I don't understand this profession..

Nurses General Nursing

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I have been a nurse for almost 8 years. During these years, I have worked in many different areas at two different hospitals. What I do not understand is the bitterness, bickering, and unprofessional behavior that happens on the floor.

I think this has always been a problem, but it seems to have become increasingly worse. Yesterday I witnessed a colleague rip apart another nurse, the director, and a nursing assistant. The other nurses on the floor then began to tear into the first nurse and it became a very tense working environment.

Nurses are in such great demand and I see why. Unless you have thick skin and can take being harassed by coworkers, you will leave the profession too.

Nurses not only eat their young, but also their old, strong, weak, and whoever else.

Yesterday, I was ashamed to call myself a nurse. I am a second career nurse and I have never witnessed behavior in coworkers in my life. The incident yesterday was just one example there have been many others of nurses bring each other down.

I needed to vent about this because it makes me sad. I have a niece and nephew that both were thinking about the nursing profession while in school. Thanks heavens that I was able to talk them out of it. They deserve more out of their career.

I know what you mean. I have witnessed situations like this many times. Often, I am on the receiving end. I have even considered getting out of nursing because I am too nice. I probably should not say that about myself, but others have told me that, too.

It is true that to be any sort of a professional you have to be strong willed and confident. When you consider that these strong willed, confident persons are nurses, and that most of us are women, it makes since that we would lash out at each other. When you think about how many nurses at any one time are pre-menstral, menstral, hormonal (for whatever reason), pre-menopausal, and menopausal, you have a lot of the reason for all the problems. When you put us together in a relatively small setting (no facility is ever big enough), it is a small wonder that we don't have more shootings.

Rather than fighting amongst ourselves and running good nurses out of the profession, lets try encouraging each other more. Treat others as you would want to be treated.

Anyway, it made the night pretty miserable, but every other night I've been there has actually been fun. I've had lots of other jobs and none have been as much fun as ER nursing... Well, OK, wilderness guiding was more fun, but the pay REALLY sucks.

Wow, is it great to hear that you are enjoying your job. I'm considering dropping out, and for that reason have been very interested to read the posts about toxic work conditions. Taking crap from co-workers because they hate their lives is far worse than a grouchy patient. After all, nobody is too happy about being sick or in pain. Someone just wrote that you need really thick skin to be a nurse. Don't know how I made it through my first year. I'm just not made that way. Can anybody tell me if there are non-stressful working situations for nurses?

Diahni

Let me know if you can find any job worth having that does not involve a certain amount of stress.

Remember that thing about random acts of kindness? It works in nursing, too

I think rn/writer hit on a truth here. For some reason, a lot of 'walking wounded' are drawn into the nursing profession and the teaching profession. A lot of the unprofessional, demeaning incidents that have been talked about here occur in teaching, too. Not all nurses and teachers behave this way, but there is a significant number that do. I think being wounded can make one seek out ways to help others avoid pain, and maybe that's why nursing is so appealing. I also think sometimes when one is 'wounded', that person has not learned adaptive ways of dealing with conflict. Plus, both professions are centered around caring for others. Another problem I see is that society as a whole has unrealistic expectations for nurses and teachers. Society thinks we should place everyone else's needs far above our own needs. JMHO.

I've suspected the same. Very good thoughts.

I have been a nurse for almost 8 years. During these years, I have worked in many different areas at two different hospitals. What I do not understand is the bitterness, bickering, and unprofessional behavior that happens on the floor.

I think this has always been a problem, but it seems to have become increasingly worse. Yesterday I witnessed a colleague rip apart another nurse, the director, and a nursing assistant. The other nurses on the floor then began to tear into the first nurse and it became a very tense working environment.

Nurses are in such great demand and I see why. Unless you have thick skin and can take being harassed by coworkers, you will leave the profession too.

Nurses not only eat their young, but also their old, strong, weak, and whoever else.

Yesterday, I was ashamed to call myself a nurse. I am a second career nurse and I have never witnessed behavior in coworkers in my life. The incident yesterday was just one example there have been many others of nurses bring each other down.

I needed to vent about this because it makes me sad. I have a niece and nephew that both were thinking about the nursing profession while in school. Thanks heavens that I was able to talk them out of it. They deserve more out of their career.

I think the primary reason for this behavior is the stress. You see, everything that goes wrong is the nurses fault. Respiratory doesn't give your pt. a treatment, your fault for not making sure it's done. MRI is backed up and goes home without doing a brain scan on your patient, you get yelled at by the doctor. Because of this, nurses are mean to the ancillary staff because they know what will happen to them if things are done right. The offgoing shift gets this too if they haven't followed up on something....even if it is beyond their control. It is an environment perpetuated by everyone in the hospital. Who do the doctors question when something isn't done? The nurses. Who gets in trouble if a CNA leaves a patient on a bedpan at the end of shift and they don't catch it for 2 hours into the next shift? The nurse does...even if she didn't know that the patient was put on the bedpan at shift-change. It seems the only people in the hospital held responsible for patient care issues is the nurse. This needs to stop. Other capable employees who have direct responsibilities to the patient need to be held accountable for their misdeeds. When we have to bear everyone's crosses, including our own, we are over-tasked and bitter. Grant you, there is no excuse for laying into your fellow nurse because that is perpetuating the bad environment FOR YOURSELF. We need to lay off one another....we are all in the same boat.

Here's what has worked for me in these situations. I act the same way, whether dealing with people who seem out to get me as I do for those who are pleasant. I make it a point to give them a salutation, ask how they're doing, and say have a good weekend/night/day when they, or I, are leaving. It's amazing how many REALLY grumpy people show nicer colors in a very short time. I think that their bad behavior causes those around them to become grumpy themselves, in turn making the initiator even more miserable. This has worked well in all aspects of my life, including 25 years as a hair stylist (another hot spot for this kind of bad behavior from co-workers and customers). I started doing this when I was 16 as kind of a game, a challenge to myself to see if I could persuade this one waitress to be more pleasant to me; the results amazed me, and still do to this day. The more spiteful one is, the more of a challenge I have, I kind of enjoy it, keeps me on my toes! Of course my form of enjoyment is spending a weekend over a chessboard trying to solve problems there, so I'm prolly just weird! I know now that I wrote this I'll meet an unchangeable, cantankerous cuss that'll cause me to bang my head against the wall in defeat; :rotfl: if I do, I'll be back to ask for advice :p ~ Diane

You would be a good Nurse Manager, I imagine. I like the way you think.

:flowersfo Why, thank you.

You would be a good Nurse Manager, I imagine. I like the way you think.
Specializes in Nursing assistant.
this is very interesting to hear, Chadash - do you think it's because of a certain personality type or maybe the work makes this happen? I've noticed that many doctors cultivate a certain distance, and patients complain of this. One friend was put off when asking about the fate of her huband with lung cancer - the doctor said "Get your papers in order." Having to tell people repeatedly that their days are numbered must require a lot of distance. Since nurses "treat the person, not the disease," the stress is much worse. Pretty "up close and personal," I'd say. However, many nurses I've worked with are the greatest people in the world- just oozing humanity, the women and the men. What a conundrum.

Frankly, I think there is a number of dominant codependents who go into nursing and prey upon passive codependents, who go into healthcare hoping to help people. Then there are non-codependents who scratch their heads trying to figure out what the heck is going on... :coollook:

I too believe the root of this evil work enviroment is related to stress. Not that I condone treating co-workers badly, but I do think it does explain it. I have been a flight attendant and RN for several years and I find many similarities in these two professions - patients/passengers, doctors/pilots, hospital/airport, safety, comfort, caring....But the one thing that is distinctly converse is the RN staff vs. FA crew comparison and that is the the commaraderie in flying and NOT in nursing. We are groups of diverse people sharing a common bond under sometimes very trying times. We certainly fight the same battles. I think it is because of the extreme stress and responsibility in nursing. No one in the air is going to die without their cup of coffee (although they may act like it on their $100 ticket), while conversely someone may die or at least have serious problems without the proper nursing care. Hmmm...just my opinion.

I too believe the root of this evil work enviroment is related to stress. Not that I condone treating co-workers badly, but I do think it does explain it. I have been a flight attendant and RN for several years and I find many similarities in these two professions - patients/passengers, doctors/pilots, hospital/airport, safety, comfort, caring....But the one thing that is distinctly converse is the RN staff vs. FA crew comparison and that is the the commaraderie in flying and NOT in nursing. We are groups of diverse people sharing a common bond under sometimes very trying times. We certainly fight the same battles. I think it is because of the extreme stress and responsibility in nursing. No one in the air is going to die without their cup of coffee (although they may act like it on their $100 ticket), while conversely someone may die or at least have serious problems without the proper nursing care. Hmmm...just my opinion.

blue mesa, what an interesting contrast - the FA's "guests" are probably far more happy about being on the plane than the ones in the hospital, eh? I have about 8 months more of school before the NCLEX, and I'm getting the feeling I couldn't deal with a hospital job. To be sure, most nurses I've worked with are dear people, but they also are likely to snap at you when you know what hits the fan. Thanks for your very revealing contrast of professions!

Diahni

This thread is SO scaring me for becoming a nurse! Eeek!

However, I guess I will just have to do the best that I can, and that's about it. I will aim to be nice and professional, but won't bang my head against the walls either. My area has TONS of job openings, I would most likely just move on.

This thread is SO scaring me for becoming a nurse! Eeek!

However, I guess I will just have to do the best that I can, and that's about it. I will aim to be nice and professional, but won't bang my head against the walls either. My area has TONS of job openings, I would most likely just move on.

Mona Mona,

Don't worry, as nursing is so flexible. There's all kinds of things you can do. I met a travel nurse in St. Thomas who works there in the winter, then spend the rest of the year in Alaska renting fishing camps. I'm even thinking about nursing infomatics, which requires getting an MS. Now, the world of geeks has its own problems, but there's a lot of solitude in the work. There's a bad side and good side to every job - we've been talking about the stress, a real down side. A positive up side is the profession's flexibility. But I understand why the thread is scaring you!

Diahni

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