The women EDucating Shorty St
boot camp or induction – newbie cast members are just thrown straight in the deep end. ‘‘The casting people will just introduce me to them and then the next time I see them is on set or at rehearsal. It’s pretty fast turn-around TV, so there’s not a lot of time.’’
She says the actors struggle most with both medical terminology and a general misunderstanding of ‘‘how hospital’s work’’. ‘‘When we do operating theatre scenes, I have to talk them through what they can and can’t touch, what operations are really like and how doctors and nurses talk to each other.
‘‘Having said that, operating theatre scenes are generally difficult to recreate because we don’t have all the right equipment – they cost so much money. I think we do really well with what we have,’’ she says citing United States show Code Black as a particularly awful offender when it comes to medical inaccuracies given its high-profile and big budget.
Are there episodes or scenarios Geary is particularly proud of though? ‘‘The 2015 Christmas Cliffhanger,’’ she says without hesitation. ‘‘It was based on the 2014 siege at the Lindt store in Sydney. I found that one quite challenging, because a few people died, we had lots of blood and there was an operation on the floor of the cafeteria.’’
A recent storyline involving a cardiac arrest was also satisfying, Geary says. ‘‘It allowed people to see how they could do CPR properly, which I think was quite a good thing to do.’’
While she still gets the occasional ribbing from her ED colleagues if something ‘‘doesn’t look real’’, Geary says most of them are very positive about the show. And, she admits, that occasionally something that happens at her other workplace can turn up on Shortland Street. ‘‘I have to be careful to change it a little bit so people don’t recognise it, but occasionally there might have been something funny that happened that I think would be great for the show.’’
It’s a scenario that also comes up for Shortland Street’s medical storyliner Caroline Restall. Like Geary, she doubles-up with a role at Auckland Hospital’s ED. In fact, when we speak, she’s still recovering from a night duty shift there.
Restall, who also holds a Masters degree in Italian and has a background in creative writing, says one of her main qualifications for her role is her access to medical professionals. ‘‘I’ve got a whole medical family to draw scenarios from. If I can’t think of something, I can assure you the rest of them are very keen to offer something.’’
For example, Restall remembers getting her neuroradiologist son-in-law to help her out with the first scenario she suggested for the show – a clot extraction from a patient that had had an ischemic stroke.
Naturally having such a medically-minded clan also means there’s even more pressure on Restall to ensure Shortland Street ‘‘gets things right’’.
‘‘I’m acutely aware that if you get something wrong, you alienate a whole sector of possible watchers. I’ve got a orthopaedic surgeon colleague who says he’s never seen a cast put on correctly on TV. They all tell me if something’s not right, but hopefully they won’t have to if I have something to do with it.’’
A relative newcomer to Shortland Street (she admits she hadn’t watched it much before beginning work there last August), Restall says she actually has two goals – being absolutely accurate and educating the New Zealand public. ‘‘I actually see that as a large part of my role,’’ she says of the latter. ‘‘Things sometimes get diluted through the story process, but I’m keen to liaise with various agencies ahead of an episode airing to get as much publicity about a topic or illness as possible.’’
Restall says she was particularly proud of hearing that one woman in Hamilton recognised the symptoms of meningitis before it was too late, thanks to being a regular watcher of the show.
‘‘I thought that was pretty cool.’’
airs 7pm weeknights, TVNZ2.