25 Ways Optometry School and Grey’s Anatomy are the Same and Different

Recently, I have been rewatching past Grey’s Anatomy episodes. I am struck by the similarities and differences between the TV show and my experience in optometry school.

1. Cool City

Grey’s Anatomy: Seattle is a cool city, with an iconic skyline. The shots of its famous skyline makes it feel like another moody character.

PCO (The Pennsylvania College of Optometry): Having Philadelphia as a backdrop to my four optometry school years makes life more colorful and exciting. There are dinners in the city, interesting events, and explorations around town. On the downside, living in a ‘hood where a popular crack dealer operates next door to your boyfriend’s row house is frightening.

2. Legacy kids

Grey’s Anatomy: Dr. Meredith Grey’s mother is Dr. Ellis Grey, a famous surgeon who reveres her profession over her family. Lexi, another doctor, was Meredith’s biological sister. Maggie, another doctor, was Meredith’s half-sister and Dr. Weber and Dr. Ellis Grey’s illegitimate daughter. Apparently, there are limited career paths for the Grey children.

PCO: In my class, there are many students whose parents are optometrists. One student is the 10th optometrist in his family. He becomes my (now ex) husband and (for a time) I am the 11th. This birthright outranks the Grey family.

3. Rectal Exams

Grey’s Anatomy: Interns are assigned to do rectal exams when on the resident’s sh*t list.

PCO: Rectal exams are NOT a usual part of an optometry school education. I am sent on a remote visit to a state-run nursing home for the homeless. While facing a counter attached to a wall, I glove up as the guards accompany a mentally challenged patient. As I turn around with my gloved hands in front of me, the patient turns away from me and, in one swift motion, pulls down his pants and bends over. Surprised, I point to my stunned face and shriek, “Your EYES! I am examining your EYES!” Quickly, the guards help the patient to pull up his pants and sit in the examining chair.

4. Unusual Medical Conditions

Grey’s Anatomy: The writers write real, yet odd medical conditions into the script.

PCO: A prison guard brings a patients into my exam room in handcuffs, shackles, and an orange jumpsuit. Upon examining the back of his eyes, I see his retina sparkling like sequins. This signifies only one retinal disorder- talc retinopathy. When drug dealers mix their cocaine, they dilute it with baby powder. When a user inhales the mixture, the talc in the baby powder lodges in the tiny blood vessels of the retina. Talc is a sparkly mineral and the retinopathy that it causes is a beautiful sight to see. This patient is open to discussing his past addiction and we learn a lot from each other.

5. White Coats

Grey’s Anatomy: Every doctor on the show wears a white coat with their hands cavalierly placed in the pockets.

PCO: We wear white coats of varying lengths, depending on our status. Waist-length denotes a student; above-the-knee length signifies a doctor.

6. Technology

Grey’s Anatomy: The doctors have the most cutting-edge technology.

PCO: Ophthalmic companies know when students graduate, they purchase the instruments with which they are most familiar. For this reason, the companies make sure we learn on their best and newest models.

7. Serious Discussions

Grey’s Anatomy: On the show, doctors discuss life-threatening diagnoses with patients.

PCO: We also discuss sensitive issues with patients. In my third year, I inform a woman that the copious discharge coming from her eye is caused by gonorrhea. We discuss needing to notify all of her sexual partners. I watch her face as she realizes this implication. She has one sexual partner. She thought he did too. After her face falls with this awareness, she starts crying softly. Within a few moments, she transitions to yelling about her cheating boyfriend. He is in the waiting room, temporarily oblivious.

8. Doctors as Patients

Grey’s Anatomy: Cristina has a miscarriage and a burst fallopian tube. George dies on the operating table after being hit by a bus. Meredith has a C section when the hospital is without electricity. Derek has hand surgery after an airplane crash. Arizona has her leg amputated.

PCO: We practice our techniques on each other. A LOT. I receive many eye injuries caused by my classmates. A fellow student doesn’t realize that an instrument called a Schiotz tonometer is soaking in bleach and uses it on BOTH of my numb corneas. Later, I learn this is called  “bleach burn keratitis”? I marry him anyway.

Another time, a fellow student practices a procedure that involves putting a contact lens-like gonioscopy lens onto my eye. In the process, she removes the epithelium of my entire cornea. Later, I learn this is called a “corneal abrasion”? 

After a few incidents, it is recommended that I stop sitting for other student’s practice sessions.

9. Gun Trauma

Grey’s Anatomy: There are many storylines about gun trauma in the Grey Sloan ER.

PCO: Some hoodlums shoot and kill a local man on my apartment building steps because he wouldn’t hand over his fancy sneakers. The cops are called, they photograph the crime scene, and then take the body away. The blood-stained concrete remains brown until eventually, the rain washes it away.

10. Relationship Drama

Grey’s Anatomy: Great medical dramas include drunken hookups and many relationship trysts.

PCO: Yes, of course, this happens at PCO, but I won’t name names.

11. Inter-marriage

Grey’s Anatomy: Many characters marry each other. Meredith and Derek, Cristina and Preston, Callie and Arizona, Izzie and Alex, Miranda and Ben, April and Jackson, Catherine and Richard, Cristina (yes, again) and Owen, Amelia and Owen (yes, again), Jo and Alex (yes, again).

PCO: Six couples (twelve students) marry within our class, including yours truly.

12. Fancy Events

Grey’s Anatomy: There are black ties, dressy gowns, fancy galas, gorgeous weddings, and uppity conventions.

PCO: We have the Eye Ball. This is a yearly formal dance which is the event to see and be seen. Puns intended.

13. Drunkenness

Grey’s Anatomy: When life becomes rough, some characters release stress by getting drunk.

PCO: We have a day in class where four student volunteers sign waivers and then systematically become intoxicated. The professor serves specifically measured alcoholic drinks. The purpose of this? So we can watch the effect the alcohol has on their eyes after one, two, three and four drinks within an hour. The volunteers were excused from the next class.

14. Automotive Mishaps

Grey’s Anatomy: One storyline involves a bus crash in front of the hospital.  A doctor finds a little girl hiding inside the mangled bus, too scared to come out. He tries to coax her, knowing time is running out. The bus explodes as the doc dramatically emerges (in slow motion) from the flames with the little girl in his arms.

PCO: One morning, my two roommates (Wendy and Sue) and I exit our apartment building (walking in slow motion with long hair billowing out behind us) to ride to school in Sue’s car. As we approach the vehicle, we notice that the car is resting on four cinder blocks and there are no wheels. We walk to school in the rain.

15. Fast Friendships

Grey’s Anatomy: In the intense environment of any type of medical school, immediate and deep friendships form.

PCO: I watch many lifelong friendships bloom. I remember standing at the entrance to the dorms, on a committee to welcome students to their new home. Seema is one of my fellow representatives and her family is from India. We are getting acquainted when another new student pulls up and emerges from her car. Her name is Shalini and her family is also from India. Shalini and Seema look at each other and dive into a frenetic conversation about their heritage. Five years later, they serve as bridesmaids in each other’s weddings.

16. Teaching Gallery

Grey’s Anatomy: There is a glass-enclosed seating gallery above the operating room so students and doctors can watch surgeries.

PCO: Some clinic exam rooms have a wall of two-way mirrors for the residents and professors to observe exams. The most stressful days are when you have an “A” exam and are graded on your examining techniques through these windows.

17. Cadavers

Grey’s Anatomy: Students learn anatomy and surgical techniques from cadavers.

PCO: We also have cadavers. At PCO, cadaver prosectors are coveted, paid jobs. These students prepare and dissect the bodies for the rest of the class. I am honored to be chosen as a prosector. My partner, Johanna, and I toil over our body. We know very little about our subject’s life and the tidbits we gather are from her toe tag. Johanna and I love this woman and her vague story. We tease out nerves and muscles and organs so that her death won’t be wasted and that she will live on as essential information in the minds of our classmates.

18. Pregnancy

Grey’s Anatomy: Meredith, Cristina, April, and Callie become pregnant.

PCO: While there are no actual pregnancies in my class, there is one fake pregnancy. Our professor divides the class into groups. We are to come up with a way to educate the class on the different scenarios he assigns. My crew depicts the differences that income can make in health care. We perform a skit, where my friend Seema is the rich lady and I am the pregnant single mother on medical assistance. Seema wears a fancy pantsuit with a large floppy hat. I wear a bandana on my head and a sundress hiding a basketball as my fetus. Summary: The wealthy patient gets exceptional and speedy care; I fall asleep in the reception area, endlessly waiting for a doctor as the curtains close. Deep bow.

19. Questionable Relationships

Grey’s Anatomy: Doctor-Patient Relationships, Doctor-Student relationships, Student-Patient relationships.

PCO: Yes. Yes. And yes.

20. Scrubs and Surgery

Grey’s Anatomy: Scrubs and surgery are the norm. Scrubbing in. Getting thrown out.

PCO: Nope. Optometrists don’t do surgery in Pennsylvania.

21. Long Hours

Grey’s Anatomy: 48-hour shifts are common.

PCO: We don’t have multiple sleepless days scheduled by the college. We pull many an all-nighter to study, but nothing matches those surgical shifts.

22. Doctors Who Should Be Models

Grey’s Anatomy: McDreamy and McSteamy are just gorgeous.

PCO: Sadly, and no offense, but just no. No one looks like Dr. Derek Shepherd.

23. Sex

Grey’s Anatomy: On-call room sex seems very frequent and spontaneous.

PCO: There are no on-call rooms to have flings, but there was a rumor about the library stacks.

24. Nicknames

Grey’s Anatomy: Nicknames for teachers and students include: Nazi, 007, Bambi, McDreamy, Evil Spawn, Little Grey, Syph Boy, McSteamy.

PCO: None that I am willing to discuss.

25. Music

Grey’s Anatomy: The TV show is accompanied by an amazing soundtrack.

PCO: The background music of my optometry school experience is the hit list of 1993-1997, especially the song, Streets of Philadelphia by Bruce Springsteen.

Optometry school was the most terrifying, special, and challenging time of my life. Regardless of how intense, I wouldn’t change a minute. I left with a degree, a husband, and an experience full of growth.

“You can waste your life drawing lines or you can live your life crossing them. If you are willing to take the chance, the view from the other side is spectacular.” Meredith Grey