Dealing with competitiveness, cliques...

SRNALola · Nov 21, 2013

I recently started anesthesia school and am loving everything I'm learning. One caveat - most of my classmates are highly competitive, spending most of their time trying to show off or are very cliquey. I assumed that though I'd be working hard, I would make some life long friends along the way. I'm an open minded person and have never had issues making friends wherever I went to school or worked. Did any of you guys experience this when going through school? How did you handle it?

elijahvegas, ASN, RN, EMT-P · Nov 21, 2013

Hi I just recently started an anesthesia program and am disheartened to find that many of my classmates are cliquey or very competitive. Though everyone is seemingly nice, I feel like I have no real friends in the program. I guess I made the assumption that though I'd be working hard, I would make friends along the way. I've never had a problem making friends wherever I went to school and worked. Is anyone else having this issue? How are you dealing with it?

I'm not a srna, still in regular ol' nursing school but I'm no stranger to competitiveness and cliques in the program or other programs I've been in. I'm generally competitive by nature and I'd imagine so some extent you must be too if youve managed to make it into a program.

The way I see it, you'll eventually fall into your own group, whether by choice or by circumstance. You'll either click with someone who's equally as competitive as you (that's usually my case) someone that matches your personality type, or someone that has trouble with the same subject matter/techniques as you do.

For now, keep focused and make sure you keep yourself in the game. You worked hard to make it as far as you did, and I'm sure its more important to you to remain in the program than finding some comrades along then way, although I know how important finding a support system of some kind can be in such a stressful environment.

All in due time. god speed and good luck :)

UABsleeperSRNA · Nov 21, 2013

I'm in SRNA school now and yes i would agree that in general their are some Clique's and i think a lot of it at leas is people in my program who either went to school together or worked together in the past.. I think as a general statement most of the RN's that get in to CRNA school are super competitive, type A personality, and very blut.. just due to our critical care background and the situations we had to deal with on a daily basis.. which can make it difficult to make friends fast.. because we are so quick at making assumptions.. I unlike many of my classmates moved to a program and area where i knew no one and yes i have made friends.. but it was not the easiest thing.. if i could give you any advice is don't try to hard!.. i know that's easier said than done but i would say put fourth as much effort as you can.. help others when they need help! Try to maybe get in a study group.. ect.. but the main thing is just be your self and you will find your group and if not.. well that's ok to we are in school to absorb the most amount of knowledge we can in a small amount of time to better ourself, our profession and most impt. our patients not make friends.. but good luck hope everything works out for you!

detroitdano · Nov 21, 2013

When you take about 20 intelligent, highly motivated people and cage them up all week long, you know you're going to learn everyone's quirks and start being annoyed by a few now and again.

My program has cliques too. The cliques are more about who you really knew before CRNA school and befriended. There's not one person I don't get along with in my class, but some people I barely talk to; others we talk every day. No need to be everyone's bestie, you'll graduate in two years and probably not see any of them again anyhow.

Thankfully we don't have anyone in our class that gloats about their achievements. We try to give each other encouragement and advice, not make others feel bad. Some people are more vocal about asking for help while others never admit their shortcomings until it becomes a major issue, but like I said, when you've got a large group of type A's you're gonna get the full spectrum of personalities.

mh0712, MSN, RN · Nov 28, 2013

Not an SRNA but I feel your pain. I am hopefully starting CRNA school in August and am determined to not be one of those people who are cliquish. I helped a lot through undergrad and plan on being just as helpful in grad school. My advice is find a friend and confide in them, then study together and make sure each other passes. My best friend through RN school was twice my age, but we got each other through it, then BSN, then ICU experience, and are now applying to CRNA school together. I wish you the best and hope it works out for you.

missnurse01, MSN, RN · Dec 31, 2013

My class doesn't have this going on. Sure some people annoy others a little, but it is personality differences, not us trying to gloat or outdo each other. I don't know if my program picked nice people or what, but we have heard of other programs where there is a lot of student arguing and the staff is also not friendly or helpful. I am grateful it isn't like that here. We all try to help each other out and try to smile a lot, lol. Granted this is only the first semester, but it has been known that this is the more didactically challenging.

I_See_You_RN · Dec 31, 2013

I go to a clicky school. My advice... just get over it, lol. It may suck at first because you may have moved to a new area like i did,.. no friends live close by,... so its a little isolating at first. Keep up with your old friends over the phone and make time every now and then for them to visit. When you get to clinicals its a whole lot better because you'll make friends easily with all the people who already work in the OR or students from other schools who are not competing with you or just have less up their butts .

An alternative to my method, probably the more socially acceptable, is to join in on study groups. YOU break the ice and ask if you could join in or invite someone to your own. Or just start making random convo in class till you find someone with a personality like yours.

In the end,.. remember that this is only two years, the people in your class won't make you or break you, and who wants clicky, competitive, stuck up friends anyway. Those competitive (empty barrels) make the most noise.. so they probably couldn't help you academically anyway. Think about that.

manusko · Dec 31, 2013

My class doesn't have this going on. Sure some people annoy others a little but it is personality differences, not us trying to gloat or outdo each other. I don't know if my program picked nice people or what, but we have heard of other programs where there is a lot of student arguing and the staff is also not friendly or helpful. I am grateful it isn't like that here. We all try to help each other out and try to smile a lot, lol. Granted this is only the first semester, but it has been known that this is the more didactically challenging.[/quote']
It was at about the end of my first year where everyone started to get on each others nerves. Things sometimes seem more "fair" for others than yourself. Just have to remember at those moments that anesthesia school isn't fair.

missnurse01, MSN, RN · Jan 1, 2014

yup I am definitely waiting for things to dissolve. But when our first year is up, we only see each other on Friday's at that point, so hopefully we will last another 8 months!

Trauma Columnist · Jan 1, 2014

Merged duplicate threads. Good luck in school.

manusko · Jan 1, 2014

yup I am definitely waiting for things to dissolve. But when our first year is up we only see each other on Friday's at that point, so hopefully we will last another 8 months![/quote']
It can also get bad if people want to work in your clinical site that has limited spots. My classmates were trying to show each other up to impress the anesthesia group.