Attitudes of New Nurses

[NextGen]

Where are all of the attitudes of new nurses coming from? Did they teach you this in nursing school? Did your preceptors teach you this? I am stunned every day to hear new nurses confidently saying things to patients that do not make any sense. The new nurse seems to think that as long as they say it with confidence, it will somehow make sense.

For example, the patient and their family asked about the medication doses the patient was receiving. At home, the patient took different doses than what was prescribed in the hospital. The new nurse said "The reason the dose is different is that the doctors do not like to give you too many medications while in the hospital". Nurses are not doctors and do not speak for doctors. SHE SHOULD HAVE SAID "I will talk to the doctor about your concerns and get back to you". The medication was for seizures and the patient had not had a seizure since the dose was increased.

I believe patients when they tell me that they asked the nurse before me to follow up on something and nothing was ever done. The new nurses do not even document that the question was raised by the patient.

NEW NURSES: You are not doctors. Just because you say something with confidence, does not make what you said believable. That patient is your responsibility. You do not need to "like them". You do need to take care of them.

Any other nurses out there have experience with new nurse attitudes?

[suga_junkie, BSN, RN]

Wow, way to make sweeping generalisations about a large and diverse group of people. Yes, I'm sure all new nurses think they know everything and act recklessly without consideration of the consequences. Here- I'll make my own sweeping generalisations on the "attitudes of older, experienced nurses". I might say: They are resistant to change and prefer to do things "the way they've always done them because that works" whilst disregarding evidence based practice. Particularly if a young, newer nurse tries to suggest a better way to do things. How does that feel?

Any other new nurses out there have experience with older nurse attitudes?

[SleeepyRN]

Where are all of the attitudes of new nurses coming from? Did they teach you this in nursing school? Did your preceptors teach you this? I am stunned every day to hear new nurses confidently saying things to patients that do not make any sense. The new nurse seems to think that as long as they say it with confidence, it will somehow make sense.

For example, the patient and their family asked about the medication doses the patient was receiving. At home, the patient took different doses than what was prescribed in the hospital. The new nurse said “The reason the dose is different is that the doctors do not like to give you too many medications while in the hospital”. Nurses are not doctors and do not speak for doctors. SHE SHOULD HAVE SAID “I will talk to the doctor about your concerns and get back to you”. The medication was for seizures and the patient had not had a seizure since the dose was increased.

I believe patients when they tell me that they asked the nurse before me to follow up on something and nothing was ever done. The new nurses do not even document that the question was raised by the patient.

NEW NURSES: You are not doctors. Just because you say something with confidence, does not make what you said believable. That patient is your responsibility. You do not need to “like them”. You do need to take care of them.

Any other nurses out there have experience with new nurse attitudes?

Wow. Highly inflammatory. Not to mention the fact that I've seen SOME experienced nurses do the exact same thing as your example. It concerns me that you think it is acceptable to speak to someone that way. I hope it was a momentary lapse in judgment on your part to post such a comment and that you are not really as obnoxious in person as your post suggests you are. Quite the irony exists in the title of this post regarding "attitudes" don't you think?

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

Whoa, let's back up here. Your complaint was that the nurse in question explained a medication to a patient. She may have spoken to the physician already and that physician may have said that the intent was to decrease the medications the patient was on while in the hospital-- not just because he was in the hospital, but because changing antiseizure meds IS best done while under observation for some patients. Perhaps not. Perhaps you misunderstood. Whatever, it wouldn't be the first time that a nurse of any experience level said something you yourself may not have chosen to say.

HOWEVER, and this is a biggie, you are wrong when you say the nurse "cannot speak for the physician" regarding medications because medications are prescribed by physicians. As a blanket statement this is wrong on many levels, the most obvious of which being that we are the ones who do most of the medication teaching. Of course it behooves the nurse to have a good grasp of the rationales for the meds, refer the patient to the physician for medical-only questions, and to chart a patient concern. These she apparently failed to do. I don't agree with your assumption that all such communications are inappropriate...nor are inaccurate ones limited to new nurses.

[SleeepyRN]

Wow, way to make sweeping generalisations about a large and diverse group of people. Yes, I'm sure all new nurses think they know everything and act recklessly without consideration of the consequences. Here- I'll make my own sweeping generalisations on the "attitudes of older, experienced nurses". I might say: They are resistant to change and prefer to do things "the way they've always done them because that works" whilst disregarding evidence based practice. Particularly if a young, newer nurse tries to suggest a better way to do things. How does that feel?

Any other new nurses out there have experience with older nurse attitudes?

I looked at OPs other posts (a whole whopping 6) and saw that it was only 3 years that he/she even began nursing school. All I can do is laugh and shake my head at this post.

[workingharder]

It may or may not be appropriate to note that the OP is also a new nurse.

[Sylwunia]

I work with many older experienced unhappy and negative nurses who slam their stuff around but does that cause me to believe that every single older nurse behaves like this? Absolutely not, your attitude towards younger nurses perfectly explains the quote "nurses eat their young."

[Ikikaeru]

As a newish Rn (was an lpn as well) I found the poster to be a little abrasive. This eat your young attitude is pretty sad IMO. She may have been wrong or right, we don't know the whole story (and the poster may not either). It would have been a good teaching opportunity for you (though with the attitude maybe not) . Maybe your just venting here but it should have been stated much better. teaching about medications is a part of the job like the above poster stated. With the statement "The patient is your responsibility. You don't need to like them." Sounds like you need to brush up on some bedside manners. No you won't like all your patients but I've enjoyed helping the vast majority, even a lot of the complainers once you actually connect with.

Last part of my rant is that just because some has experience it dosent make them a good nurse . Attitude IS important, especially a good one. I've seen nurses on the job who have worked for years that I would never want as my nurse, and brand new ones that I would pick hands down every time. But hey that's just my opinion.

[HeatherGurl84]

My first job out of nursing school, I had an older nurse who was suppose to be a "mentor" ask me "Did you even go to nursing school?" in front of other colleagues when I simply asked about something I didn't understand. She then proceeded to call me STUPID as I walked away in tears. Been there with the nurses "eat their young" theory. We should want to encourage each other, whether you are new or experienced, not break their spirit for nursing.

[Ikikaeru]

I agree heather, I've been very lucky where I work to have a great partner that I work with that is always helpful and we hav each others back.(we always have the same shifts, they pair nurses up on scheduling to help things run smoother). Hopefully one day the admin start to see that the eat your young crowd is driving out good nurses and they get rid of them. Sorry to hear about your exp. hope you got a different mentor and didn't have to stick it out with that one!

[klone, MSN, RN]

OP, I think your post was kind of rude and grossly generalized. I also think it's funny, if indeed you are yourself a new nurse.

[OCNRN63, RN]

As a newish Rn (was an lpn as well) I found the poster to be a little abrasive. This eat your young attitude is pretty sad IMO. She may have been wrong or right, we don't know the whole story (and the poster may not either). It would have been a good teaching opportunity for you (though with the attitude maybe not) . Maybe your just venting here but it should have been stated much better. teaching about medications is a part of the job like the above poster stated. With the statement "The patient is your responsibility. You don't need to like them." Sounds like you need to brush up on some bedside manners. No you won't like all your patients but I've enjoyed helping the vast majority, even a lot of the complainers once you actually connect with.

Last part of my rant is that just because some has experience it dosent make them a good nurse . Attitude IS important, especially a good one. I've seen nurses on the job who have worked for years that I would never want as my nurse, and brand new ones that I would pick hands down every time. But hey that's just my opinion.

This isn't a case of NETY. This is a case of NNETY (new nurse eating their young).