“The Pitt, what does the normal person feel?” - My Conflicting Emotions as a Medical Professional
I’m a doctor in my resident years and I find the popularity and fandom behind The Pitt fascinating. I want to preface that I have never watched The Pitt, and will not watch it likely ever. This is through no fault of the show, in fact it’s an accolade, as I’ve heard it is very accurate and I’d never want to finish work just to experience more of work.
My fascination is regarding this.
If it’s so accurate, how are the general population enjoying this?
Working in the emergency department, me and my fellow residents often would talk to each other about the anxiety we would have going to sleep and thinking of going to work the next morning. So many nights after a shift I’d lie awake in the dark with my heart racing thinking about how I’d have to show up to work tomorrow and do it all over again. It’s never been tested, but I’d estimate a good 70% of residents in the ED have cried at some point - including me, and including moments WITHIN the ED itself.
I’ve heard that within the show, the doctors do express some of this distress and are shown to emotionally connect with patients, which is great! It also feels incredibly strange as the general public are watching it through the TV, as a drama. I think it does help them sympathise, but I don’t know if they will ever truly understand the feeling of working in there, the constant overstimulation, seeing one upset person after another. Of needing to go back there every day, often at odd hours of the day when the rest of your friends are family are asleep, or enjoying life.
It’s a simple fact that doctors won’t really talk about their experiences with people outside of our profession, not because it’s not always on our mind, but because we usually are brushed off, or we feel like it makes people uncomfortable or unable to “find the right things to say”. The popularity of the Pitt in this way brings conflicting feelings for me because it’s a discussion that you can have with the general public but when it’s your own story it feels like it’s unwelcome in a group setting.
This is coupled with the fact that working as a resident, so many of the general population really dislike the ED, and a lot of them really dislike medical professionals.
My co-workers and I were talking in depth around this topic and we came to a conclusion that it’s entertaining to watch other people suffer a little bit, in the same way we can watch a disaster drama or tragedy. And who knows! Maybe this is just an American thing, because I’m talking about Australia here! And there are enjoyable parts of ED, problem solving and when things go right and people are satisfied with their care. I just find it interesting because this is our every day (minus the shipping that I’ve seen in fandom spaces? Love yall! Guess some of Grey’s anatomy has to leak in somewhere right?).
It’s our every day but it’s the general population’s favourite drama, and tumblr’s top ships! And I really love The Pitt for that.
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