I have read a few posts stating that "nurses eat their young" is okay and part of entering the nursing profession. I disagree... whole heartedly, adamently and passionately. This is never okay. Not even a little bit.
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Nursing is a very challenging profession. Effective nurses who make a difference in the lives of their patients and patient families, who collaborate with other nurses and those on a team and for those who want to affect positive change within the nursing profession use every part of who they are as a person. We use our critical thinking skills through objective and subjective data, we use our tactile skills and ability to manage complex equipment. We utilize communication skills and the ability to be compassionate and kind in the face of difficult situations... toward patients, families and the nurses who work with these patients and families. After pulling all of this together, we advocate for our patients and their families and support our fellow nurses in their feat to do the same.
In what world does a person come out of nursing school with all of the abilities above. None of us. This is a difficult process that takes time to understand and is an ability that is ever-growing with each experience and reflection about our experiences.
When there is an intention to "take someone down a notch" or "show them" what it means to be a nurse, my tolerance is null. This is called bullying behavior and it is real and not exaggerated in the minds of those experiencing it.
By exhibiting these behaviors, one chooses to prevent new nurses from asking questions and building knowledge and confidence within their practice. It is wrong and it is unkind to suppress knowledge toward these nurses and send them home feeling like failures. These new nurses are not failures. They graduated from accredited programs and passed the licensing board... just like you.
They come into our practice with current evidenced-based practice knowledge and with passion and enthusiasm for the nursing profession. How dare any seasoned nurse squelch this. We can learn from new nurses while teaching what we have learned through experience.
Furthermore, many of us learn by example. Those who use bullying behaviors are showing by example that after you take a new nurse down and then build them back to your standard (not their own), they in turn, will do the same to nurses entering the profession after them.
How do you expect our profession to grow and build the respect it deserves if you hold someone to your own personal standard?
I teach in an undergraduate nursing program. I have seen nurses I have taught go fast and furious beyond what I am doing at the bedside. I have my own agenda and am on my own path. I welcome the nurses I taught and teach to do their thing and set their own expectations. I would never set those expectations for them.
New nurses... go out into the nursing world with those idealistic views learned in nursing school. Stand by your values and never follow a crowd that does not follow your heart. You are capable of anything you want to achieve. There are those that can put a bump in your road and make your journey more difficult.
So be it. YOU are in charge of your destiny. You choose what you will accomplish and do in this world. YOU have the choice to follow in the steps of a bully or make your own path. Find those beautiful mentors that support you and in time, you will emulate them and give the same to others what they gave to you.
I know this because I have had and still have those mentors and have also had contact with those that choose bullying behaviors. I choose to emulate the beautiful people. Those are the people who have unknowinly advanced my practice... and I have chosen to provide the same support to nurses entering the profession.
Lets stick together and make the nursing profession what it is supposed to be. I support every new nurse out there. You do the same as you build your practice.
