I memorized the date a couple of weeks ago.  June 16 – the premiere of hawthoRNe on TNT.  I made sure to add it to the mess of dates already in my head because I thought, “Wow! Finally, a TV show that protrays nurses in a good light and looks at things from their perspective.”

When I decided to go into nursing, it was because it was a personal choice.  It wasn’t because my mother is a nurse, my sister is a nurse, and my brother is also a nurse. I wanted to become a nurse because it was MY own choice.  My mother, bless her heart, really pushed all of us into nursing from a young age, but I, unlike my friends, was actually fine with the idea of being a nurse. I didn’t have the urge to rebel so that I could be different from the rest of the Filipino young’ns around me.  I actually wanted to be a nurse.

When I was younger, I would watch ER and most recently, Grey’s Anatomy.  There have been other shows that revolve around the hospital setting but these two seem to be the most popular ones.  ER didn’t really revolve mainly on the nurses. It revolved around the doctors and their relationship with the nurses, unit clerks, and aids.

To be quite honest, I think ER sugar-coated the relationship between the doctors and the nurses.  They made it seem like the doctors actually saw the nurses as their colleagues, as people whose opinions could be valued and should be heard.  It painted this far-from-reality picture for me.

When I first worked as a unit clerk, I was in for a rude awakening.  The doctors that I worked with didn’t seem to treat the nurses, aids, and unit clerks as their colleagues.  We were more like their maids, ordered to do their bidding and reprimanded for questioning any judgment calls they made.  We were supposed to be autonomous. We received orders. We did them.  Question the doctor’s orders? How dare you! Unable to understand the order and call them for clarification? How dare you even more.  Every scribble, every illegible handwriting — the nurses and clerks are supposed to be able to decipher without any questions, no matter how poor the handwriting may be.

Whoa! Wait, so that means ER isn’t really true?  The procedures, the drugs, the cases — they were usually true, but the relationships — maybe up north but not down south where we live.  Not by far. (With some exceptions.)

After seeing a preview of Grey’s Anatomy, I decided to start watching it. (I think McDreamy had something to do with that.) I don’t remember exactly what season or what episode it was, but I just remember one of the doctors taking one of the nurses into the doctor’s sleeping quarters (?) and having sex with her.  Then another doctor walks in, and the nurse just kind of faded into oblivion. She was merely a speed bump.

Another stereotype.

Granted, there are some cases where it’s true.  During my clinicals, I met a nurse that made it known to every student that encountered this specific doctor that she was, in fact, dating that doctor and that we all must stay away.  She was so proud to be the doctor’s new flavor of the month, and she didn’t seem to mind making it known to everybody.  I guess people have different goals in life. She apparently met hers . . . for a month.

But that’s how Grey’s Anatomy portrayed that nurse.  She was someone that was willing to sleep with the doctor.

While I was watching hawthoRNe tonight, I was actually getting excited.  With the banter between the doctor and the nurse and the usual, “I do NOT need a nurse telling me what to do!” And the addition of, “So which medical school did you attend?” And my favorite, “The nurse what’s-his-name . . . ” I was actually feeling passionate.  I wanted to jump into the television and give the doctor on the screen a piece of my mind — since I can’t do it in my life.  It gave me a chance to lash out at the TV, all the pent up anger that I’ve felt regarding issues like “clarification of orders” and the usual, “Did you not read what I wrote? I wrote it! Don’t question my orders!” answers.

I liked the show.

. . . but not everybody did.

I went online to look at the reviews for the show and many critics were comparing it to a Showtime show called “Nurse Jackie.” I have never seen the show, so I decided to do research on it. They were praising the show for having a strong protagonist dealing with the same issues that most nurses supposedly deal with at work, while bashing hawthoRNe for supposedly not dealing with the “right” issues that nurses are faced with at work.

I don’t know about you but during my 6 years of working in a hospital, drug-addicted, sex-crazed nurses have always been outnumbered by the nurses who are just dealing with the doctor-nurses relationship.  Drug-addicted nurses aren’t viewed as strong characters where I work.  They are viewed as weak nurses who let their addictions take over their actual job. They are viewed as nurses who need help from others in order to curb their addiction.

The majority of the “strong nurses” that need to be represented in a TV show are like the ones on hawthoRNe.  The nurses who have to deal with the constant belittling of their supposed colleagues. The fresh grads who get emesis all over them during their first few months at work.  The nurses who cry when there’s no other way to control their emotions.  The nurses who have to deal with “high school” cliches at work. The nurses who have to deal with bullying — be it from doctors or from other nurses as well.  The nurses who are torn between using their own judgment medicating patients when there’s a written doctor’s orders that says otherwise.  The nurses who decide to make the right decision in order to protect the patient and end up with the consequences. These are the majority of the nurses that go to work everyday and do patient care — not the ones Nurse Jackie portrays.

Now, I don’t care if it’s fiction and it’s “just a TV show” as some people might say.  Not everybody watching it is going to have the mindset that it’s just a show.  In an era where Spongebob can be sued for a boy drowning in the ocean in search of the absorbant, pourous Spongebob who lives under the sea — how certain professions are portrayed makes quite an impact.

We’re already overlooked enough as it is, now we have to deal with the stereotypes that the TV creates —– and the people that believe them, not knowing that it is, in fact, just fiction.

I’m sitting in front of the computer screen, surfin’ the internet, reading ONTD, and sippin’ on my avocado milk shake.

Then suddenly, light bulb.

The topic is “hot but stupid people.”

We’ve had this conversation, or should I say debate, at work already.

For example: There’s a girl.  She’s hot. All the guys want to do her. She’s vapid. Absolutely no intellect. Rather than having a conversation with her, I would rather get my wisdom teeth pulled out at the dentist office — sans anesthetics.

The guys like to tell the girls, “You guys just hate her because she’s hot.”

One girl responded, “No, it’s the stupidity.”

The guy responded, “I know she’s stupid, but I don’t care cause she’s hot.”

There lies the issue.

To a guy, a hot girl has purpose.  She’s hot.  She’s someone that they can oogle at. She’s someone that they can hope that one day they’ll be able “to tap that”, as some of them have put it.  They can easily overlook her stupidity because she’s aesthetically appealing.

To a girl (who is not attracted to the same sex), we like to hang out with other girls because we can talk about things and because we have things in common.  To a girl who likes deeper conversations besides the usual superficial banter, we would have absolutely no use for a “stupid, but hot, girl.”

So there’s the issue —– to a guy, the girl is hating on the “hot chick” because she’s hot. When, in reality, she’s not really hating on the girl. She just doesn’t have any interest in her and would rather not fraternize with her.

With that said, I have a friend who we shall call Kat, who is beautiful on the oustide but also has brains to back it up.  She’s “hot” to the guys, but the girls don’t hate her either — because she actually has enough brain cells to have a somewhat intellectual conversation.

The end.

We had our first session with our sponsor couple for church today.  It’s the pre-marriage counseling that the church wants everybody to attend in order to ensure a long and healthy marriage, because after all, every 1 out of 2 marriage ends up in divorce.  I was a little nervous going there, I have to admit.  I had all these scenarios in my head about what would happen during the session.  Overall, it was a pretty good experience.

While sitting there, conversing and listening to stories and experiences, a thought came into my head.

I wonder what it would be like to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes? Would I make the exact same decisions they make?

I’ve always looked at people’s decisions and tell myself, “Now why in the world would they do that?”

I bet you they’re saying the same thing about me . . .

My taglines include:

“What can make the Cleveland Cavaliers disappear? — MAGIC!”

I am a witness to the dethroning of a king.

It’s not that I’m such a Cleveland hater.  I’m just not a Cleveland fan.  Lebron James is a good player.  He’s got the built and power that allows him to strongly take the basketball into the hole.  However, I think he has been “crowned” prematurely.  I still think that as an overall player, Kobe Bryant or even Dwyane Wade, is a little better than Lebron.  I’m not saying that he doesn’t have the chance to make a name for himself, because let’s face it, he has, but it’s too soon to be praising him for the things that he hasn’t really proven. He still has more hardships to face.

With all that said . . . I don’t know who to root for in the finals. I actually don’t mind if the Lakers or the Magics win.  I’m a Kobe Bryant fan, but I can’t seem to get myself to dislike Dwight Howard. He seems like such a goof who just truly enjoys what he’s doing.  Plus, Lewis, Turk, and Peitrus are all growing on me, too.  Then there’s Odom, Pau, and Brown on the other team.

I’m hoping that Kobe wins so that he can finally get that monkey off his back. He can finally tell all the critics that he doesn’t need Shaq to win a championship, and he can finally win the Finals MVP.  Dwight, on the other hand, will have more time to do the same thing because he’s younger.  So, in a way, I guess I’ll cheer more for the Lakers — just because Kobe’s time is running out to finally get a Finals MVP.

Sometimes I sit and wonder if “true friends” really do exist in this world and what the criteria would be for one.

I’m not saying that I don’ t have any good friends or friends that I consider close to me, but certain things in life just make me think twice.

If you haven’t been the topic of conversation behind your back before, it’s probably because you’re a hermit and nobody even knows that you’re there.  Odds are, in one way or another, a friend of yours has talked about you behind your back.  If this happens, do you consider that person as less of a friend, or do you just let it slide knowing that it’s an apparent human flaw to discuss other people’s lives or gossip?

It’s funny how gossip spreads around, doesn’t it?

So folks, what’s your criteria of a “true friend?” And do they truly exist?