Yes, once upon a time I suffered from Doctoritis, although at the time I was straight out of college, so I can blame it partly on my youth. But the rest of the blame lay with Dr Steele.

You see, I was an impressionable young man and Dr Steele had it all. He was a twenty nine, tall, handsome, worked out at the gym and had the muscles to prove it. He also had every women in the hospital in love with him. I pictured myself in his shoes. I thought that this is what being a doctor is like and that I wanted to be one. I was reluctant to tell strangers that I was a nurse, especially as a common assumption was that male nurses are usually gay. This is not the truth, although there are certainly a fair few represented.

Like all young nurses I was good at one thing, spending money on nights out on the town. Quite often Dr Steele would join us and it was always entertaining to watch Dr Steele in action. Out of the many nights that we spent on the town there was one moment which is still so vivid. It is so vivid because it when I first thought I had made a big mistake, I actually thought "Oh shit, I'm should have been a doctor, not a nurse."

That particular night a visiting women's netball team was visiting the city and we met up with them at the local pub. The bar was a U shaped bar and were on one end of the U and the visiting ladies were on the other end of the U. I watched as several attractive ladies kept glancing at Dr Steele, hoping to catch his eye. One of them succeeded and Dr Steele went into action.

He was drinking a cocktail and began stirring his drink with his straw. The woman whom he'd made contact with copied his motion and began stirring her drink with her straw. Dr Steele then gently began to poke his straw in and out of his drink, a motion which the woman copied. She then made her way of to us. After Dr Steele explained that he was a doctor, within minutes they had left the bar.

An hour later a grinning Dr Steele returned to the bar. The night was young and there was the rest of the netball team still to conquer.

I do not want to be a doctor and I am happy I am a nurse, but as I said, I was young and impressionable. I have been a nurse for thirteen years and you don't stay in this line of work that long if you're not in it for the right reason. And now, as an older nurse it is entertaining to watch the new, young, bright eyed students succumb to Doctoritis.

I would say that this sounds like typical male behavior, however, I have known many women who have exhibited this same kind of bahavior. Sad. Employment status, money, and good looks too often win immediate, but not long lasting influence.