Why do you think so many healthcare workers are mean and arrogant?

Nurses Relations

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Not all of course, but many physicians, nurses, and other health care workers have mean and arrogant personalities.

Why do you think this is?

Is it that....

1. You have to be very competitive to get into medical or nursing school. Competitive people are often cut-throat.

2. The stress of the job causes workers to be cranky and mean.

3. Unhappy people act arrogant to feel better about their lives.

4. Workers learn to be mean from other coworkers. It's a conformity thing.

5. Most people in the world these days lack manners.

Any opinions?

Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

See... THIS is why I will never work in the OR. Never, never, never.

I mean DANG, Med/Surge is stressful enough, but one of the things that has always stressed me out more than anything is rude, mean doctors. In Med/Surge, while we still have to deal with nastiness sometimes, it's in small spurts, not for large portions of the day!

I've been lucky in my new job, in that regard. Most of the doctors, even the ones who have "reputations".. have been pretty decent to me.

Specializes in Med-Surg/Peds/O.R./Legal/cardiology.

That's the thing. In the O.R., you LIVE with them all day everyday. They don't just come through, make rounds and leave.

Specializes in IM/Critical Care/Cardiology.

Mike,

yeah I'd say lack of good manners in all walks of life are getting worse. It takes work to think maybe they are having a bad day,or am I? :idea:

Specializes in Accepted...Master's Entry Program, 2008!.
Not all of course, but many physicians, nurses, and other health care workers have mean and arrogant personalities.

Why do you think this is?

Is it that....

1. You have to be very competitive to get into medical or nursing school. Competitive people are often cut-throat.

2. The stress of the job causes workers to be cranky and mean.

3. Unhappy people act arrogant to feel better about their lives.

4. Workers learn to be mean from other coworkers. It's a conformity thing.

5. Most people in the world these days lack manners.

Any opinions?

Hm....My personal opinion is that it is because the insurance companies *in general* want "yes people".

Much of the trend in healthcare is driven by insurance. Insurance companies want doctors that say yes to them and are willing to follow their rules. They do not want doctors that argue Pill A is better for the patient than Pill B, they want doctors that say "OK, I will use Pill B".

This results in a lot of "technicians" getting trained, not the most personable people.

I personally know a lot of former doctors that retired early (my own father being one) or left the field entirely because of this.

Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

I think doctors were more arrogant in past eras. They used to not even tell a person their own prognosis honestly, they used to just expect the patient to obey orders without questioning, they used to arrogantly deny patients pain medicine, they used to treat everyone like children.

Nurses used to order patients and families around, hospitals wouldn't let mothers stay overnight with their young children, strict visiting rules were enforced, and the public was expected to obey.

So, I don't agree that things have gotten worse.

Specializes in LTC.

Mike, when I read the OP it prompted a really knee-jerk response in me and it wasn't a nice one. I'm, however, glad I read the rest of the thread. You sound really burned out on OR. I've never been attracted to the OR and had only a limited rotation in LPN school but I did hear stories about surgeons that liked to eat nurses and students for lunch. Sounds like a universal phenomenon, actually.

I agree with Angie O'Plasty, too - maybe it's time for a change in specialties?

Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

While I do think that these descriptions fit in each walk in life, I can say that it happens in the health care profession because of the competitive nature of entering into these programs, graduating, taking certifying exams, only to find out that the general concensus is "Who cares what you do as long as no one finds out?"

I was TOTALLY turned off to college and the whole scene of fighting to enter these nursing programs. I happen to enjoy education because I like learning-that is it. Learning in a formal setting does allow us to challenge our minds, giving us activities to discover more on subjects that we would have never explored before. But, while I was attending nursing school, I did NOT enjoy my learning experience because of the petty competitiveness of people. Even though I graduated top of the class, I did not want to be awarded for it, because in my eye, it didn't mean anything. What about the others that worked hard with impossible situations, such as discovering that you have cancer in the middle of the semester, a death in the family, losing your job, etc... The entire time from entrance to exit, we had to worry about the grades, the stupid meaningless assignments, etc, and I said to myself (and meant it), that after leaving this, I would never go back to school again except for personal growth and development.

Then, when working, this same issue can apply. Now, it is not just nursing, but, it is everywhere from wall street to janitors. What I learned from this experience is to be happy and grateful for the good things I have in my life...my husband, son, friends, health, and my mind. I decided to work to live, not live to work.

Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.

I find that there are mean and arrogant people in all walks of life, no matter their occupation, or whether or not they even work at all.

Mean people have forgotten or never learned how to be compassionate towards their fellow man.

Arrogant, for the most part, are people with a low self-esteem who make themselves feel better by belittling others.

I don't know that its just healthcare workers. I've seen arrogance in people of many different occupations.

I think its everywhere, not specific to just one field.

I think people become that way for different reasons. Some are born or raised with a sense of entitlement, some are stressed, some are misunderstood, and some are just having bad days; I am sure that there are many more reasons that I can't think of for the way people act as they do.

But again, its that way everywhere.

I agree,:madface: I think many people working in retail nowadays are arrogant.

Specializes in being a Credible Source.

at the age of 43, i think i've been around long enough to state that i perceive an ever-increasing lack of respect and civility in our population.

to the extent that the op is correct (my only experience comes as a patient but i have seen it), i think it's a mixture of:

1) mean, arrogant people getting into positions with limited accountability (athletes, surgeons, ceos, high-end chefs, actors, etc ... pretty much anybody who's irreplaceable)

2) the feces-follows-gravitational-pull principle means that their attitudes get handed off to those below them.

3) then begins the lateral effects, otherwise known as misery loves company.

4) number 2 repeats itself over and over all the way down the chain.

add to all of that the unique stress of the medical environment and it just gets that much worse. patients are scared and vulnerable and just add to the problem.

overall, though, i still think it's a symptom of the lack of compassion and civility in our culture.

as the bumper stickers so eloquently state:

mean people suck

Specializes in ER, Occupational Health, Cardiology.

Expand those same thoughts to include drivers, and road rage. It is indicative of how we have devolved to allow the disrespect of everyone from our President to our next door neighbor (and even our family members).

Self-respect fosters respect for others. Self-respect cannot be demanded or bought, and certainly cannot be achieved by climbing onto the backs of people that a person has "knocked down" physically or verbally, or by any other aggressive means. I think this is the element that is missing in most professions, and in so many people, today.

Specializes in Accepted...Master's Entry Program, 2008!.
....It is indicative of how we have devolved to allow the disrespect of everyone from our President to our next door neighbor (and even our family members)......

It's a two way street, though. The President certainly doesn't respect the people, so....

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