How far from the real world is "Private Practice"?

um, no…but I love that programme

Only while working in restaurants, cause those people is crazy. Seriously, restaurants are a hotbed of drama, people sleeping with other people, drugs, booze, addiction, whatever. So it surprises me that none of the restaurant-themed TV shows (like “Kitchen Confidential”, which was a great show) have succeeded.

Anyway, people like medical shows because there’s a certain romance to doctors and such. The producers have to make it crazy and dramatic because that’s what people want to see.

I never saw it, but it sounds like a soap opera. When I worked at a clinic in Gulfport, MS. it was a bit like that. The OIC and his assistant were both nailing the married secretary. The female civilian pharmacist was nailing an active duty corpsman, the civilian secretary also spread her legs for several other khaki’s and another civilian secretary married another active duty corpsman in South Carolina while her current marriage was still “active” in MS.
Talk about a den of iniquity.

@Trillian – Dang.

@Trillian so I guess it does happen in real life as well.

Light Years. No, wait…Quantum Leaps…

@sleepdoc Happens and makes the enlisted sick. It’s all about leadership by example. Or not, as the case may be.

I have wondered whether it’s the stress of some jobs that causes it, or the personalities of those who are attracted to high-stress positions, that is the real cause, but yes…..it certainly does happen, though not usually to the extent we see on TV. High stress jobs (police officers, paramedics, Life Flight, ER personnel, firefighters) seem to have a certain appreciation (nay, need) for the dramatic, generally speaking, not to mention, a great deal of dysfunction within the personal lives of workers in those fields. If there isn’t anything particularly dramatic happening currently, I have seen people make up situations to feed that need.

But everyone can’t be a librarian, so we appreciate those personality types for what they bring to the table. Or I do, at least.

Disclaimer: These are general observations only, and no disrespect for any profession mentioned was intended, or should be infered.

I think from absorbing the atmosphere and ideas from people in the medical field I get the impression that the hospitals can be pretty personal drama filled places. I think it’s a job where you work long hours very closely with other people. I wouldn’t have suspected it but I joke with friends in the field when I hear the rumors from work that it’s like ER or Grey’s Anatomy. I don’t think it’s so insane that they all sleep with each other on these shows.

That said I think Private Practice is very unrealistic- the whole notion of a group of hip young doctor friends having their own practice is hard to believe. Private practices are usually pretty lonely places consisting of one or two doctors and their staff (of which once upon a time I have been part)- and bigger private practices seem to usually have a hierarchy- a young doctor like one of those on the show might join a big established practice full of older doctors- it takes a really long time to build a practice. Anyway private practices do not seem like very romantic drama filled places- at least I’ve yet to see a real one like one on the show.

Yep at our hospital everyone is nailing everyone else and breaking into fights in the break room.

Alright, I can see the sarcasm dripping off the answers. First off let me state that I work in one of those “high stress” fields that some of you are speculating about. I don’t see anything like what happens on the show. I am sure that regardless of whether a situation exists similar to theirs or not it would be a minority.

No the bubble burster for all of you who love the show. The ages you see represented by the characters are no where near what the actual ages of the individuals would be. For example to be a double boarded pediatric and gynocological surgeon would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 years of training after medical school (or 10 to be a cardiothoracic trained internal medicine doctor). So figure average age of graduation would be 26 from med school, 36 from residency, plus time in practice of several years according to the time line. You can follow from here.