Usually, when I write these blog post, it’s a scathing review of something a television show or movie got wrong. However, in a recent episode of This Is Us entitled The Waiting Room, there were several things that the show got startlingly right for a change. Chrissy Metz’s character, Kate, was in preterm labor leaving the family to dwell in the waiting room. Here’s what the episode got right.

1.  People use Google all the time to question medical professionals. In the episode, one of the family members pulls up the drug Kate is on to quell her contractions and begins to question its side effects. Listen, I’m all for informed family members, but as many medical professionals know, the information on Google can be less than accurate.

It does become frustrating as a medical person to take Google’s word for a medical treatment over a trained medical professional. I’m also all for questioning a provider in a respectful way. A better way to approach this question with your provider is to ask, “What side effects are common with this medication?” and “Do you feel like those side effects are worth the benefits of the treatment?” Any provider worth their salt should easily be able to answer these questions. If not, then you may have a problem on your hands. This will tell you more than Google will be able to tell you.

2. Often times, people think that waiting equates to poor medical care. In one part of the episode, Kevin begins to question the delay in hearing any news, and openly questions if his sister should be moved to another facility, insinuating that she’s not getting proper care. The truth is, few things are fast in medicine. I think the culture and patient expectations haven’t benefited from these one hour television shows.

Nowadays, everyone wants to be seen within an hour and discharged home shortly after. In reality, especially in units where you don’t have an appointment, triage happens all the time based on how life threatening a patient’s condition is. Also, sometimes patients need to be watched for lengthy periods to see if their condition will resolve to a point where they could go home, or see if they’re appropriate for admission. If needing to be admitted, where to? Does that unit have capacity and staff to take care of the patient? Just because you’re waiting doesn’t mean anything necessarily bad is going on or that your loved one is getting bad medical care. A lot is probably happening behind the scenes that you’re not aware of.

3. Threats to staff happen a lot more than you might think. Maybe a better term for this would be microaggressions. Threatening to leave. Threatening to transfer. Threatening to call the patient care representative to file a complaint. Threatening to sue.  Using profanity directed at the medical staff and not just expressing frustration at the situation. Unfortunately, medical professionals hear variations of these every day and often without merit. They are designed, generally, to force medical care to happen more quickly. Using threats or aggression to speed up medical care is not necessarily wise for a variety of reasons. The largest reason is that stressed out healthcare workers tend to make more mistakes— the one thing you don’t want to have happen.

4. Waiting rooms are pressure cookers. It’s not unusual for arguments and fights to happen in waiting rooms. The waiting room becomes a voluntary prison and all people can do is watch the clock ticking. The more time that goes by— the more frustration builds. We are all more likely to take out frustration on our loved ones most— probably after the staff. That frustration will bleed over into other people and families.

5. Healthcare workers respond to kind and courteous over anger a lot better. In the episode, Kevin and Randall both approach the nurses’ station asking for information. Randall does it with more kindness and respect and gets more of what he’s asking. We are normal humans and it’s true what they say about honey.

This Is Us used truth and reality to make a very effective episode. Well done.