201d (Nauert). Inadequate depictions involved hurried, one-sided discussions and refusal of physicians to answer patient\u2019s questions, sometimes even complete disregard for the informed consent doctrine (Nauert).<\/p>\n

Occasionally, dismissal of informed consent seems justified by positive outcomes, as seen in the following clip from Grey\u2019s Anatomy, when an autopsy is conducted on a deceased patient without the family\u2019s consent:\u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0hgNQni0xdw<\/a>. However, this is how the screenwriters wanted the situation to play out. In the real world, serious repercussions would obviously accompany the doctors\u2019 rash decision.<\/p>\n

While television\u2019s impact on us is limited, it still has an influence on our expectations and beliefs about the world around us. It has shaped our perceptions of many careers like law enforcement and forensic science; medicine is no different. A previous study conducted by one of the co-authors of the article, found that more than 80 percent of medical and nursing students watch medical dramas on television (Nauert). What exactly are aspiring doctors learning from these shows?<\/strong> How do various depictions of ethical issues shape their moral perception of every day patient encounters?<\/strong><\/p>\n

As previously mentioned in other blog posts, physicians do not think informed consent is an \u201cintegral part of good patient care\u201d (Lidz et al, 303). Perhaps the popular medical dramas are to blame.<\/p>\n

Citations:<\/span><\/p>\n

Lidz, Charles W., Meisel, Alan, Osterweis, Marian, Holden, Janice L., Marx,\u00a0John H., Munetz, Mark R. \u201cBarriers to Informed Consent.\u201d\u00a0Arguing\u00a0<\/i>about bioethics<\/i>. London: Routledge, 2012. 299-307. Print.<\/p>\n

Nauert, Rick. “Ethical Failures Found on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and ‘House'”\u00a0LiveScience<\/i>. TechMedia Network, 30 Mar. 2010. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.\u00a0http:\/\/www.livescience.com\/6240-ethical-failures-grey-anatomy-house.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People love to watch the heightened drama of the emergency room and hospital from the comfort of their own couch. They do not have to deal with the emotional stress nor feel faint from the physical sight of blood. All they see are attractive, smart doctors treating patients with ease. But this glamorized medical world … Continue reading Blame House<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1552,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[46,47],"class_list":["post-245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-informedconsent","tag-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/philosophy316\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/philosophy316\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/philosophy316\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/philosophy316\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1552"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/philosophy316\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/philosophy316\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/philosophy316\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions\/253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/philosophy316\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/philosophy316\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/philosophy316\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}