What is the environment like at your workplace? Do you like your co-workers?

Nurses Relations

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One of my friends, a relatively recent grad, has been working at a hospital for about a year now and hates her co-workers. She complains about how "catty" her co-workers are.

One the flip side:

One of my aunts has been a nurse for about 20 years now and loves her co-workers at the hospital she works at but always complains about how the supervisors are breathing down her neck and she feels like she has to walk on eggshells.

I get along fine with my co-workers. My secret? I keep my expectations of coworkers realistic.

I don't expect everyone to be my friend, but to maintain warm but professional relationships.

Realistic means accepting that people are going to have bad days too.

Do your job, help out and avoid the gossip mill.

I like most of the people I work with. Management seems fair to me, although others don't. Just follow their rules and its good. I guess I've worked at terrible places and appreciate where I am.

Specializes in LTC, Hospice, Case Management.
I put it like this. The reason why your cousin can't stand her co-workers is because she's new and most nurses hate new nurses....Hence: Nurses eat their young.. Some of the most ignorant people in the hospital, you would think are the patients, but it's not, are the nurses. Some nurses are just down right angry people walking the earth. I always use to question why they ever became nurses in the first place. They know who they are. Aren't nurses suppose to be kind, understanding and loving toward their fellow man/woman? That's a joke. Another reason why some nurses are angry toward new grads/nurses is because someone was mean to them when they first started and they forgot how horrible it felt, so they continue the chain of abuse. I never let it bother me because I knew one day I would get them back and I did.

Now, as for your Aunt who was a nurse for 20 years. She's probably has been at the same health care facility for a long time, along with her co-workers and they are all friends, or they just learned to tolerate each other and to get along. Ask your aunt the next time you see her if she is/was one of those nurses who bullied new grads.

I can proudly state I have never bullied a new grad/nurse, or even an experienced nurse who was new to our facility. As a matter of fact, I stopped several nurses from bullying an agency nurse who came to our facility to help us out with wound care. How stupid can some people get to bully someone who came to help them?

Tsk, tsk, tsk.....So not true. Why dump all experienced nurses into one big group? And where did you get the cousin from (OP never said anything about a cousin) and what assumptions you make about an aunt you don't even know!

To the OP - I bet you could ask nearly anyone in nearly any profession and some people are gonna love their coworkers and others are gonna hate their coworkers. This is human nature and in all fairness, there could be an endless possibilities about WHY this occurs in any one place.

As for nurses eating their young- some men & women are just B:+€$'s . Either you are kind and caring and secure or not.

I worked at one home health that was a snake pit, they constantly kept things stirred up and if someone wasn't doing something wrong that they could nail them for, they would set them up.

And I've worked at some places where everyone was nice, some like family.

Now I work with people who seem to just be running on auto pilot......they are not concerned about getting personal with others, but are very civil. That seems to work best.

Specializes in Medical Oncology, Alzheimer/dementia.

I don't socialize with co-workers outside of work. I don't want to know every detail about their spouse, kids, pets, pregnancy, new house, how drunk they got,etc... none of that. I have some trust issues. I don't trust many people. I get along just fine with co-workers in the workplace. When I was a school nurse, I heard one secretary say about me to the other secretary "she's so damn professional, it's disgusting." I've always been like that. Sometimes it looks like fun when everyone is laughing and planning things, but I'm just cautious that way. I don't need the drama, I have enough family for that.

Longtime nurse here. My experience has been that 7/10 places I have worked had a good amount of toxicity. For the other 3 out of 10, well everyone pretty much worked together, making the already stressful jobs better than endurable. Too bad the overall stats that I know weren't as good as the 33% to which I speak of with pride and joy.

Specializes in Pedi.
I get along fine with my co-workers. My secret? I keep my expectations of coworkers realistic.

I don't expect everyone to be my friend, but to maintain warm but professional relationships.

Realistic means accepting that people are going to have bad days too.

Do your job, help out and avoid the gossip mill.

I think this is an excellent point. I always got along with my coworkers but I also viewed the relationship for what it was- we were coworkers, not friends. That's not to say I wasn't friendly with some of my co-workers or that there aren't some who I still consider my friends even when I don't work there anymore but, by and large, if I were to talk about these people I would say "coworker" and not "friend". There were several people who I worked with who felt that many of our co-workers were "cliquey" because they were friends with each other and not everyone. I viewed that for what it was... several girls who lived close to each other and had kids of the same age did mommy and me groups with their kids together. I didn't view that as being cliquey... I am younger than them and childless, so they weren't excluding me by doing this.

I am pleasant to my coworkers... by and large what I want is to go to work, do my job and go home. I leave you alone and you leave me alone. That's it. :yes: (I also work in a different environment outside of the hospital now.)

Specializes in Med-Surg, Neuro, Respiratory.

My coworkers are amazing. We can chat not only about work things but our personal lives as well (within reason, of course). I like how we are from different backgrounds, ages, and levels of work experience. It really makes our conversations interesting and brings in multiple perspectives. These people truly make my job more enjoyable.

I have worked a lot of places across the country over the years and the best I can hope for is that we work fairly well together and that there are only a few bad apples each night. it varies. unless there are a lot of guys on, I know it will be drama to some degree every where I work. That being said it also depends where I am working. a lot more drama when I do icu, as that seems to draw high strung people. When I work ER, aaahhhh, can be more laid back.

Specializes in CDI Supervisor; Formerly NICU.

I love my career. I like a handful of my coworkers, have no respect for quite a few. I despise my current job.

As to the coworkers, I'm not there to make friends. They are wholly irrelevant except as needed for tasks. Tasks is all some of them are good for, and some not even for that. Some, I'll hold in my heart for the rest of my life.

I'm a nurse for the money and stability, it wasn't some lifelong calling. I do however have a passion for my 500g patients, and go above and beyond for their benefit. I'd do this whether I was working with angels or devils.

A job is a means to an end, as are coworkers. Neither define me, nor do they define my career.

Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.
One of my friends, a relatively recent grad, has been working at a hospital for about a year now and hates her co-workers. She complains about how "catty" her co-workers are.

I have found that people like this, they are usually the common denominators.

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