MTV has released the trailer for their upcoming nursing docu-series Scrubbing In, and the initial response from the nursing community has been overwhelmingly negative.
Via the show’s “about” section:
‘Scrubbing In’ follows a group of travel nurses assigned to work at an Orange County, CA hospital for 12 weeks. Relocating from across the country, these nurses have left their hometowns and lives behind for short-term hospital contracts, with the added benefit of exploring a new city. For Tyrice, Chris and Fernando, this isn’t their first tour and they’re considered experts of the program. For first-timers Adrian, Chelsey, Michelle, Crystal, Nikki and Heather, this is a new journey they’re embarking on together, looking for a change from their nursing jobs in Pittsburgh, PA.
The first footage from the show features the girls and guys living the life while a narrator tells us they’re hell raisers, heart breakers, life savers and fun seekers. There’s bikini bodies, a serious six-pack, partying and, oh yeah, working!
We are talking about reality TV entertainment here, but folks from the nursing community have been voicing concern about how Scrubbing In will portray their profession in a negative light:
Caitlin Gardner wrote: “I am disgusted with MTV and these “nurses.” As a “20-something-year-old” RN, I have to express the shame I feel now for having to be associated with this swill! What kind of an institution would allow this to be aired, Jersey Shore Medical Center?”
Via the comments section from the trailer’s post on MTV:
Tiffanie stated: “this is absoloutely an insult to the profession!!!!! These girls are not an example of what a PROFESSIONAL is. You should be ashamed of yourselves. As a nurse for 13 years this saddens me that this is the future my profession.”
Aimee commented: “I was really excited when I heard this was going to air a few months ago. Now to see the preview of it, absolutely disgusts me. For anyone in the nursing profession, this does nothing other than shed bad light on this particular career. Being a student nurse, scheduled to graduate in May, this show portrays NOTHING close to what my classmates and the fellow nurses I have had the opportunity to work with. This will leave nothing but a negative stigma. MTV just took a professional job such as nursing, and have dressed it down as if it is similar to the Real World. Fact…There is no “partying” after a 12 hour day. Most nurses are lucky after working a 12 or 16 hour day to make the drive home, shower the mucus, vomit and blood off of them, and crawl into bed to get a hopeful 6 hours of sleep! This show will not portray the reality of what a nurses life is really like…. because if MTV actually did just that…. it would be cancelled after the first episode! We don’t party, we aren’t “slutty”! And we would like to be treated with some respect that we worked very very hard to earn!!!!!!!!!”
Lisa: This is NOT what our profession needs….more media portrayal of nurses as sex objects. This is a disgrace to the professionalism and integrity of a job many of us are truly passionate about.
Alexis: As a young nurse, I’m dreading this shows release. I am not at all what this trailer portrays, I am a professional and my private life is kept that way. This will portray all young female nurses in a horrid way that could affect our future jobs as well as our relationships with our patients. =( =( =(
Josh: As a nurse, this makes me want to vomit. Oh wait, I just did.
One of the nurses to be featured on the show, Chris Meyers, is already defending himself via his Twitter account:
#scrubbingin #ernurse #rn try working 12 hrs saving lives where 1 mistake and someone could die, then come talk to me abt my social life!!!!
— chris meyers (@ERnurse_chris) October 2, 2013
#scrubbingin when you can say you have worked in as many facilities as me? And have the record of care and level that i give! Im a real RN
— chris meyers (@ERnurse_chris) October 2, 2013
Via a forum about the trailer from allnurses.com, itzvalerie suggested the following. “I saw the preview & just was talking to my boyfriend about this. It could be good & draw more people into the nursing profession. I’m just worried that the way they will show it there will be excessive drinking, the nurses will be really clique-y & a lot of drama.” Squishy LVN replied, “Whatever people this show will draw into the nursing profession I doubt are the kind of people we would want in the nursing profession.”
Reality shows from MTV often face a backlash before they air. Buckwild even made national headlines when West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin stated he was “repulsed” by the trailer and penned a letter to the president of MTV requesting that they not air the show.
Scrubbing In is set for an October 24 premiere at 10/9c.
