I attended my first staff meeting since joining the MS/NICU. Bottom line, it was the most troubling staff meeting I've ever attended and also my first real exposure to nurses who have clearly worked too long, become angry and divisive. Well-skilled nurses treated our manager who was running the meeting, like a big punching bag.

The issues? Endless, nitpicky issues for the most part, in my judgement. All designed to cut down the amount of physical labour they have to undertake for their *one* patient. They don't like having to check more than one Picsys (a giant automated pharmacy dispensing computer) for the occasional med. They don't like how they have to move a heavy pole of IVs when they take a pt to CT scan. They don't like that the ice machine was taken away after we moved into the unit's new home. And on and on.

I might not have minded so much had their attitude been more pleasant. Instead, for one or two of these older nurses, they felt it was ok to be adverserial, contradict every valid point the manager made and generally come across as old, bitter and tired.

If you can't address your manager or fellow employees in a nice manner, keep talking about how bad things on the unit have been in the past while solutions are being talked about for the present, and are generally crochety and uncooperative, perhaps it's time to take your Ontario Hospital Pension Plan and go home. The rest of us are positive, looking for solutions and ready to provide our very ill patients and family the best care possible.