Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Dreams of Being Dr. House

As I noted recently, many people who work in health care are irked by the portrayals of their profession on TV in shows such as House and Grey's Anatomy. But the shows can be a guilty pleasure for them, though perhaps in a different way than for people whose only view of an operating room is the light on the ceiling as the anesthesia meds kick in.

House gets away with all sorts of things real doctors can’t, and he exudes a confidence and certainty few real doctors would dare to.
“In terms of medical professionals and students, I think it’s really kind of a fantasy world for them, where they see somebody talking back to patients and family members, treating them quite brusquely, and they get away with it. I think that’s one of the reasons [medical] students enjoy it so much, besides the fact that it’s just good entertainment, I think every medical student has had a situation where they would have just loved to tell a family where to go, like House does, so it’s a bit of a fantasy for them.” - Mark Wicclair, PhD, professor of philosophy and an adjunct professor of community medicine at West Virginia University in Morgantown.
Read the full discussion in “House, M.D. vs. Reality

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