Being a Grey’s Anatomy fanatic, I found myself watching the show religiously on abc and Netflix. Recently, I was asked by a friend “What would you do if I passed out right now?” and I responded “I watch Grey’s Anatomy, so I’d know what to do.”
I began to wonder, was I too gullible for believing what a show taught me? Am I the only one who believes and retains the medical science of Grey’s Anatomy?
Looking deeper into the medical science of the show, I found that I wasn’t the only one believing the details of the show. Three surveys was done by The Kaiser Family Foundation on the effect Grey’s Anatomy has on it’s viewers. The survey was done to measure if an episode had an effect on viewers’ awareness. In the study viewers were asked to take a pre-show survey, post-show survey, and a follow up survey conducted 6 weeks later. The survey was about the viewers’ previous knowledge about HIV-positive women giving birth and their attitudes on the subject before and after the show aired with the correct statistics about HIV-positive women giving birth. In the show, Dr. Izzie Stevens, a lead doctor said “I wasn’t saying there’s some chance your baby might not be sick. I’m saying there is a 98% chance your baby will be born perfectly healthy. Ninety-eight percent!” In this quote, Izzie assured a pregnant woman diagnosed with HIV that her baby would be born healthy. The correlational survey showed that viewers who were aware that “with the proper treatment, there is more than a 90% chance of an HIV-positive woman having a healthy baby increased by 46 percentage points after the episode aired (from 15% to 61%).” –Grand Rounds 2011.
Even though during the follow up survey 6 weeks after the episode aired, the amount of people who knew the correct response decreased to 45%, it still showed that 30% of surveyors gained knowledge from the show. This study was continued with other questions such as the one above .
This proved that I was not the only one retaining information from this show. So next time you question yourself about binge watching Grey’s Anatomy, just remember that the more you watch the show, the more you are turning into a doctor by retaining the information taught on the show. So let’s all run to our couches for “Netflix & Chill” while tuning into Grey’s Anatomy.
Source: http://ethicalnag.org/2011/01/31/greys-anatomy/
A few months ago I had finished watching the entire series that was available at the time, I was hooked, completely and utterly hooked. I also found myself in situations where I would think to my self oh yeah “push one of eppy” like it were some simple concept and someone going into v-fib was no big deal. I think Grey’s Anatomy fans are definitely more aware of some medical terms but in all reality no one truly knows what they are talking about. I would say its a little extreme to have confidence in a matter based on Grey’s Anatomy but I do relate to you when you make medical references based on the show!
In all honesty, I have only watched a few episodes of this show, but your post definitely intrigued me. The first thing I thought when reading the title was, “that’s ridiculous” and to be straightforward, I’m still not entirely convinced. I can very easily memorize lines in a movie or show that I watch, but that doesn’t mean I would know exactly what to do in a life or death situation. Just because I watch House of Cards doesn’t mean I know how to be the president. I know that’s a little bit exaggerated, but that is the main point I am trying to make. Reality TV is dramatized in order to keep you interested and tuned in every week so, it doesn’t seem plausible to me that the stuff you are learning would actually help you in real life situations. And, like you mentioned, most of the people forget what they ‘learned’ from the show just six weeks after watching it, which makes perfect sense because they are not using that information everyday. I tried to research both sides of this argument and there is not much information to go off of, but I would be very curious to see if there are more studies that were done on this topic.
Grey’s Anatomy has never been on my Netflix playlist, but everyone that I have talked to who watches it seems to love it. I have friends that always say they would know what to do in a crisis or in an emergency because of what they have seen on the show, and I would always roll my eyes and tell them to just call 9-1-1. I guess they actually know what they are talking about when it comes to being a doctor just by watching the show. Very clever article and I might even start watching the show!
I’m also a huge Grey’s Anatomy fan (In fact, I just posted a blog about it too!) and I have to say, I agree 100% with you. I feel like I have learned so much from watching the show, and I have retained random medical knowledge and terms that I usually wouldn’t be privy to if I didn’t watch the show. Especially phrases such as “push one of epi” since it seems like they say it all the time. I’ve also learned more about some diseases, which makes me feel better about spending so much time watching it!
This post honestly made my day. When i watched Grey’s I honestly thought I was a genius and could suddenly become the next best doctor around town. Who am i kidding though because science honestly tends to go over my head, but I honestly retained information from the show. I would assume because watching it was something I enjoyed, i remembered the information. Similarly to how I can remember lyrics in any song but struggle to remember things in class sometimes. I wonder if these things correlate?