Dealing with mean nurses?

[kriiiissie]

I've been working as a LVN for 8 months and I still have lots of questions and sometimes I go weeks without getting a shift. So whenever I go back to work, there are a few nurses that are rude, mean and very unhelpful. I understand that it must be frustrating for them, but I can't figure out how to deal with them!

I've been nice. I've been confident. I've kept quiet. I've been chatty.

It's bad enough that I go to work feeling insecure and anxious because I'm still learning how to do this job, but with grumpy nurses that are supposed to help me? Augh! Any advice?

[abbyann]

I don't understand why that is, but it seems like that will always be the case in nursing. Some environments breed worse behavior (like LTC). In my case, I had one nurse who wanted me out because she was per diem (her choice, she wanted a higher hourly rate) and I was full-time. She really scoped out my weaknesses and exploited them, so I blame myself in a lot of ways that I was not stronger from the beginning. No matter what I did, though, she would have found some angle to use to get rid of me.

There's really nothing you can do if they're just nasty and rude. That's the nature of nursing, unfortunately. They were probably all treated badly as new nurses and that is they way they responded. As a per diem, you don't really have a chance to build good working relationships with any of the nicer nurses in your workplace.

Are you working per diem because you can't find a permanent position, or is it by choice? Are there opportunities for permanent positions in your area?

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

There's nothing you can do to make coworkers like you. Just be yourself and do your job to the best of your ability. In addition, if you already know that a nurse is mean, you might want to seek out someone else to get your questions answered.