Ep 11 Show Notes
ER 1.20 “Full Moon Saturday Night”
As Stacy mentions, Grey’s Anatomy surpassed ER last month to become TV’s longest running hospital drama. Here are some articles about this milestone (with lots of spoilers for later seasons of ER, if you’re only watching season one now).
”’Grey’s Anatomy’ Makes History” from The Hollywood Reporter
”7 Reasons Why ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Has Outlasted ‘ER’” from USA Today
”’Grey’s Anatomy’ Cast Reacts to Surpassing ‘ER’…” from ET Online
”’Grey’s Anatomy’ Becomes Longest Running Hospital Drama on TV” from People
”’Grey’s Anatomy’ vs. ‘ER’: By the Numbers” from E! Online
The chaplains talk about the death of Dr. Greene’s OB patient in the previous episode as a “sentinel event.” You can read about the definition of a sentinel event and what policies and procedures the Joint Commission recommends here.
Offering staff support is one important part of a hospital chaplain’s role, and offering staff debriefings following a difficult situation or patient death can be helpful. This article gives some guidance on how to approach such debriefings.
The chaplains believe that Dr. Greene seems to be suffering from compassion fatigue and secondary trauma following the death of his patient. You can learn more about burnout, compassion fatigue, and secondary trauma in this presentation from Dr. Trudy Gilbert-Eliot.
Janie says, somewhat jokingly, that as adults we need to take more time-outs. That is especially important in hospitals, particularly following a death. Nurse Jonathan Bartels is credited with promoting “The Pause,” a simple moment of silence following a patient death for everyone who worked with that patient at bedside. (He notes in this article that the idea came from a chaplain getting everyone to pause for a prayer following another death.)