Grey’s Anatomy College of Medicine: How Modern Medical Dramas have Contributed to Patient Healthcare Anxiety

Having run for nearly 20 seasons averaging over 37 million viewers, it is no surprise that Grey’s Anatomy has been a captivating medical melodrama, one that has sustained popularity in an ever-changing society during its nearly two decades in production. Modern medical dramas have sparked popularity because of their captivating themes of suffering and healing: the modern happy ending or, in this case, cure. With a comprehensible mix of medical jargon and lighthearted drama, audiences around the globe are claiming an MD-level proficiency due to their dedication and engagement in this Shonda Rhimes award-winning series. The increase in patients made confident by this knowledge and by the consistent representation of rare worst-case scenarios has the potential to be detrimental to the healthcare industry. Much of this paper will attempt to underscore how the goal of popularity in medical melodramas has led to an increasingly naïve and anxiety-ridden patient population in the modern healthcare system.