Channel four's six-part series, Sirens, first aired in June of this year and has just come to an end. It is understood that another series is being planned. Billed as a comedy drama, the three key characters star as a team of world weary paramedics repeatedly required to deal with humankind at its stupidest. The programme was created by Brian Fillis and inspired by EMT and rapid responder Tom Reynolds’ book, Blood, Sweat and Tea (Reynolds, 2006). Brian Kellett wrote the book under the pseudonym about life in the London Ambulance Service. The book covers Reynolds’ career from 2003–2006. In his writing, Reynolds is often highly critical of a number of NHS policies and management. Blood, Sweat and Tea (with its associated blog) is now cited in the NHS's own guidelines on staff blogging.
The work the trio undertake is a play on the work undertaken by paramedics in real life. There are many elements of clinical practice that are interesting to watch as the three paramedics all strive to get through another tour of duty. In preparing to undertake their various roles, the actors spent some time researching the roles (including a night out on duty with an EMT).
There are number of key themes running through the programme including sex, power and fear of death. Along with the humour, the drama, the sex scenes, the poor clinical practice; will the stereotypes abound in Sirens (for all the characters including the non-paramedics and those on duty and off duty) do the profession any harm or is it just a bit of fun? Other health professions have and will continue to experience stereotyping—none more so than nursing. Here there is the ministering angel, the psychopathic nurse, the dim witted blonde bombshell, the male gay nurse, the battle axe, the naughty nurse and the nurse as doctor's handmaiden.
Stereotyping is a natural human process used by all of us and can result in positive and negative outcomes, it helps us to make sense of how groups interact and often provides us with a means of coping. The dangers of stereotyping are that they can lead to over-simplifucation, self-fulfulling prophecy, poor self-image and performance, as well as leading to preconceptions about individuals and groups of individuals.
Sterotyping is in essence critical judgment and is often a risky, offensive and usually non-productive exercise. Stereotypes may be humorous, but often they are built on a foundation of misinformation and bias—providing an incorrect perception of people based on minimal experiential evidence. Stereotypes can become dangerous when they are inflexible and relied solely upon for information processing. When this occurs, stereotypes lead to prejudice and discrimination.
The labels applied to people and groups through stereotyping are often consistent with historical perceptions; despite radical changes that have occurred in professional roles, the way health care is delivered, the skill mix, and educational levels individuals and groups possess.
Given the recent riots in England, could these stereotypes portrayed in Sirens have put any paramedic at risk? Is the credibility of the individual and the profession harmed in any way or has it possibly been enhanced? What do you think about the portrayal of your profession by the three characters? You may even be able to identify with any one of the characters, or perhaps you have no feelings either way and think it is just a bit of harmless fun that we should sit back and enjoy.