do nurses eat their young

[teenynurse]

I have bben working for this hospital for three months and it seems like every other day I get in trouble for some paper not filled out and half the time it is not my fault, something that should have been done another shift, then I get in trouble because I gave a med iv antibiotic it was hung and dated but I forgot to sign it out on the mar the nurse who got me in trouble I saw had tons of med bllanks but I let it go, I love being a nurse but I am getting tired of feeling almst picked on, what should I do

[jade-athyst]

"Do nurses eat their young"

Yep, and it's called lateral violence.

[angelcharm]

not at all times... it depends on their mood

[emmycRN]

I am a relatively new RN and yes, I have worked with nurses who are very hard to please and get along with. It seems these people are mostly on day shift. Once on nights I found everyone to be very friendly and helpful. I have a theory that a lot of the "young eating" perception has to do with the stress and hectic work enviroment on dayshift. I think sometimes we have to go into survival mode at work and being nice to new people gets put lower on the priority list. I'm not excusing abusive behaviour, I'm just thinking that nothing happens in a vacuum, there is a reason for everything. Nurses are typically very generous people who want to share their knowledge and wisdom, so for a problem like this to be so widespread, there must be some outside factors influencing these basically good and kind individuals.

[AmyORlpn]

i'm an lpn student right now and planning to go for my lpn to rn. i'm not only nervous about being new to the field but dealing with the preceptors. any advise on dealing with those (grumpy) kind???

[teenynurse]

ok I am doing much better thanks to alot of peoples advice and writing everything in nurses notes ect. I am working with a charge nurse that excuse the expressions sucks!!!!! She is on light duty and her whole job is to do paperwork and talk to doctors and answer call lights, she will let the call light ring and ring and she has the phone right there to answer, it drives me insane, I know let it go and do my job, but I have questions and she is the nurse that should have answers but she doesnt, myself and another new nurse have to work together to figure things out and it is bad enough out there without having direction................again let it go. thanx just needed to vent

[oldshoes]

I've seen so many cranky nurses who take out their unhappiness on nurses, doctors, patients, anybody who walks into view. It's like, if they're not happy, nobody can be happy. And a lot of them feel the need to beat the enthusiasm out of new nurses. And then there are the ones who feel it's their duty to treat med students as badly as possible, which only leads to doctors who have a thing against nurses, so those nurses get even by treating med students badly!

It's not just nursing- every profession has people like that. People who bully the new person, people who feel their misery should be shared, people who want everyone to experience the same unhappiness they feel. These people suck. But there are nice people out there, too. You'll find them! Just don't let the crankies turn you into one of them!

[ZASHAGALKA, RN]

As a new nurse, you should really be about the business of finding a good mentor or two on your unit; someone always there to be your fallback person to ask 'stupid' questions of.

I'm not talking about a preceptor but a mentor, although, they could be one and the same, I'm talking about someone to support you once you are on your own.

This serves two purposes: 1. It allows you to bypass some of the negative personalities when you need input. 2. It allows you to have someone to run 'interference' for you. If your critical decisions are being reviewed, then you have a defense to justify those decisions. All the little things are just that: little.

I don't think on most units this is hard to do. For every negative person, there are also helpful and cheerful ones, as well. Seek them out.

Then, learn. Learn from the helpful ones. But, learn from the negative ones as well, especially learn what NOT to do.

Nursing is a steep learning curve. Seek out allies. They are there, too.

~faith,

Timothy.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Timothy, when I was a charge nurse, part of my role was to be a mentor. I paid special attention to the new grades. I just took on the role because I presume that to be the role. It's a shame it's not like that everywhere.

But I agree, if, and it sounds like that is a big if, there is an experienced nurse you admire, that can be one you go to.

[PANurseRN1]

But I agree, if, and it sounds like that is a big if, there is an experienced nurse you admire, that can be one you go to.

I agree; I think it's a huge if.