Professional Distance

The atmosphere at work has shifted again. It’s become something quieter, more rigid, and deeply impersonal. There are fewer discussions in the hallways, fewer debates over treatment plans, and a lot more checklists. Everything is ‘by the book’ now, but it’s a book that none of us were involved in writing. In my experience, when the talk stops and the checklists take over, it means the decisions are being made somewhere else—somewhere far away from the actual beds and the actual patients. We are just the hands now; the brain has moved elsewhere. We do what we’re told, and we don’t ask why the protocol changed overnight.