[bbj113]

Nursing is a tough profession. I think some do "eat their young" but I think they "Feast" on each other. Nursing requires extreme dedication and sweat. I have done this for over 30 years and it still gets under my skin when I see nurses more concerned about gossip than their patients. Some can never be quiet and constanly have a flow of verbal diarrhea. I feel like saying "yes I am happy about your daughters marriage but I am sure this pt. here who just is coming out of surgery does not give a hoot." If they insist on talking why can't they whisper or talk in a low voice. I resent the fact that my pt. has to hear the all details of their life. ie:money issues, love issues, child issuses etc. It reflects badly on the unit, hospital and nursing.
So to all the new nurses out there don't worry it's not just you. Would I pIck this career all over again? I really don't know. Although I enjoy my job I don't think Nusring is a healthy career choice. It is physically exhausting, even more mentally exhusting, little control over your work enviroment, majority have poor pensions plans and little respect from the administration. Thank goodness I have only had to do this part time because I get a good break on my days off.
Good luck to all you new ones. Stay in school and get the education so that when you are fed up with the politics you can move into a job that will less stress.

[SoundofMusic]

Here's a hint to all veteran nurses: When new student nurses or newly hired orientees come into the nursing station for the first time -- introduce yourselves. Try to get to know that new student in some way. Be genuine, not jaded. Show them around a bit -- ask them a few questions about themselves. These are people of VALUE to your organization. Maybe not now, maybe not even in a year -- but in a few years, THEY will be the mainstay of your hospital IF you can make this a good initial experience for them. These are also PEOPLE with lives, just not "new grads" for you to munch on.

My experience was that i walked into the unit and no one said a word. Most looked at me for a brief second, then went on talking amongst themselves as if I wasn't there. Some just merely stared - and I mean OGLED me for minutes at a time, not saying a word.

I'll never forget it. It was awkward as hell for me and just started me off feeling weird and unaccepted. This happened to me on two different units. I am a person with two college degrees, a family, and a great former career. Not too many have really taken the time ever since to truly get to know me -- it's just surface stuff. They seem just too comfortable in their own cliques to accept me into them.

So, I just keep my head down and follow around my nurse of the day like a little duckling and learn what I can. It's not fun -- mostly uncomfortable and stressful. I've had to find a place where no one could see my tears a few times.

Just remember, I might be that new grad in your floor who is having a bad time. Maybe you could find it within yourself to smile at me, to offer a kind and friendly word occasionally? To treat me like one of you? To compliment me in some way? Try it and maybe you will discover a great co-worker amongst us -- make us feel accepted and maybe we'll stick around and do a great job on your unit, relieving YOUR burden a bit.

[dhammond3]

YES! We left a clinical setting mid-semester because the nurses were extremely arrogant and unwilling to show anything. By the way I am 50 and have worked in another professional career and was appalled, and let the nurses know it. I have worked in the ER as a tech, during my let me see if this is what I want to do phase, so clinical setting was not new. Trust me, when I finish I (while I don't tolerate incompetence) I will bend over backward to teach and encourage. You were there once too, and remember that student could be your nurse when you become a patient.

[Tweety]

Originally Posted by SoundofMusic

Here's a hint to all veteran nurses: When new student nurses or newly hired orientees come into the nursing station for the first time -- introduce yourselves. Try to get to know that new student in some way. Be genuine, not jaded. Show them around a bit -- ask them a few questions about themselves. These are people of VALUE to your organization. Maybe not now, maybe not even in a year -- but in a few years, THEY will be the mainstay of your hospital IF you can make this a good initial experience for them. These are also PEOPLE with lives, just not "new grads" for you to munch on.

My experience was that i walked into the unit and no one said a word. Most looked at me for a brief second, then went on talking amongst themselves as if I wasn't there. Some just merely stared - and I mean OGLED me for minutes at a time, not saying a word.

I'll never forget it. It was awkward as hell for me and just started me off feeling weird and unaccepted. This happened to me on two different units. I am a person with two college degrees, a family, and a great former career. Not too many have really taken the time ever since to truly get to know me -- it's just surface stuff. They seem just too comfortable in their own cliques to accept me into them.

So, I just keep my head down and follow around my nurse of the day like a little duckling and learn what I can. It's not fun -- mostly uncomfortable and stressful. I've had to find a place where no one could see my tears a few times.

Just remember, I might be that new grad in your floor who is having a bad time. Maybe you could find it within yourself to smile at me, to offer a kind and friendly word occasionally? To treat me like one of you? To compliment me in some way? Try it and maybe you will discover a great co-worker amongst us -- make us feel accepted and maybe we'll stick around and do a great job on your unit, relieving YOUR burden a bit.

Good post. In this day and age students should be thought of as future employees/peers and having nursing students on the unit is a valuable recruiting tool. How they are treated initially is a lasting impression. I'm proud that students like coming to my unit, and we recuit many a student from their clinical experience. I got a nice thank you card from a student that I wasn't even precepting this past week.

You're walking onto a unit with dynamics already set in stone. After you come through, we're going to still be there, and the relationships we nuture needs to be with each other for the most part.

It's a two-way street. Many time students come in and become flies on the wall saying nothing to us, as if they are customers waiting to be waited on....then wonder why they are being stared at....we're like wondering "is she going to say something or just stand there?".

But more often they come in groups, sticking among themselves, not bothering to introduce themselves, say hello, or even bother to colloborate with us that they will be providing some care for our patients, pick and choose what they will and will not do, whispering among themselves "can you believe what that nurse just did.......".

Sigh....so while students are judging us as being arrogant and unfriendly, they don't stop to take another picture and realize they are in the picture as well.

[WaggsMommy]

I don't know about everyone eles but I think its true, about some people. I am a new nurse I have worked at the hospital in my small hometown since I finished school. I have come across some people who love to help and teach me things I have not yet learned (Have I mentioned I have be an LVN for 9 months) and I have some who roll their eyes or laugh. Have you ever come around a corner and heard someone talking about you? I have come home in tears many times. It really sucks. I'm not the type of person who thinks they know everything becouse I don't. I more then likely ask too many questions. But when these are the kind of people you work with is it any wonder why I or anyone eles treated this way would already be looking for a new job in less than a year? So the moral of the story is yes SOME nureses really do eat their young.

[aloevera]

i DON'T AGREE WITH THAT SAYING....when I started out some 20 + years ago, I learned more from the nurses on the floor than I ever did in school.
Some took time with me and were very patient. Of course there was always one ole grouch, but that is everywhere in every job.
Now that I am older I notice that when a newbie comes to the hospital where I work I do my best to "take her under my wing" and help her in any way that I can. Was that Ericksons stages ???? We get a little older and want to teach the younger generation ???? It sure seems to be true in my case. I enjoy sharing my knowledge with those just coming in to nursing....I know they appreciate it and I feel good about it, too !!
It is also very beneficial to our patients....

[NurseCon50]

I have to say that after 29 years in the ER, and though I hate to admit it, we do set our young nurses up for failure. I have been a mentor and a preceptor of young and " old" nurses alike, and I think that it's generally an initiation instead of an orientation when the new people arrive on our unit. I recently switched jobs and have been told that I am " slow" that was on my 7th day at my new job. I was also left alone the second week and expected to " do my share" without a clue as to what I was doing. I have asked other nurses questions and I get a look or a shoulder shrug and still no answer.
Luckily it's an area where I know that I won't kill a patient, but the paper work is greek to me.
The question in my heart is why in the heck do we do this? Is it that we are so burnt out from being so overworked that we just don't have the energy to look after new nurses who come to our units? I feel very privileged to have been chosen by several new grads to be their mentor. I think that speaks highly of how I treat others. I can tell you that not everyone treats new people like this.
In my new position after 2 weeks there I am miserable. I talked with the nurse manager last week who acted completely shocked at the negativity and the gossip that was thrown my way the first three days there. I was flat out told that it was a miserable place to work, that management was horrible... on and on and on... very discouraging.
Luckily I am prn and a part timer there and I still maintain a position in the ER. I feel at this point that I need something slower and less physical. I am entering my 50's .. even though I don't look it.. and my back is starting to speak to me. The new position is easy.. but the people have been horrible....
I love patient contact.. I am a great nurse..
have thought about home health.. but not sure which way to go...
so to answer the original question.. yes nurses eat their NEW.. not necessarily their young.

[traumahawk99]

i always try to tell myself experience really doesn't gaurantee me anything. you are always one second away from disaster. if could be a med error, a missed assessment, something you said to a family/patient/coworker, someone aspirating a med, a fall during a transfer. anything can happen at any time.

imagine that you're new to nursing. the new have to run the qauntlet. it is a form of a professional survival test. if you are unsuited to do this job, it will be so miserable you'll have to quit.

i know there are times when i needed a resource nurse and some nurses are nice about it, others nasty. i'd like the newbies to remember me as a nice guy who was there to help. otherwise, wouldn't this be a miserable job?

bless the new folks, and it is incumbent on all of us to help them develop their best practice and learn to carry the workload. i am always pleasantly direct with them if there are any quality or performance issues. we all had to learn somewhere.

[NursStudent1980]

Do I think that all nurses are unkind to students and new grads? Definitely not! I have been able to work with many wonderful nurses as a student and will never be able to thank them enough for sharing their knowledge and patience. HOWEVER! as a student, I have been on the receiving end of a nurse playing the "blame the student" game. I have been yelled at, talked down to and treated like I'm less than human. All by a small group of nurses. I am not the type of student who thinks I know better than any nurse on the floor, I've always felt that a nurse with 20 years experience has a lot more to offer than someone with "book smarts". And again, while the majority of the nurses I have been placed with have been wonderful, that small group of nurses who are rude and hurtful to students "because they can" give everyone a bad name. I agree that it is wrong that the entire profession gets a bad name because of this. Unfortunately, people like to generalize. What I haven't figured out yet is why it is only nursing that gets the bad rap when employees in other fields act in the same manner and have nothing said about it...

[Diahni]

Originally Posted by NursStudent1980

Do I think that all nurses are unkind to students and new grads? Definitely not! I have been able to work with many wonderful nurses as a student and will never be able to thank them enough for sharing their knowledge and patience. HOWEVER! as a student, I have been on the receiving end of a nurse playing the "blame the student" game. I have been yelled at, talked down to and treated like I'm less than human. All by a small group of nurses. I am not the type of student who thinks I know better than any nurse on the floor, I've always felt that a nurse with 20 years experience has a lot more to offer than someone with "book smarts". And again, while the majority of the nurses I have been placed with have been wonderful, that small group of nurses who are rude and hurtful to students "because they can" give everyone a bad name. I agree that it is wrong that the entire profession gets a bad name because of this. Unfortunately, people like to generalize. What I haven't figured out yet is why it is only nursing that gets the bad rap when employees in other fields act in the same manner and have nothing said about it...

Hi ya,
Hazing goes on everywhere. I was a journalist in a news room - whenever there was some kind of real life maintenance problem, the sales guys would say "Let editorial deal with it" and then laugh. The writers were verbally smart, so the sales folks had to pull rank by describing them as not knowing how to hammer a nail in. Meanwhile, I'm a girl that does her own plumbing and her own car. I've heard it happening in lots of fields. Even though the term says "eat their young," it's really about the established and experienced people pulling rank on the less experienced.
Absolutely, not everybody does it. But you will probably hear more about it from nurses for the same reason allnurses.com has a quarter million subscribers. And at any time, I notice there are even more "guests" than subscribers. If anybody knows of such a strong site for another profession, I'd like to know, but I don't think one exists. Can you imagine a bunch of marine recruits complaining to each other online about how they're getting yelled at in basic training? It wouldn't happen. I think it's healthy to talk about it especially if somebody who does haze inexperienced nurses reads it, and reconsiders its effect. All it does is make somebody else feel bad. It certainly doesn't make the person on the receiving end think, "Gee, when my skills are better, people won't yell at me so much." They're more likely to just think, "What a rhymes-with-witch." I had a hospital employee learn over to me when I was a student after such an encounter, and say, "So where does she park her broom?" No matter what the rank of a hospital employee, I think there are more people out there with the sensitivity to know eating anybody doesn't do squat. It's just mean. So rant on. Nurses rock!
Diahni
P.S. My motto is "You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar," though it's hard to always do this.