How to Become a Doctor Without Going to Medical School

I was thinking back to a conversation we had in class about how we invest ourselves so deeply into the media we consume that sometimes we begin to think that we are just as capable as the people we are watching. I remember the girl in class saying that she has watched all of the episodes of CSI and that she could probably solve a crime if you put her in the situation. Well in my situation I find myself believing that I could be a doctor.

Have I ever been to medical school? No. Am I a nursing major? No. Have I ever taken an anatomy class? No. So what qualifies me? Growing up my mom watched the tv show E.R. I've seen all 177 episodes of House M.D. and I have seen all 190 episodes of Grey's Anatomy (most I've seen twice; and after Thursday night it will be all 191 episodes). I get so into these shows it's a tad bit embarrassing. When a person begins to code on the show I'm right there with them grabbing the crash cart and pushing 150 cc's of eppie. My heart pounds and I feel like I'm right there in the action.

I try to diagnose the patients before the doctors do and even though I'm wrong almost every time I just pretend like I had a good guess. What really gets me feeling like I know my stuff is when they mention medical terms and I understand what they are. The other night I was watching Jeopardy and the category was something about diseases. I got three of the five questions correct and I immediately tweeted about how proud I was of myself (wow that sounds really pathetic) for knowing these terms that I have no reason to know.

I'm sure that if you threw me into the situation where I was on call with doctors and suddenly my patient began to crash I would freeze and jump out of the way so the real doctors could get to work, but I like the little area of my mind every Thursday night at 9 o'clock that convinces itself that I'm a medical professional... well versed in the areas of cardiology, peds, general surgery, and brain surgery. I avoid orthopedics because I just don't do well with broken bones. So, I know that I'm not a doctor, but I'll choose to remain blissfully ignorant to that reality once a week.