I couldn’t come with a better title.

As previously explained, I changes wards, a doctor working for more than 35 years at my old unit wrote me an excellent recommendation letter and I went my merry way to my new ward, hoping to find something new.

I introduced myself to nurses and some doctors there. Because the nurses were yelling and punching tables, something I’d never seen from nurses, I started a conversation with the doctors about what abbreviations they use there (completely foreign to me), if they allow their nurses to take blood samples or arterial and venous blood gas probes, to decide if a patient needs blood cultures, to do an EKG without consulting a doctor first, what emergencies they have there…

I had lucky with one of the doctors who answered all my questions.

The next day, my new boss comes to me saying people complained about me talking to the doctors, accused me of playing being a doctor.

I asked if the doctor who answered my questions, Schimdt, complained. My boss refused to identify the person who complained.

My reaction to that was to say that this person could have talked to me instead of escalating, I also told my boss that I’m going to ask no matter what because I want to be a better nurse and the best suited people to do that are doctors (because most of the nurses only want to gossip, whereas doctors are more cerebral and explain correlations, I didn’t say this out loud).

His answer was telling me to stop talking to the doctors, otherwise there would be consequences.

2 hours after he left an Anesthesiologist I didn’t know came to check some PCAs, so me being me, started asking questions about the device and given that I’m thinking about studying medicine I asked about it and he told me where he studied, what he did afterwards, started showing me the documentation anesthesiologists use.

This is something I cannot avoid, I like talking to smart people. My new boss seems to be like my old one, only wanting dumbed down nurses.

Other nurses I asked at the unit told me that no, I’m not supposed to be smart, but just a drone.

It’s ridiculous I have to censor myself. The best I can think of is to play theatrics while he’s at the unit but be me when he leaves.

If you claim I’m talking to the doctors as an excuse not to do my job, you are wrong. I need the money and I use my downtime to learn.

It’s true that people believe what they want to believe and judge you in 5 seconds.

Is there a better strategy than playing theatrics?