Most of you probably watch some medical drama shows on TV. First there was ER, and now it seems that every other show on television has something to do with medicine. Right now, the three biggest shows are probably Grey’s Anatomy, ER, and House, M.D.

I really like Grey’s Anatomy. I never got into ER or House too much, but I’ve seen each of them on more than one occasion. I don’t care for the more comedic shows like ‘Scrubs’ at all.

In my opinion, Grey’s Anatomy is the most ‘releastic’ of all medical shows on T.V. House is too far-fetched with bizarre and rather rare diagnoses. E.R. is not representative of my brief experiences in the emergency department during my student rotations.

In Grey’s Anatomy, the characters really do get up early and are often seen at the hospital until way after dark. They’re often seen walking out of the hospital with a backpack only to be snagged to go ‘scrub in’ on some case. The only non-realistic aspects of the show are the ones that keep viewers coming back week after week – the relationship drama.

In real life scenarios, an attending physician would never (or shouldn’t) get involved with interns. This would probably violate all hospital ethics codes, and would lead to immediate dismissal. Now, I know that shit goes on under the table and I personally know of students who have dated attending physicians. As sad as that sounds, it’s true.

However, if you pay attention to the characters you’ll see that they often appear tired and overworked – a pretty damn good representation coming from producers who (as far as I know) have no knowledge of post-graduate medical training. They’re actually doing a better job than Michael Crichton, who graduated from Harvard with his M.D.

Here’s an awesome parody of Grey’s Anatomy from SNL: