The Hierarchy of Slippers according to Sarah K and Bridget

On Saturday, we spent the day in pediatrics doing rounds with a physician and seeing patients in the out-patient department. In the morning, while visiting patients in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) we witnessed quite the interesting situation. We were already in the NICU with 2 pediatricians, a pediatric intern, and a few "sisters" (aka nurses). The practice here is that when you enter a ward such as the NICU, you remove your "footwear" and put on hospital-issued "slippers" (aka flip-flops), which we had done before we entered the room. Shortly after we entered, the head of the pediatrics department came in and said there were no slippers left. This is where things got interesting. The department head certainly couldn't be slipperless in the NICU, so one of the pediatricians removed his slippers and slid them across the floor to the department head. Then, a pediatrician certainly couldn't be slipperless in the NICU, so the intern removed his slippers and slid them across the floor to the doctor. Then, an intern certainly couldn't be slipperless in the NICU, so one of the sisters removed her slippers and slid them across the floor to the intern and went off to find some more, which she did. We wondered where, exactly, we fit into the hierarchy and who we should give our slippers to, as it didn't feel right to stand there and not participate in this game of "musical slippers" or "Chinese fire drill of slippers." The hierarchy of power/authority was made very evident in that situation, and was interesting to witness from an outsiders perspective.

We feel it necessary to note that everyone was incredibly welcoming of us in our clinical experiences and we couldn't be more thankful for their generosity in allowing us to accompany them in their practices.