If you're a fan of TV shows like "ER," "Scrubs," and "Grey's Anatomy," living vicariously through on-screen doctors, nurses, and hospital techs, you should consider a real-life health care career. Take your medical aspirations off the couch, out of primetime, and into the classroom with the help of health care schools. With the proper health care training and certificate or degree, you'll find yourself living out your daydreams and helping people in need. Health care careers are highly in demand as well. Some hospitals offer experienced nurses up to $14,000 as a signing bonus, and statistics show that 400,000 nursing positions will be available by 2012.

If a nursing career is not your style, there are plenty of health care programs that focus on lab tech training and lead to lucrative health care careers. For instance, radiological technologists and technicians earned an average salary of $43,410 in 2003. X-ray and nuclear medicine programs get you ready to earn even higher pay than that.