What scares me are phrases like ” do we want nurses who are pushed toward independence”. Do we want them striving towards mindless servitude? Or worse, do we think that ‘we’ should be deciding on how we should limit learning? Ya, we want frigging independent nurses… like the ones who decide to criticize the overworked doctor’s opinion because he’s missed the vital clue that her independence noticed.

“Teach me something I don’t know.” is neater though. Does that mean that if I teach you to make farting noises with your hands, if you don’t know already how (and actually I don’t either) I get an A+?

But when I hear “my regions of ignorance are boundless” then I know I’m in good company. As I put it, “the only thing greater than my vast knowledge is my ever expanding ignorance.” Thanks for the morning smile… and I look forward to having a drink (somewhere on the fruit juice to scotch continuum) when you arrive.

Yes, of course we want independent thinkers, nurses included. And I am mostly playing devil’s advocate in worrying whether this should be held up above other skills, including collaboration or communicating that knowledge. I said nothing of “mindless servitude” :). I am sure you can think of a counterexample: the nurse who is so confident of his own opinion that he consistently contradicts the doctors’ orders, refuses to share duties with the other nurses, and practices raelian medicine on the sly. There is such a thing as a happy medium.