10/27/2026
I learned fast, my first year as a nurse, that there are two kinds of experienced nurses.
There’s the one who sighs when you ask a question. The one who says, “You should know this by now,” loud enough for the whole station to hear. The one who makes you feel like asking was the mistake.
And there’s the one who stops what she’s doing, looks at you, and says, “Good question. Come here, let me show you.”
I stopped asking the first nurse anything. Not because I didn’t have questions. I had a hundred. I just started guessing instead. Looking it up alone at 3 a.m. Hoping I got it right.
