Ah yes the struggle between young and old, experienced versus brand new.
*which btw, I kinda see myself as being in the middle lol, not really totally novice, but no, not tenured, been a nurse for almost 6 years, but a RN for 2*
So yesterday I had a patient with hematuria, bad hematuria, passing huge clots, etc... Me (newer nurse) asks another nurse (very experienced) to kindly grab the foley/CBI set up as I'm inserting the IV because the patient is in extreme pain/bladder is hard and distended (the patient is at risk for bladder rupture.)
Experienced nurse says why am I going to put in a foley? Do you really think he needs a foley? She then tells me that he has prostate CA (which wasn't true, he actually had prostate surgery recently)
10 minutes later, in comes the attending, takes one look at the patient and says, this guy needs a CBI set up NOW! I wanted so badly to go back to that nurse and say SEE, I. TOLD. YOU. SO! but that would'nt have been right.
Not wanting to generalize and label all experienced nurses, but I often times feel that older nurses discredit how much we know. I always feel like they think it's their way or no way and that you are a know it all when you don't listen to them.
Especially some older nurses I work with have the attitude that I need to be listening to them or else I'm going to crash and burn, and if I try to interject my two cents they label me as hard-headed and know it all ish. I mean aren't I a sound nurse? Sound enough to practice? Sound enough to make informed decisions? and say yes or no to your advice?
Then you have some newer nurses who think they've got it all handled. New grad versus new grad is actually an issue too! Where I work they (management) try to act as though the nurses with a few more months of experience are so much more capable of handling triage or being in charge? Like really? what is really the difference in experience between someone who has been a nurse for 2 years and one with 1 year of experience? That varies dramatically from nurse to nurse.
Some of the new grads I work with are just way too know it all-ish, too aggressive, too anxious, and bossy.
You don't have to act like a know it all to be someone who actually knows alot.
I just think alot of experienced nurses undermine the intelligience of newer nurses, and too many new grads think they're the best thing since sliced bread, and VICE VERSA as well!
It's not always the amount of time someone has the word nurse behind their name that determines their competency or incompetency.
