Great instructors always pull from the world around them when introducing new concepts or discussing tricky situations with students. Does anyone remember when ER was on? There were a ton of great scenarios to discuss with Nursing students in almost every episode.
Now, with YouTube, it's easier to bring those useful clips into the classroom and add a little bit more variety to your lessons. Here are two episodes from two different shows that talk about relevant issues for today's health professionals:
1. Nurse Jackie: Take the Blue Pill - Around 10 minutes in we see Nurse Jackie interact with a lupus patient's daughter, Stephanie. The 10 year old girl is responsible for her mother's care and we see Nurse Jackie navigate the tricky waters of patient and caregiver advocacy throughout the next few scenes. At 17-18 minutes in, you can see Nurse Jackie work on Patient Education when discussing lupus medications with the daughter and again at 24 minutes and 30 seconds when the daughter has a question about medications. This episode is great to discuss patient advocacy and patient education.
2. Grey's Anatomy: I saw what I saw - This is a great episode to watch with your students, even if you only watch the first 15 minutes. The whole episode is based on the idea that a mistake was made, leading to a patient's death. After watching the first part of the episode showing the patient and the initial care, you'll notice that the head-to-toe assessment of the patient was never complete by the physician. Even your students should be able to solve the mystery without watching the entire show. Bonus points could go to the student who figures out where the problem was first. If you're starting to talk about assessments with your students, this is a great way to emphasize their importance.