Earlier this year, a show named “The Pitt” was released and since then many nurses, attendings, residents, pharmacists and techs alike have stepped forward to say that this show is the very first medical drama that feels real and they can watch. Why is this and what makes this show so different from all the other medical dramas?
The Pitt goes through a 15 hour emergency room shift in downtown Pittsburgh. Each episode is 1 hour of this 15 hour shift following the attendings, residents, and nurses as they interact with each other and the patients. It is due to this format that the viewer is truly able to see just how much happens in a shift in an ER in a day.
The first thing that makes this show different is that it is one of the first of its kind to show how much of a role the charge nurse plays in the functioning of the Emergency Room. In this show her name is Nurse Dana. Nurse Dana oversees the ER and at any given time she knows what is going on and what needs to be done. At the very beginning of the first episode the attending doctor, named Doctor Robby, is giving the new medical students and residents on the unit a tour and calling Dana the eyes and ears of the ER and telling them what she says. This sets a precedent that no other medical drama has done before.
The next thing that this show is doing differently is talking about mental health. As you can probably imagine, seeing so much death and not being able to process it can really mess with someone’s mental health. The attending Doctor Robby in episode 13 and multiple episodes before that suffers from PTSD flashbacks from being a doctor during Covid 19. This is something that many shows stray away from, but for many medical professionals, it is the reason they watch.
Lastly, many other medical dramas over romanticize the romantic relationships to make more drama and make more interesting television, but in the case of “The Pitt,” they do not do this. “The Pitt” makes it clear that none of the attendings, residents, or medical students are currently dating each other. This is yet another reason why medical professionals love this show. Their profession has been sexualized for so long, and it is merely not realistic to many medical professionals.
These are just some of the reasons this show is loved by medical professionals. As a current sophomore nursing major this show has made me laugh, cry, proud, and has made me beg for more. The finale of this season will be released on Thursday April 10, and we can’t wait to see what happens next.
This show has already been renewed for a second season which is set to come out in January of next year. This is an incredible show that is intense, but still remains very much medically accurate.