When to keep you mouth shut?

Tonight started off like any other ER filled night, with my Trauma cloud looming. I knew things weren't going to go right when we started the shift with a blunt force trauma MVC that resulted in a cracked chest in the trauma bay. Now, I'm never one to really shut up, back down, or be told what to do. Tonight, along with every other co-worker in the bay...we were quite. Was in the fact that we had a person's chest wide open on the table? Nope..it was the fact that the Trauma surgeon and chief resident were having words, many many words. Not nice words at that. I give the Resident a pat on the back though, he didn't back down, he stood his ground for what he believed was right...did it change the result? Nope-but that Trauma surgeon will never be that aggressive with them again.

When should we sit back and not say anything? When its too late? When we think "man I should have just said that!" I'm not saying spit everything that comes out of your mouth, because some sort of filter must be in play in order to keep some people from going to jail.

Most people don't want to hear the truth, they don't want to hear what they need to hear, and most importantly they don't want to hear they are wrong. Was this Resident wrong tonight? No, he actually followed protocol to a "T" Should he have stood his ground? Hell yes. Was the surgeon right in questioning him? Most say yes...this is in fact a teaching facility. I say, unless he's doing something wrong, let him be and save the arguing for later.

I encourage everyone to say what they think, why should you hold back? If more people said what was on their mind instead of sugar coating the instance, maybe...just maybe things would get solved a whole lot quicker. In the words of my favorite TV MD "everybody lies."

This is for all you Residents out there that over the past 8 years, I've yelled at, said what I thought, told you I wasn't going to do what you ordered, did what I wanted, told you what to do, showed you what to do and helped you learn and grow. Stand your ground, say what you think and admit when you are wrong...and when you are right, tell everyone else to shut the hell up. :)