First impressions - here's hoping they last!

Well, yesterday went really well at work. First impressions were good, on my side, anyway. They may think I'm a total loss, but were too polite to say. They welcomed me and treated me well, so I'll take 'em as I find 'em, and I find 'em quite a nice bunch, so far.

The nurses who work there made a few vague comments about how they think they are perceived (poorly) by their colleagues at another unit. I think this is really too bad, but it's a fact of life.

I always find it interesting how that happens. People in one unit crap on those in another unit, believing their own to be the be-all and end-all. I saw it a hundred years ago when I worked in ICU. The ICU nurses thought they were far superior to the CCU nurses, and both ICU and CCU nurses thought Emergency Dep't nurses were the worst. And now, I come across that again.

Is it a nurse-thing, or is it a predominantly-female-profession-thing? I'm leaning towards the latter.

No two units, of any sort, are identically run, nor do they have the same focus. In very few - if any - cases, can a nurse walk from one into another and function effectively without any orientation. The way the ICU nurses I used to work with talked, there was nothing they couldn't do better than anyone else, doctors included. Doctors cramped their style, and just needed to be told, in their opinion.

Poppycock. I knew it was poppycock as a 21 year old new grad, and I know it just as well today. Sad part is, this sort of thing still persists.

All I know is this... no matter where I've ever worked, there were people who were just wonderful to work with, and there were also those who were screaming out to be taken down a peg or two. There were people who understood what we're there for, and those who were more concerned with what people thought of them, and it better be good or else. And then there were those who were more concerned with being the center of attention, selling tickets and arranging nights out - the 'social organizers' whose mission, I eventually learned, was to deflect attention away from exactly how little work they did. And of course, there were those that were so intolerant of new people that they were said to have been born with a black band on their caps. (A throw-back reference to when nurses used to wear caps.)

Anyway, this might not make any sense to anyone else but me. For each line I've typed, I can think of someone I've worked with over the past 29 years to whom it applies. I'm just hoping that when I start my new job, whenever that might be, I can get on with it with as little nit-picking garbage to put up with as possible. Wishful thinking, but a girl can dream...

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