St. Denis Medical has been a treat from the moment season one began. As we said in our list of Five Reasons to watch St. Denis Medical, it’s a series that is beyond relatable for healthcare industry professionals. Season 1, Episode 6, ‘Ho-Ho-Hollo,’ is another excellent example.
The holiday season for medical professionals has always been different. Nurses and doctors don’t get a regular day off to enjoy it and be with their families. On those days, our coworkers are our family, and you all work together to make the most of it. That’s exactly what the team at St. Denis does.
Nurse Tok
Because St. Denis Medical is an underfunded hospital, Joyce has to do whatever she can to ensure that her hospital is the one people want to use for all of their medical needs. Not just emergencies. She thinks one of the best ways to make this happen is to increase the hospital’s social media presence. After she sees Serena scrolling through Nurse Tok, which is TikTok for Nurses, she has the bright idea to ask her to help her create something that can be used for their social media. The engagement on their Instagram count is low, and they’ve got 141 followers, so in Joyce’s mind, if their engagement grows, that will translate to more revenue.
Serena is reluctant to help but can’t let Joyce go it alone. Even though it may not be something she wants to do, Serena understands that as a nurse at St. Denis, she also represents the hospital. She wants the place she works at to look good. Who wouldn’t? They decide to take the route of “A day in the life of,” but it doesn’t go as planned as they make several mistakes throughout the day and encounter a few shocking moments that certainly cannot make it into the final product. Serena tries to get Joyce on board with her ideas, but every time she tries something, Joyce’s Administrator mindset creeps in, and she can’t seem to separate the two. Joyce is a doctor, so she does know what it’s like to be in the trenches, but now that she’s an administrator, she thinks like one, so she and Serena can’t see eye to eye.
It becomes a learning experience for both women because Serena also realizes she has her hangups. She has a hard time separating the administrator from the person Joyce is. And that’s a real thing. How can an administrator possibly understand and know what a nurse goes through daily when they’re not the ones out there on the units taking care of all the patients? When the two eventually take a step back to realize what has been holding them back, they’re able to create a fun and magical moment for the staff and the hospital.
Mr. Holiday Man
Just because it’s Christmas time doesn’t mean emergencies take a back seat. In fact, the Holiday season can sometimes be when you see the most emergencies. When a guy comes in dressed as Jolly Old St. Nick, AKA Santa Claus, or as Joyce calls him, “Mr. Holiday Man,” things get interesting for Matt and Bruce. Mr. Holiday Man has come in with a rather odd predicament. Somehow, he managed to get his fiance’s engagement ring stuck on his penis.
This provides a lot of the comedy in the episode as both Matt and Bruce try to figure out how they will get the ring off. Typically, it would be an easy fix, but unfortunately, the ring cutter machine is broken (ahh, the joys of broken equipment at a hospital when you desperately need it.). Also, the fire department, which they could have called in for an assist, is buried in a snowstorm. Because of this, the two have to work together to devise a plan. It was entertaining to watch because they had to team up for the first time.
Glue Does Fade
While Serena, Joyce, Matt, and Bruce are dealing with their respective responsibilities, Alex and Ron treat a man named Bob, who has come in due to a fall and some hip pain. He’s surrounded by his family, who is concerned because he has leukemia. Or at least that’s what he’s letting them believe. After Alex and Ron run a series of tests, they think they’ve stumbled upon a Christmas miracle to tell Bob and his family until they learn that he’s been lying and never had cancer at all. This lie takes Ron and Alex aback, but when Bob explains why, Ron gets it.
Bob’s been lying to his kids about his diagnosis because since he’s gotten older, they come around less and less. He feels he’s forgotten and thinks that telling them he’s sick is how to keep them in his life. Ron can relate because he knows what it’s like not to have your kids around to spend the holidays together. His kids are off doing their own thing, and his plans for Christmas consist of watching Die Hard and the Yule Log while eating Cap’n Crunch cereal. Alex thinks this is a sad way to spend the holiday, but Ron doesn’t. Of course, we know nothing could be further from the truth as he talks about the fact that as your kids get older and older, the glue that held the family together does begin to fade, and that hold is not as strong as it once was.
While Alex understands where Ron is coming from, her conscience won’t allow her to keep Bobs secret when he demands that she and Ron not tell his children. He threatens them and reminds them it’s a HIPAA violation if they do tell. Alex wants to tell Bob’s kids, but Ron is against it because, as he says, it’s “not our job to cure being a jerk.” That thought process is short-lived, though, when he realizes that not only is Bob lying to his kids, but he’s also committing fraud because his family set up a GoFundMe for his medical fees.
That’s when Ron and Alex both say enough is enough and tell Bob that if he doesn’t tell his family the truth, they will turn him in for GoFundMe fraud. I’m surprised that the GoFundMe fraud was the catalyst because technically if he was lying about cancer, wouldn’t he have also been committing insurance fraud? We guess that he must not have had his regular primary care physician think he had cancer because there is no way he’d be able to lie to them.
St. Denis Medical works so well because this comedy has a lot of heart. We love the way everyone remembers that, at the end of the day, they are a team and, in their own way, they are like family. We may or may not have gotten a little choked up when Alex invited Ron to dinner for Christmas. It was a simple moment, but we could tell it meant the world to Ron, and it was a great way to close out the episode.
St. Denis Medical airs Tuesday Nights at 8/7c on NBC.
