7 Responses to “RE: Med Shows – Is being a doctor actually that exciting?”

1. W W D Says:
   November 27th, 2010 at 12:31 am

   They aren’t a bit exaggerated, they’re totally unreal. I spent the bulk of today in the ER (1) telling people I wasn’t going to write them another narcotic prescription and (2) telling people with colds they didn’t need a prescription of any sort. And mine is one of the more exciting specialties!
   Besides, after you’ve treated,say, a few hundred heart attacks, they become less exciting.

2. Sehr_Klug 50 Says:
   November 27th, 2010 at 12:31 am

   Believe me, its very stressing….however, nothing to do with those fantasious comic (or are they???) series of scrubs, Greys Anatomy, and the lot…..
   You have to deal with mundane issues, nobody has those dramatic and exciting lives that are depicted in the medicine soap operas…..You have to spend hours in meetings, interviewing patients that are NOT very convinced they do need a medication, or others that are fads of "nature" products,or comparing your opinion with those that were emmited by doctor so and so, as if you were his or her underdog…..and the surgery room,,,,its kind of a comfortable place to run into, to avoid difficult fellow doctors, and administrative quarrels….
   And most of the time, you believe the patient walks out of the office very happy with a very "precise and magic prescription"…….some patients (7% in central Europe), just throw the prescriptions to the bin, and go for a second, third, etc…opinion….
   Grand mas and aunts get the highest scores for disputing your diagnosis and treatment with high rate of success,,(they end up winning with absurd remedies, and some of them, plain damageful),,,,,that is rather a very dissapointing facet (or so I find)…..
   There is not such a thing as the perfect profession….

3. Emilio Antar M Says:
   November 27th, 2010 at 12:31 am

   Hi there….I really hope it is….for what I have seen, is more demanding and tiring that other jobs….
   However thay say the salary is good…an the fringe benefits can be substantial…..
   Nothing dramatic in my hours of duty as an apprentice though….
   By the way, I havent had any time to watch those series you mention, however some of the nurses find them very, very unrealistic…I dont know really…..

   I am a medical student .

4. Dr. K Says:
   November 27th, 2010 at 12:31 am

   I wish I could say yes, especially for Dr. House, MD. What I would give to get away with the stuff he pulls… quite amusing. Pity that most of those cases are for drama. Most absurd cases… but that’s Hollywood for you.

5. Ryan M Says:
   November 27th, 2010 at 12:31 am

   Regrettably, Doctor-land is very rarely the drama that the lovable Dr. House makes it out to be. I have personally never dealt with any amazingly complicated problems (other than a few open-hearts), and on the off-chance a wacky case does present itself, unless you run a private practice, you usually won’t get the assignment anyway.

   Like my predecessors have already stated, no it isn’t quite as exciting.

6. greydoc6 Says:
   November 27th, 2010 at 12:31 am

   You have to winnow through a lot of chaff before you get to the wheat. (An imperfect metaphor, for patients are neither wheat grains nor chaff.)

   Often you have to do what Macbeth implored of his wife’s physician, "Pluck from the heart a rooted sorrow." Does House ever do that?

7. Pangolin Says:
   November 27th, 2010 at 12:31 am

   Usually it is not at all exciting, and when it IS exciting, you’re usually wishing it wasn’t!

   We don’t generally do it for the excitement, but because it is rewarding for us to help other people, while exercising our intellects and interpersonal skills.

   However, a bloody trauma showing up in the OR gives one an adrenaline rush like little else can…

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