History Main / HospitalParadiso

* Played with in ''Series/GreysAnatomy'' when Christina discovers the very zen dermatology wing/department. Also, when Addison Shepherd leaves the cast, she heads to ''PrivatePractice'', which is a well-decorated office in Los Angeles instead of a hospital in Seattle.

* The final episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderUK'' has DS Ronnie Brooks supposedly being offered this type of position. However, he's insulted, as he knows the offer isn't his reward for decades of good work, but a way of calming the furor over an error he may have made during an investigation. Either way, it's clear he would hate doing office work and much rather be in the field.

* A mission in ''VideoGame/{{Hitman 2016}}'' takes place in GAMA, one of the most cutting edge hospitals on Earth. Since it caters to a very wealthy clientele, it looks like a cross between a sci-fi hospital (complete with AI overseer) and a Japanese resort (complete with zen garden, hot spring and sushi bar).

* Justified in an episode of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' when the Doctor is stolen and put to work in a hospital which provides medical care to patients based on their (perceived) importance to society, with lower levels undersupplied, understaffed, and crowded with patients who can't be properly treated, while the higher "Blue" level features ideal working conditions and allows one doctor per patient. The Doctor, assigned to the Blue level based on his medical skills, resists the assignment given the much greater need on the lower levels.

* Afew of the missions in ''VideoGame/{{Hitman 2016}}'' take place in GAMA, one of the most cutting edge hospitals on Earth. Since it caters to a very wealthy clientele, it looks like a cross between a sci-fi hospital (complete with AI overseer) and a Japanese resort (complete with zen garden, hot spring and sushi bar).

** Case in point, ''Series/BlueBloods'''s Danny is offered a lucrative position as a photographer's bodyguard. Despite clearly being tempted, especially since he and wife Linda are having money problems, he declines the offer.

* A legal variation on ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'', when prosecutor Alex has an interview at a fancy law firm. She decides not to take the job after she realizes that a six-figure salary isn't worth defending criminals and other scumbags.

* In ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'', it is implied that Litchi Faye-Ling could've attained a place in some of the most esteemed research centers due to her intelligence. Instead, she chose to work as a doctor in a backwater town like Orient Town and hangs around with lower-class beings like the Kaka clan, aside of giving her close access to her target (Arakune), she likes it better with the people there and claims that once her quest is done, she'll settle for real in Orient Town rather than seeking a bigger paradiso. This is, however, subverted that [[spoiler:due to lack of resources and eventually her own corruption catching up to her, [[ForcedIntoEvil she has no choice but to employ herself into the much grander NOL to have a shot in survival]].]]

** Inverted: The Hospital Paradiso is not a plot arc but rather the actual setting: the hospital is sleeker looking than a boutique hotel, always clean and spacious -- deserted at night (WTF), the waiting room for the free clinic is outside the Chief of Medicine's office (double WTF) and only in the first four episodes is it even referenced that it's unusual to get into MRI and CT's as quickly as House does. Not to mention that House's (double) office is a few times larger than any realistic doctor's office, complete with glass walls.
** They ''still'' pull this plot out of the playbook occasionally when it comes to the ducklings, mainly by having the temptation be 'better pay' or 'not having to work for [[JerkAss House]]'.

* Slight variation in ''ThirdWatch'': Doc, a ''paramedic'', is frequently offered promotion to an office job but kept turning it down as he felt he belonged "on the streets". When he finally takes the job he is quickly fired from it since his emotional and psychological problems make him useless at it. This leads to him [[spoiler: going insane, shooting a superior officer and taking the fire station hostage.]]

->'''Joe''': I can't get rid of the feeling that if I'd spent the last five years on one boy like Vincent, I'd have done the world more good than I could do in a lifetime here.\\
'''Emily''': Getting sour on rich city people?\\
'''Joe''': No, I'm not, Emily. There's nothing wrong with people just because they have money or live in the city--nothing wrong with being a city doctor--but this crowd that we get!

He'll never take it, of course. Not just because StatusQuoIsGod, but because the job wouldn't be "real medicine/law/clowning". It isn't really Eden but a temptation that would lead him into job satisfaction hell. The character will state that he's only interested in helping the genuinely needy people who stagger into the ugly, barely-functional shack he works in, rather than the affluent clientele who already have ample options and opportunity for decent health care. That's why he went to medical school/law school/clown college in the first place. Such a statement may just be a return to form after this temporary temptation, the question of moving elsewhere only appearing for an episode or two. On the other hand, it could be the WorldOfCardboardSpeech coming after a long period of confusion, where the appearance of Hospital Paradiso provides a clear dichotomy in his path and makes him realise his real desires.

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* Every non-islander in ''[[DrKotoShinryojo Dr. Koto]]'' will try to make him join a modern Hospital, preferably Tokyo's hospital. Even though he once performed surgery in a cutting-edge operating room, he still prefers a small, old hut on a remote island.

[[AC:{{Fanfiction}}]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

* Played straight, but with schools, in ''UpTheDownStaircase'' with Sylvia's fantasies of Willowdale Academy.

[[AC:{{Live-Action TV}}]]

[[AC:{{Theatre}}]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* Played for laughs in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Dilbert}}'' animated series, where the eponymous character leaves his company to work at the appropriately named [=NirvanaCo=], only to find it too pleasant to tolerate. It helps that he [[spoiler: destroys the entire company from within by accidentally introducing standard business practices.]]

* Sandy Cohen of ''TheOC'' has a career as a public defender which puts him at work helping those who can't afford a lawyer and is what gave him a shot at meeting the main character after all. However a tour around the Lawfirm Paradiso and numerous points of comparison (e.g. Law firm has fully equipped gym, Public Defender's office has a basketball hoop), the clincher that gets him to take it is the fact that he would actually be able to do more ''pro bono'' work at the law firm.

* In ''StarWarsTheOldRepublic'', Doc grew up on the wealthy, technologically-advanced Core World Ralltiir, graduated with honors from the most prestigious medical school in the galaxy, and prefers to put his trauma-doctoring skills to use treating refugees, resistance fighters, and denizens of the underworld rather than take a cushier, more remunerative job and die of boredom.

He'll never take it, of course. Not just because StatusQuoIsGod, but because the job wouldn't be "real medicine/law/clowning". It isn't really Eden but a temptation that would lead him into job satisfaction hell. The character will state that he's only interested in helping the genuinely needy people who stagger into the ugly, barely-functional shack he works in, rather than the affluent clientele who already have ample options and opportunity for decent health care. That's why he went to medical school/law school/clown college in the first place. Such a statement may just be a return to form after this temporary temptation, the question of moving elsewhere only appearing for an episode or two. On the other hand, it could be the WorldOfCardboardSpeech coming after a long period of confusion, where the appearance of HospitalParadiso provides a clear dichotomy in his path and makes him realise his real desires.

* Subverted in the first ''TraumaCenter'' installment. When the main character is presented with the opportunity to work on Caduceus, the largest medicine research organization in the world, he actually chooses to go there after deciding that it's worth abandoning his current place (and having a closer relationship with his patients) if it means saving many lives on Caduceus.

* ''Series/{{Mash}}'': Hawkeye is offered a job as personal physician to a General. When he declines, the General refuses to take no for an answer.

* A doctor in ''RobocopTheSeries'' lost her job at a prestigious hospital and had to work in the slums due to her low success rate. It turns out that her former coworkers kept their rate up by deliberately denying service to patients they couldn't guarantee an easy recovery, whereas she tried to help everyone she could, hoping to at least save a few lives.

* In the ''MassEffect'' series:
** In ''MassEffect2'', Doctor Chakwas leaves her respectable position at a quiet Mars facility to serve as a doctor aboard the ''Normandy''. If she survives, in ''MassEffect3'' she outright objects if Shepard doesn't ask her to leave her position at an Alliance R&D lab to come along. Chakwas claims she prefers to serve aboard a starship because she finds planetside work too static, but speaking with her suggests her true reason for serving on multiple suicide missions is simple loyalty to Shepard and the crew.
** Mordin, who is a brilliant physician and biologist, is found in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' running a clinic in a slum on [[WretchedHive Omega]]. Mordin cheerfully admits he enjoys the challenge of working with limited resources and considers it important to see the results of his work first-hand.

* Inverted in ''Series/MondayMornings''. Chelsea General in Oregon is a very fancy hospital, frequently referred to as one of the top in the world. All the doctors are absolutely stellar with deservedly developed God complex. However, their boss is ''not'' understanding when they mess up, and they are often called out on their screw-ups and even minor mistakes. Two doctors get sacked in season 1. One is apparently an incompetent doctor, while the other as as awesome as the rest, but his team let him down and he killed a patient during a routine procedure.

* Subverted in the first TraumaCenter installment. When the main character is presented with the opportunity to work on Caduceus, the largest medicine research organization in the world, he actually chooses to go there after deciding that it's worth abandoning his current place (and having a closer relationship with his patients) if it means saving many lives on Caduceus.
* In StarWarsTheOldRepublic, Doc grew up on the wealthy, technologically-advanced Core World Ralltiir, graduated with honors from the most prestigious medical school in the galaxy, and prefers to put his trauma-doctoring skills to use treating refugees, resistance fighters, and denizens of the underworld rather than take a cushier, more remunerative job and die of boredom.
-->"I keep getting offers to go work in a medcenter. And I keep telling the doctors, "No, I ''like'' getting shot at!"

* ''Series/{{ER}}'': Mark Greene plays the trope straight as an arrow, later on Luka Kovac gets an interesting variation where a very nice private care home where most of his work would be palliative care is a HospitalParadiso ''and'' offers an appeal to his desire to help people, after a priority shift following the long, drawn out death of his father. The problem is, something that the audience may see better than he does, is that the priority shift may be just a temporary reaction and changing work may harm his marriage.
* ''Series/{{House}}'': Used several times, but the setting is an inversion.

* ''Series/{{Mash'': Hawkeye is offered a job as personal physician to a General. When he declines, the General refuses to take no for an answer.
* Inverted in ''Series/RoyalPains'': The protagonist ''used'' to work at a HospitalParadiso, but in the pilot episode he bases his priorities on who needs help at the moment rather than who's giving the hospital lots of money, and as a result a poor teenager survives while a major financial benefactor dies of complications no one had any reason to anticipate, which gets the doctor fired and sets off the plot of the show, wherein he works on spec for anyone who happens to need medical attention at the time, generally in decidedly nonparadiso conditions.
** However, he is working in ''The Hamptons'' for ''extremely'' wealthy clients as a concierge physician. In this case, his "hospital" is in fact a very large playground for the super-rich.
*** Well, yes, but he then proceeds to treat the significantly worse-off actual locals for next to nothing.
** He essentially traded one restrictive and corrupt HospitalParadiso for a much more flexible one. He treats the usually genuinely sick rich people and uses the rest of the time to treat poorer people who need his help.

* In ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' Marshall ping-pongs on this, sometimes being very committed to becoming an environmental lawyer, other times deciding that providing for himself, Lily, and their eventual kids is worth taking a less-fulfilling but better paying position for a [[CorruptCorporateExecutive corrupt corporation]]. He settled into his job at Goliath National Bank pretty well, at the Earth ''really'' pays for it if future Ted is to believed (according to this show, we never stopped global warming etc), but he later ditched Goliath and is working for an environmental firm. Future Ted mentions that Marshall's commitment to the environmental cause saved the planet.

* ''{{ER}}'' -- Mark Greene plays the trope straight as an arrow, later on Luka Kovac gets an interesting variation where a very nice private care home where most of his work would be palliative care is a HospitalParadiso ''and'' offers an appeal to his desire to help people, after a priority shift following the long, drawn out death of his father. The problem is, something that the audience may see better than he does, is that the priority shift may be just a temporary reaction and changing work may harm his marriage.
* Inverted in ''Series/{{House}}'', where the Hospital Paradiso is not a plot arc but rather the actual setting: the hospital is sleeker looking than a boutique hotel, always clean and spacious -- deserted at night (WTF), the waiting room for the free clinic is outside the Chief of Medicine's office (double WTF) and only in the first four episodes is it even referenced that it's unusual to get into MRI and CT's as quickly as House does. Not to mention that House's (double) office is a few times larger than any realistic doctor's office, complete with glass walls. So Yeah.
** And they ''still'' pull this plot out of the playbook occasionally when it comes to the ducklings, mainly by having the temptation be 'better pay' or 'not having to work for [[JerkAss House]]'.
** For example, in "TB or not TB," Cameron is tempted to join with a charismatic doctor who works with the poor in Africa.
* ''DoogieHowserMD''
* Slight variation in ''ThirdWatch'': Doc, a ''paramedic'', is frequently offered promotion to an office job but kept turning it down as he felt he belonged "on the streets".
** When he finally takes the job he is quickly fired from it since his emotional and psychological problems make him useless at it. This leads to him [[spoiler: going insane, shooting a superior officer and taking the fire station hostage.]]

* In ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', part of Simon Tam's character conflict is that he gave up a prestigious career at a HospitalParadiso in order to rescue his sister.

* ''[[Series/{{MASH}} M*A*S*H]]'': Hawkeye is offered a job as personal physician to a General. When he declines, the General refuses to take no for an answer.
* Inverted in ''RoyalPains'': the protagonist ''used'' to work at a HospitalParadiso, but in the pilot episode he bases his priorities on who needs help at the moment rather than who's giving the hospital lots of money, and as a result a poor teenager survives while a major financial benefactor dies of complications no one had any reason to anticipate, which gets the doctor fired and sets off the plot of the show, wherein he works on spec for anyone who happens to need medical attention at the time, generally in decidedly nonparadiso conditions.

* In ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' Marshall ping-pongs on this, sometimes being very committed to becoming an environmental lawyer, other times deciding that providing for himself, Lily, and their eventual kids is worth taking a less-fulfilling but better paying position for a [[CorruptCorporateExecutive corrupt corporation]]. He seems to have settled into his job at Goliath National Bank pretty well at this point.
** And the earth ''really'' pays for it if future ted is to believed.
** As of season 7, he's ditched Goliath and is working for an environmental firm. Future Ted mentions that Marshall's commitment to the environmental cause saved the planet.
* Subverted in ''SixFeetUnder''. In a moment of idealism, Brenda refuses her mother's offers for placement as psychologist in a high-class hospital and chooses to work in a public center as councilor instead. The people working there are good people and they appreciate Brenda's presence because they're overworked and understaffed. But Brenda can't take the conditions and the cynicism permeating the place and leaves after a day, returning to her mother for the cushy job.
* Played with in ''GreysAnatomy'' when Christina discovers the very zen dermatology wing/department. Also, when Addison Shepherd leaves the cast, she heads to ''PrivatePractice'', which is a well-decorated office in Los Angeles instead of a hospital in Seattle.