Look at those nurses gossiping at the nurses station. I wonder what they’re talking about. Let me guess. They’re talking about their boss and who wants to date the hot new doctor on the unit. Gossiping nurses have been around since the days of Florence Nightingale. Now, thanks to Facebook, we don’t even have to go into work to gossip. All we have to do is go online.

I taught a couple of teenagers something about Facebook this weekend when I was at work. The night nurse and I were chatting at the nurses station when she asked me if I liked the flair that she had sent me last week. A group of teenagers that were standing within earshot instantly knew that we were talking about our Facebook pages and they acted like they had just walked in on their parents while they were having sex. Eeewwwww! They couldn’t believe that two old people knew anything about the Internet, much less about Facebook. One of the kids asked us what older people (ouch!) talked about on Facebook. After all, we couldn’t possibly be talking about anything cool because we’re so, you know, OLD! I told them that we talk about vitamins and the best places to buy orthopedic shoes. I think they believed me. That hurt. Those kids wouldn’t believe what we really gossip about. I’m sure that I could have really freaked them out if I told them that nurses blog, too.