u/dogsaremyfriends1113

I'm in this weird place where I’m very skilled, but still relatively new and young in this field.

I’m the youngest person at my hospital and have the least experience at about 1.5 years. At the same time, I do consider myself highly competent, and in some areas — like venipuncture and radiographs — I’m stronger than some coworkers with significantly more experience.

I’m responsible to a fault. I study constantly, I’m close to finishing school, and I double and triple check everything I do. If I don’t know something, I ask. I take thorough histories, write strong medical notes, and several doctors have privately requested to work with me more in rooms because I excel there. I’m also one of the first people willing to step up and restrain fractious or aggressive patients.

As a coworker, I try to be the kind of person I’d want to work with: reliable, punctual, hardworking, and willing to go above and beyond.

But despite all of that, people constantly go out of their way to remind me how young I am.

It’s always:

“Well, you’re young.”

“I forget how young you are.”

“You’re so young and innocent, it’s adorable.”

“Your opinion will change when you’re older.”

I truly believe that if you do your job well, age shouldn’t matter, but at this point I genuinely feel held back and dismissed because of it.

The other day, I got singled out over a mislabeled fecal sample that I didn’t even label. When I explained it wasn’t me who misspelled the patient’s name, I still got lectured about how “you need to be more mindful of what you’re doing.”

I’ve also had coworkers override my radiographs even when I knew my positioning and collimation were correct. One tech insisted I collimate tighter on a lateral abdomen, which ended up cutting off the stomach completely. I pointed it out, but they insisted it was fine and showed the doctor anyway — and I ended up having to retake the image.

If I miss a blood draw, it immediately becomes an “experience” issue — “you’ll get it one day” — even though techs with years more experience miss veins too. Sometimes if blood flow is slow, someone holding will decide we “have enough” and pull the needle out themselves when I was still successfully drawing blood.

I also regularly experience stepping up for a difficult blood draw only to have another tech push me aside because “it looks like a bad vein,” watch them miss multiple times or blow the vein, and then get the patient handed back to me — and I hit it on the first try.

To be fair, there are a few coworkers who absolutely recognize my abilities. Some even specifically encourage me to work with more challenging patients because they know I can handle them, and that feels great.

But what really gets to me is that it’s never just about experience. They always make a point to mention my age.

And for some reason, people also seem determined to paint me as “innocent,” which honestly feels incredibly condescending. I’m an adult woman. I just carry myself professionally and don’t talk about NSFW topics at work, and somehow that gets interpreted as childish or sheltered.

I don’t know. I guess I’m wondering if anyone else has dealt with this weird dynamic of being competent, capable, and respected by some people — while still constantly being treated like a kid because of your age, and I'm also wondering if it will get better, or if it's something that won't change until I have a few more years under my belt.

So first I'd like to say, this is not at all meant as shade for older techs. This is just an interesting situation, and I'm unsure how it's going to unfold.

Our hospital recently hired some new techs/assistants with mixed results.

One of my new coworkers is 70 years old, and recently passed the VTNE. They have a science background and came out of retirement to study veterinary nursing.

They are currently assisting in exam rooms since they just started.

Initially they were very sweet, and I enjoyed chatting with them. Handling is a challenge, it became clear quick they cannot handle large resistant animals and I feel they are also at risk of being pulled over by large dogs on leash.

Not a huge deal, the rest of us usually end up taking over restraint and having them perform procedures like venipuncture, but from my perspective they struggle with it, and I've yet to see a clean stick, so usually someone else needs to take over anyway.

It wasn't a big deal though, I figured they'd improve.

Then we took abdominal radiographs together, and restraint was a nightmare. I barely got the shot, and then they look at the shot and basically demand I collumate more. I said I was fine with the lateral, it had everything the doctor wanted to see and was positioned well.

We flipped to the left lateral, and they demanded again i collumate and insisted I could "do better". I ultimately didn't feel like arguing and collumated until they were happy. They are credentialed and I am not, and I only have 1.5 years experience in the field so I relented, and took the shot. We couldn't get the VD because of restraint issues.

When the doctor looked at the shots, she said i cut off the whole stomach, which i knew, I just didn't want to argue, but I still felt stupid. I asked a different tech to switch with my older coworker since their next appointment was here, and my other coworker and I were able to reshoot the lateral and get the VD no problem.

Then a little later in the day, I assisted my coworker in restraining a reactive dog. The dog has a pop up that says will bite and may lunge, but I know the dog. I hold for everything while my coworker just holds the dogs leash. The dog is old and requires assistance with a sling, so I was going to help them walk the dog outside, but when I went to take the muzzle off they demanded I leave it on and kept saying "I wouldn't do that" and at one point tried to physically take my hands off the dog. I said I know the dog, and took the leash and ultimately walked the dog out myself with no muzzle. I assisted in lifting him into the car as well. I don't care what anyone else does, use a muzzle if it makes you comfortable, but I am good at reading behavior and have experience with this specific animal, so i felt safe handling him on my own.

It was just strange.

The day went fine, but at the end of the day my coworker very loudly announced they wouldn't be picking up shifts on that day anymore because it was too "crazy." It was a normal day, and I dont know how it could have felt crazy when I helped or restrained for every one of their appointments and singlehandedly kept them on time. It annoyed the whole team, including one of the doctors.

They also have this strange habit of announcing when they disagree with a doctor about things like drug choice.

I know this is a needlessly long post, but it's a bit conflicting. I was raised not to disrespect my elders, and I want to listen to their input. But I also take my skills seriously, and I dont like that a doctor now thinks I am so incompetent that I didn’t include a dogs stomach in a radiograph. They are also credentialed and I am not. I am still a year away from being able to take the VTNE.

So I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts or input or similar experiences. I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to keep being kind and doing a good job, the only thing that can change is how annoyed I get while doing it.