Charting is Never Exciting: Measuring Physician Time Use in Medical Dramas

Objectives: This study aimed to explore the use of medical dramas to train observers when in-person observations or patient contact in clinical settings is impossible. The study also assessed the media's portrayal of the medical profession and compared time use patterns in medical dramas to previous hospital observational studies. Design: Activity-pattern observational study using Work Observation by Activity Timing software. Setting: The hospital, ICU, and community settings of medical television shows. Participants: The first and last season of the main cast of three medical dramas; Grey's Anatomy, Scrubs, and ER. Main outcome measures: Inter-rater reliability scores were used to assess how well medical dramas can be used as a training tool for observers. Proportions of time spent on daily medical tasks were compared to other in-person hospital studies. Results: Grey's Anatomy and Scrubs had excellent Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC) scores for a general medical setting, with Grey's Anatomy ICC scores for Season 1 0.99 (0.97 to 1.0), and Season 16 0.98 (0.90 to 1.0) and Scrubs ICC scores of 0.91 (0.65 to 0.98) for Season 1 and 0.91 (0.55, 0.99) for Season 8. In contrast, ER had an acceptable ICC score of 0.89 (0.59 to 0.98) for Season 1 and 0.81 (0.35 to 0.96) for Season 15 and might be more suitable for studies exploring activity patterns in the Emergency Department. All had p-values of <0.001. Conclusions: Medical dramas can serve as training tools when clinical observation is limited or impossible, and our methods reflect these shows' ease of use and flexibility. Additionally, medical dramas can be selected for their similarity to in-person studies. Still, one should be mindful that inaccuracies in the representation of clinical activity patterns are present. However, using medical dramas to train research staff in direct observation is a feasible and reliable method.