University Hospital ~ A Must-Watch for Medical Drama Fans
“University Hospital” (aka “Mysterious Nurse”) is a 2018 Korean drama series, with 6 episodes (a short-form TV drama), categorized as Medical drama, Crime, Mystery, Fantasy or Supernatural, and Romance; streaming on KOCOWA+.
SUMMARY: A psychiatrist hires a mysterious nurse who has the ability to spot patients in dire need of treatment for their mental illness. He also discovers that the nurse has an ability that could help him solve a mystery.
♦ They Made Me the Scapegoat
In “University Hospital”, Bae Soo Ah was involved in a car accident with her family and she is the only one who survived. Her eyes were damaged and she received an eye transplant. The operation was successful but now she can see death. It’s terrifying. There’s a dark plume of smoke that envelopes the person who is about to die. It starts at the bottom and if it makes it all the way up to their head, that person will die.
If she can reach them in time she might be able to prevent their death. Unfortunately being able to see death makes it difficult for her to stay employed. It’s a special ability she needs to learn how to harness. Bae Soo Ah was a patient at the hospital where Woo Hyun Woo worked and he was wrongfully terminated. A patient died and the Hospital Chief made him the scapegoat. In other words, he took the blame for medical negligence even though it was the fault of the Hospital Chief. That patient’s death was written off as a suicide.
With the help of a relative, Woo Hyun Woo set up a medical practice specializing in neuro-psychiatry (“a medical specialty that bridges neurology and psychiatry, focusing on the relationship between brain function and behavior”). But he had no patients until … Bae Soo Ah showed up and convinced him to hire her as his nurse. She told him there were plenty of patients out there. They just needed to find them and send them to his office for treatment.
Woo Hyun Woo was surprised that Bae Soo Ah had this ability to spot people who were suffering from various mental illnesses and persuade them to get help. As a psychiatrist, Woo Hyun Woo wanted to know how she did that because obviously if he could do it he could diagnose and treat the patients better. When she told him that she could see death, he told her she was suffering from “grandiose delusions” and then fired her. He said he couldn’t have someone who should be a patient working as his nurse.
Later on when patients continued to come to his office, he realized two things:
(1) there were too many patients to handle and many came to him mainly because they liked her and he couldn’t run the office smoothly without her assistance, and
(2) if she really had this ability, maybe he should do research because perhaps there were others like her who had been diagnosed incorrectly the way he had misdiagnosed her.
Bae Soo Ah returned to work and she told him that she was also having a recurring nightmare. He was in her dream and there were other people but she didn’t know them. She told Woo Hyun Woo about the dream, i.e. the nightmare. Although he could not explain it, the people she did not know were people that he did know. Bae Soo Ah can see death. But what else can she see?
Main Characters:
Viewership and Rating:
- IMDb: (no rating) of 10 stars
- My Drama List: 6.8 out of 10 stars
- KoreanDrama.org: 7.2 out of 10 stars
My personal rating is 9 out of 10 stars.
“University Hospital” is one of those underrated hidden gems. Hidden so well it was hard to even find a trailer. IMDb didn’t even have a rating. But it is 6 fascinating 30-minute episodes and the male and female leads have great chemistry. Also the soundtrack is nice.
LINKS OF INTEREST:
Mysterious Nurse Korean Drama | KoreanDrama.org
University Hospital (Korean Drama, 2019, 갑툭튀 간호사) | HanCinema
Mysterious Nurse (TV Series 2018-2019) | The Movie Database (TMDB)
The 25 Best Medical K-Dramas, Ranked | screenrant
TRAILER/TEASER:
K Shorts. “Mysterious Nurse.” YouTube, 30 Jan. 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvWr-NouGwI.
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