Favoritism in nursing?

Nurses LPN/LVN

Published

Hello, I work in a rehab center for the last 15 years. And have never saw favoritism this obvious!!

This nurse who works the floor and the don are very close. This don has brought other family members and friends to fill positions! Conflict of interest?

Apparently a position was created for this Lpn a admission position 11-7 pm mon-th no weekends without being posted. A lot of senior nurses were upset about it being they feel they have more experience being this girl has only worked there 2 years and a recent graduate as well.

Also, this weekend are census was low and she called in at 2 am to ask to be cancelled. When the supervision stated, there were no instructions to cancel, she called the don at 2 am. In which the don called and said to cancel her. Leaving us swamped with no desk nurse.

We are getting tired of the favoritism. we have already went to the administrator who is the acting hr at the present time about the made up position!!

Has this ever happened to any of you and how did u go about it?

Sincerely frustrated!!

As this occurs in virtually all professions, I don't see why you are singling nursing out.

I haven't worked anywhere else this had occurred. I only know nursing!!

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Specializes in Operating Room.

It occurs in other professions and more so than in nursing and it gets really ugly.

Specializes in Hospice, ONC, Tele, Med Surg, Endo/Output.
Favoritism is present everywhere you go...it seems to be the norm. Being the traveler I always see it since I'm the outsider and you can either call them out on their behavior and suffer the consequences or choose to ignore it and go about your business. In life and at work we pick our battles.

Exactly, which is why it is so nice being a hospice nurse now, though I was actually relieved as a traveler that no one wanted to be close to or compete with me. Now, i am in my car, no manager is in my face, i see no one sucking up to management, and i am not stuck in a hot building all day working 12 hour shifts. I just love my low drama job and adore not having co-workers to be upset about.

I am dealing with rampant favoritism at work at this time too. It's literally a handful of people who are the favorites and the rest are not even treated fairly assignment wise. I've learned that these types of situations really do work themselves out badly in the end, and after some time sooner or later justice prevails lol. I'm already starting to see the threads unravel at my job between the favorites and non favorites and even between favorites, whoa! all who were once friends , now it's all being unwrapped and all it needs is some more marinating and the cover will blow lol.

Anyway like someone said you have to pick and chose your battles. I tried to throw a hint at the manager (who knows there is favoritism and has been asked by other RN's to clear it up) by asking for a more comprehensive assignment (hint/hint, stop your ANM's from throwing me to the crappiest assignment 95% of the time)

At this point I see nothing will change. I plan on moving on anyway, by 2013 hopefully I'm out of there. They can keep their favoritism and all. And not to be sour, but did I mention that most of the favorites are some of the weakest, laziest nurses, go figure!

It'll all work itself out in the end, I've seen it too many times before.

Specializes in Lvn to RN, new grad med/surg.

I have seen this too, at my previous job. Not only for people who are related (I second that *yikes*) but just for managers that play "favorites". They are usually the laziest, most unprofessional nurses, who used to get called for the extra shifts when hours were cut. It really makes for poor morale and one of the reasons I eventually quit.

I had one job where a guy I knew got a raise when I was told that they didn't have money for raises. I think it was mostly because this guy talked football with our manager.

Of course, that was before I worked in healthcare.

Specializes in Pulmonary, Transplant, Travel RN.

With regards to favoritism, you have two options:

1. Get used to it and learn how to not let it upset you.

2. Get out of nursing.

I guess there is a third option too, stay in nursing but be miserable but you get my jest.

Yes, there is favoritism in nursing. Its not going away. I haven't seen anyone chime in with the overused and very predictable response of "Favoritism is everywhere, nursing doesn't have a monopoly on it" (yet), but that does not apply here. Nursing does not have a monopoly on it, but dang if it isn't the majority share holder of it. No matter how you slice it, nursing often turns into a popularity contest, and those who are the most "popular" at the time get certain benefits.

Question is, since the problem isn't going anywhere, what are you going to do with it? This is a test of your character. How you respond to it will have little to no effect on the people who you are upset with. Their paths will not be swayed one direction or the other by you. On the other hand, get too caught up in it and act poorly..........well, the path you are on could change dramatically.

So, you have to decide: Am I here to teach these people a lesson, or am I here to care for my patients and make a living for myself? You already mentioned the saying you like "Do your eight and skate", so..........definitely apply that to this one.

Specializes in Pulmonary, Transplant, Travel RN.
As this occurs in virtually all professions, I don't see why you are singling nursing out.

Ooops. Spoke too soon.

I disagree. I've worked in other fields and never saw the drama/favoritism at the level I've seen it get to in nursing. I've said it a million times, and it gets said on this board daily: Working in nursing makes me feel like I am back in high school again.

I never said that once while I worked as a cook or when I was a landscaping supervisor. Well.......maybe I said it a couple times when I was a cook but no where near as much as I do now.

Oh yeah...favoritisim, nepotism and all isms you can think of exist in nursing. I once worked in a nursing home where the Admin was sisters with the DON, sister in law with the MDS coordinator, ADON and Admin Assitant were brother and sister to the DON's hubby, the admissions nurse was cousin or sister in law, Staffing coordinator was the daughter of the MDS, both secretaries were the daughters of one of the unit managers, who was sister to one of the other people, the business office lady was another sister of the ADON.

It was crazy!! I mean the whole place was a family reunion. Woe unto anyone that complained about an employee to anyone. You never knew if you were talking to that employee's mom/sister/cousin/in-law.

Of course the family got all the good shifts, never got reprimanded and got the prime vacation days off while us the other peons were left to suffer in silence.

Of course this was in the south and even after I left that place, I realized most other places in the area were pretty similar in hiring practices so I could just hang in one place and shut up, or move to a different geographical area.

I am not sure how there doesn't pop up a conflict of interest.

Good luck!!

i worked in a facility like that one time here in MD....had to watch what you say....i left b/c it was just too many favortism

Ooops. Spoke too soon.

I disagree. I've worked in other fields and never saw the drama/favoritism at the level I've seen it get to in nursing. I've said it a million times, and it gets said on this board daily: Working in nursing makes me feel like I am back in high school again.

I never said that once while I worked as a cook or when I was a landscaping supervisor. Well.......maybe I said it a couple times when I was a cook but no where near as much as I do now.

I agree wholeheartedly! It is ridiculous in nursing and it is rampant. I have also switched to hospice after twenty some years in hospitals and LTC and boy, what a difference it makes!!!! I also think that favoritism DOES affect patient care, sometimes insidiously, sometimes blatantly and it is totally, completely unprofessional.

Specializes in Dialysis.
It occurs in other professions and more so than in nursing and it gets really ugly.

Considering this is a nursing forum. All the other professions are irrelevant.

It sucks but it's an unfortunate part of life. In the end, it doesn't sound like the company you work for is going to do anything about it so you need to just let it go. Do your job to the best of your ability and hope the people that are getting the easy hours/jobs/shifts will show their true colors. Karma tends to take care of these people faster than anything else.

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