History Headscratchers / SCRUBS

** Also, let's face it; StatusQuoIsGod. If all the main characters faced realistic consequences for what happened... the show would be over.

*** It's a technicality; what caused the patient's death turns out to have been something that should have been caught well before any of them had gotten involved, and IIRC they probably wouldn't have been able to save him even if they had been there. Furthermore, IIRC each of them technically covered their own asses somehow (J.D arranged for Elliot to cover for him and was ''technically'' following up on a patient; Elliot was attacked by someone else; Turk was stuck in traffic and late into work; can't remember about Carla, though she's not actually a doctor and so shouldn't be given the doctor's role in treating the patient anyway), so while it wasn't exactly their finest hour each of them had were sufficiently able to pass the buck or offer justification to avoid serious punishment. Granted, it's a bit of a hand-wave and they still probably have faced ''some'' disciplinary actions for, well, all their dicking around, but the show's still a piece of entertainment and not a medical law textbook, so they fudged it a little bit.
*** Ultimately it ended up being; Turk was a surgeon who was late for work due to traffic (as he wasnt on the clock when he'd been at the hospital earlier) JD got someone to cover his work while he did something else, so while he probably should have stayed at the hospital, its not his fault that the person who covered him was later unable to help. Elliot was waylaid by a patient and duct taped to the wall so couldnt help. The only one of the four who can be blamed is Carla who blew off an intern who came for help because she was concentrating on the lottery. While she may only be a nurse, its not like she wouldnt have been a benefit to the interns with the patient.

* In "My Big Bird," how did Carla get off scot-free after the Morbidity and Mortality conference? Yes, the whole crew acted unprofessionally (Elliot kissed a patient's parent, J.D. passed a patient off to another doctor in order to run a personal errand, and Turk left for his shift so late that he didn't make it into the hospital on time) but Carla straight-up told an intern who was asking her for help with a ''coding patient'' to go bother someone else because she had better (personal) things to do ''during her shift.'' Even if there was nothing she could have done to save the patient because "they were working off of an inaccurate report," no hospital should condone that kind of attitude from their head nurse.
** They should have ''all'' been canned. No matter that there was nothing they could have done because the report was bad, they weren't where they were supposed to be in the first place. Yeah, this time it didn't matter, but no one would take the chance of there being a next time.
** The Doylist answer is that there was a certain amount of fudging going on because this is still a comedy entertainment series, not a medical law lecture, and we the viewers are supposed to accept that Sacred Heart is clearly not supposed to be a strictly realistic depiction of a medical practice and shouldn't be judged too strictly by those standards. A fictional hospital that continues to employ Doug, of all people, is clearly not supposed to be operating on the strictest terms of naturalistic storytelling and can make room for the main characters to slack off once. As for Watsonian reasons why Carla wasn't punished, while she is head nurse she's neither equipped to nor should be placed in a position where she is required to make the decisions that the doctor on-call responsible for the patient should be making. So while it's definitely a stretch, and she should have helped regardless, there is a case that it legitimately wasn't her responsibility to begin with.
*** That isn't the point that's being made. JD, Turk and Elliot were physically unable to attend as they were either outside of the hospital or quite literally restrained. It's still their fault that they ended up in those various situations, but the fact remains that there was no way they could attend. Carla was in the hospital, she was within close enough range for an intern to run and ask her for help, and she ignored them in favour of the lottery. She very easily could have helped but chose not to. That's what makes her worse than all the others.
*** But again -- she's not a doctor, the patient ''needed'' a doctor, and she has neither the training nor the responsibility to take the doctor's role in caring for a patient, so it's not fair to punish her for not doing so. True, she could and probably should have helped ''more'' than she did, which is probably why the episode also makes it clear that she's got nothing to celebrate over regarding her conduct, but there was still a limit to how much she could and should have done in that situation, and if the doctors who were supposed to be there but weren't aren't getting fired, then it's also unfair to fire the nurse who shouldn't have been in a position where she might have been forced to take over the doctor's role in the situation to begin with. As for "worse", that's a subjective moral position, since all four of them are equally neglecting their responsibilities in that situation; it seems a bit of a stretch to let the doctors off the hook because they weren't there when the whole point is that they ''should have been there''.
** Everyone gets OffOnATechnicality - because the patient wouldn't have been able to be saved even if they had intervened. And that's precisely why Carla gets chewed out along with the others for 'celebrating' at the end.
*** the idea that she couldnt do anything is wrong. No she's not a doctor, but she has more experience than the interns. If nothing else she could have told the i tern to go back to the patient and hurried off to find a senior doctor to get them. What she actually did was tell the intern to go away as she was about to win the lottery.
*** She doesn't have more experience in ''being a doctor'' which is what the patient needed at that point.
*** she has more experience than the interns do at that point yet she basically tells them to fuck off because she's trying to win the lottery. Regardless of peoples opinions on how experienced she may or may not he, thats an ugly look on Carla.
*** ''She doesn't have more experience in being a doctor''. Because ''she is '''not a doctor'''''. Which is a problem if what the patient really needs at that moment is a doctor. What the doctors and nurses do is not as interchangeable as is being assumed here; this is not just an opinion, it is a simple fact. Carla has more experience than them in terms of years working and certainly ''in her specific role as a nurse'', but that doesn't mean she can jump in and start doing what the doctor should be doing at the drop of a hat. The interns arguably ''do'' have more experience than her in filling the role of "doctor", because that it what they are specifically studying and training to do; Carla has not done any of that studying and training, has little-to-none of that knowledge or experience, and if she'd started trying to fill that role she could very well have made things worse. And the ''whole point of the episode'' is that her failure to help out in any way regardless is "an ugly look" on her, but that doesn't make her more culpable than the doctors who were not even there when they should have been.
*** Ok, so she's "not a doctor" she could have said to the interns "go back to the patient and Ill go find a more senior doctor than you to get them to help" that would be in line with being a nurse and helping. She didnt do that. In fact what she did was say "kid, Im about to become a millionaire" and blew them off. The others had somewhat genuine reasons to not be helping (Turk was stuck in traffic, JD hot someone to cover him and it was the person who covered him who had a problem, and elliot - the one covering JD, got accosted by a patient) so even if they shouldnt have got themselves in those situations to start with they all had reasons for not being able to help. Carla just couldnt be arsed. And dr Cox, the one who piles on them at the end, who by the way is a dr, was sat right next to her and didnt do anything either. Carla and cox are more culpable than JD Elliot and Turk in that situation.
*** As noted above Cox was not "sat right next to her," he was stood nearby reading a chart (presumably for a patient he is responsible for, a category that does not include the patient under discussion) and there is nothing to suggest he even heard Keith so he is not culpable at all. As for Carla, while she was dismissive and apathetic and is rightfully called out for such, she did not ''just'' say "Kid, I'm about to become a millionaire," she told Keith to go get Turk, who was on call, which was the right advice except that he wasn't there, a fact she was unaware of. She ''should'' have come and helped or looked for Turk herself and this deserves her call out by Dr Cox but she did not behave as awfully as is being made out here.
*** Cox was stood directly behind Carla. close enough for her to turn to him after dismissing the intern and say "You're missing out. I bet there's plenty of things you could do with a hundred million dollars." You admit she "should" have done multiple things. Hell the second she turned round and Cox is there she should have yelled to Keither that cox is here and asked him to go help. She didnt. An intern came up in a panic and asked for help and her first response was "kid, I'm about to become a millionaire." I consider that awful behaviour for a nurse.