The Unwritten Rules of Hospital Chair Hierarchy

So the ONE thing I have gotten in trouble for more than once during the first half of third year?  Sitting down.  Harkens back to my days as a lowly paramedic student (I'm on about the same level still, five years later), when nurses playing solitaire on the computer got to sit down, while I stood for 12-20 hours at a time (my back STILL HURTS from that).  This has resulted in my NEVER sitting down, which draws a lot of sarcastic remarks like, "You can have a seat, unless you're glued to the wall."

Anyway, a brief reflection on the hierarchical (or bureaucratic, who knows) manner in which seating rights are determined:

• Patients with legitimate complaint
• Attending physicians
• Family of patients with legitimate complaint
• Staff controlling salaries/quality assurance/billing
• Senior nurses
• All other nurses
• Resident physicians
• Patients without a legitimate complaint
• Family of patients without a legitimate complaint
• Intern physicians
• Purses, suitcases, laptops, stuffed animals, and children who have strollers but prefer that last chair
• Bed bugs, noseeums, and the like
•  
•  
•  
• 
  
• Med students