Let’s face it, these physicians are living pretty horrid lives. If you ask me, that show did nothing but portray Medicine as a dissipater of youth into old age serfdom and loneliness. As we see Cheryl Dorsey’s (the pediatrician) young beautiful and vibrant face turn into wrinkles and the sole proprietor of an apartment in which she resides with only her dog and no significant other, or David Friedman, the divorced ophthalmologist who has all the financial and humanitarian rewards which Medicine can allow but is forced to confront and admit the presence of the pervading loneliness in his life.

Every physician followed on those series faces the true reality of Medicine. The reality that Medicine may very well become your life and dwarf any other sort of social institution you hold dearly to your heart.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/doctors/program.html

NOVA does not have most of the episodes online or for purchase (and when they do, it is in VHS format).

Does anyone have any ideas of where I could find the older episodes? They are:
Can we make a better doctor?
So you want to be a doctor?
Making of a Doctor
Survivor, M.D.

“I think I came into medicine as a much more sensitive person. Don’t get me wrong, I still care about patients. But, that has become less important than the fact that I am so completely exhausted…This process has made me into a person that I don’t particularly like.”

Even as a pre-med, I can relate to this. I sometimes question why I’m even doing this because it’s so hard on everyone and it’s such a huge commitment. I think as the process has gone on, my reasons for wanting to be a doctor have become less about me and more about my desire to work with an underserved population.

You really can’t be selfish in it all because there are just too many sacrifices.