Today is the 2nd installment in Heroes of the Job: a look at the most inspiring figures amongst us, and an examination of their line of work. Let’s take a look at the ins and outs of the Healthcare industry, through the eyes and in the words of House, M.D.

Why don’t super-sarcastic people get to have a special title? If you go around reacting cynically to everything, you get to be a cynic. You tell lies, you get to be a liar. Jokes, a jokester–but if sarcasm’s your area of expertise, you get nothing, no title. Let’s make one up, then: Sarcast. Sound good? That wasn’t hard, was it. Now let’s award it to the TV character who currently deserves it most:

House, M.D., is a sarcast. His sarcastness (no? too fancy? okay, sarcasm) carries the show.

“No, there is not a thin line between love and hate. There is, in fact, a Great Wall of China with armed sentries posted every twenty feet between love and hate.”

“If you can fake sincerity, you can fake pretty much anything.”

The lesson: Dr. House may sometimes throw up an impenetrable wall (of China) of sarcasm, but he never fakes sincerity. Indeed, in the world of healthcare and medicine, when delivering bad news or comforting the sick is an inherent part of the job, fake sincerity can be a very tempting choice. But House never makes that choice, because it’s easy but dishonest, and if a patient sees right through it, then suddenly everybody is worse off. Do you want to work in an environment where your honest instincts will serve you well, and help others? Check out online Nursing degree programs.

“This is our fault. Doctors over-prescribing antibiotics. Got a cold? Take some penicillin. Sniffles? No problem. Have some azithromycin. Is that not working anymore? Oh, got your Levaquin. Antibacterial soaps in every bathroom. We’ll be adding vancomycin to the water supply soon. We bred these superbugs. They’re our babies. And they’re all grown up and they’ve got body piercings and a lot of anger.”

The lesson: Did you know that just a hundred years ago, doctors killed more patients than they cured? If you were ill or wounded and went under a doctor’s care, not until the 20th century were you more likely to be helped by the doctor than hurt. Now we’re in danger of going the other way, of over-medicating ourselves so that germs and diseases adapt a resistance to our medicines … at which point we’ll have to figure out something else. Are you curious about this type of situation and its many possible solutions? Check out the specialized Public Health degrees available online, as well as their individualist cousins, online Physical and Occupational Therapy degrees.

Wilson: “That smugness of yours really is an attractive quality.”
House: “Thank you. It was either that or get my hair highlighted. Smugness is easier to maintain.”

The lesson: When you’ve made a career for yourself in the medical world, you have an obligation not to let your roots grow out. People are sick! They’re under duress! And you’re going to add to that by sporting two inches of boring brownness between your highlights and your scalp? Hideous; you could cause an aneurysm. Better to follow Dr. House’s model: get an online medical specialty degree and sharpen your sarcastic wit to the point where your colleagues are afraid to tell say you look frumpy.

Wilson: “Be yourself: cold, uncaring, distant”
House: “Please, don’t put me on a pedestal.”

“I’m happy to report that we are now so in sync, we’re actually wearing each other’s underwear.”

Lesson A: If you can’t make a statement that drips with sarcasm—even when it’s good news—then it’s not a statement worth making. Actually, this rule points to why Dr. House does not always make for a role model-type example. But part of the fun of the show comes in deciphering House’s true meaning: sometimes his sarcasm has a vicious bite because he’s being dismissive; at other times, his sarcasm is a veil behind which he hides his softer, honest feelings. There’s multiple ways to intrepret and understand House’s sarcasm, and that’s part of what makes him fun, and compelling.

Lesson B: The magic of working in a close-knit healthcare environment—whether in Nursing, Health Informatics, or Public Health—comes when colleagues doing important work and working hard at it synch up, as House describes.

Rewarding work can be found in all corners of the Healthcare industry. If you’re looking for a way to get started in a satisfying new career, but have been putting off getting the necessary qualifications, take a look at the top online Healthcare and Nursing degrees. Never say never—you have to give yourself opportunities in order to succeed. Or, as House might say, “Never is just reven spelled backwards.”