A place where life and death meet. A career where high expectations are put on individuals to save other people. Such are the lives of doctors working in hospitals as they try their best to put life back into their patients. If you’ve ever wondered how tough the job of a medical professional is and how things work at hospitals, here’s a list of top 10 K-dramas in the medical genre.
1. Hospital Playlist
Five longtime friends, and doctors, work at the same hospital and start a band as an after-hours hobby. A slice-of-life drama about these doctors as they navigate hospital life and relationships through all the emotions that people go through in their everyday lives, Hospital Playlist is a fan-favorite, critically acclaimed drama with two seasons.
2. Dr. Romantic
With serious questions on morality and ideologies of doctors, Doctor Romantic is about three doctors who somehow had to leave their prestigious jobs at a big hospital in the capital to work at a small town hospital. Teacher Kim (Han Seok Kyu) has a romantic view of life and teaches his fellow doctors Kang Dong Joo (Yoo Yeon Seok) and Yoon Seo Jung (Seo Hyun Jin) about what it means to be a surgeon.
3. Dr. Romantic 2
Cha Eun Jae (Lee Sung Kyung) is a doctor who can’t perform surgeries without passing out or getting sick. Seo Woo Jin (Ahn Hyo Seop) is a doctor obsessed with earning money. Teacher Kim, a chief surgeon at a small town hospital, recruits these inexperienced surgeons and tries to make them better doctors.
4. Doctor Stranger
Park Hoon (Lee Jong Suk) is a medical prodigy who flees North Korea to escape dangerous conditions. He starts working at a top South Korean hospital while trying to find his long-lost love, Jae Hee (Jin Se Yeon). This gripping story of a traumatized young man trying his best to put his skills to use while others around him pray for his failure needs to be on your watch list.
5. Ghost Doctor
Sung Tak (Kim Bum) is a rookie doctor who never wanted to get into this profession. One day, when a senior doctor, Cha Young Min (Rain), dies, he possesses Sung Tak’s body. With polar opposite personalities, these two fight to get control of a single body while also doing their job as a doctor.
6. Doctors
Yoo Hye Jung (Park Shin Hye) has had a tough life that causes her to close off her heart toward others. As a high school student, she had many fights with her peers but eventually found a direction in her life through the help of a teacher, Hong Ji Hong (Kim Rae Won). Years later, Hye Jung becomes a doctor in the same hospital as her former mentor, who helps her to become a more compassionate and forgiving person as they fall in love.
7. A Poem A Day
Revolving around the lives of people who work at a hospital, A Poem a Day is a poignant drama about belonging somewhere in this world. It stars Lee Yoo Bi as Bo Young, a young woman who wanted to be a poet, but financial pressure made her become a physical therapist instead, and Lee Joon Hyuk as Jae Wook, an honest person often misunderstood as being cold. A human story about human problems, this drama will stay in your heart for a long time.
8. Doctor Lawyer
Han Yi Han (So Ji Sub), once a talented and respected surgeon, changed his profession to a lawyer after getting his medical license revoked. He works on cases like medical malpractice while also trying to dig into his past which still haunts him. Joining him is another lawyer, Geum Seok Young (Im Soo Hyang), who is also trying to uncover something from her past.
9. Doctor John
Doctor John is about two anesthesiologists whose main job is to find and relieve the pain of their patients. Tackling some hard questions like dignity in death, these doctors suffer along with their patients as they try to work together as a team.
10. Good Doctor
Park Shi On is a medical genius with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Due to his lack of interpersonal skills, he struggles as a doctor as his patients and colleagues cannot understand him well. As he works hard on being a better doctor and overcoming daily challenges, he is supported by some friends who try to help him out.
