This vile expression implies that experienced nurses do not treat new nurses kindly. My first problem with the statement is that it’s a generalization implying that all nurses are like that. Interestingly, whenever I hear someone utter the expression, I always say, “I don’t do that. Do you?” The person making the statement always says, “Oh no, I don’t, but many others do.” I’ve never heard even one nurse own up to doing this, although some nurses are willing to indict the entire profession. Every time that statement is repeated, it causes harm and casts a dark shadow on every nurse. Say anything enough, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Please note that by moderator consensus some of the "Nurses Eat Their Young" posts will be referred to this thread where there can be an ongoing discussion, rather than several threads saying the same thing.
To students and new grads that are having problems with nurses, please take a moment to read the above link. Is it really the entire profession, every single nurse, or do you need help with one or a few nurses? We will be glad to help you in dealing with those people, but let bury the phrase "Nurses Eat Their Young".
To experienced nurses who claim our profession eats it's young, please take a moment to read it as well and think about it. Also take time to teach, be friendly and nurturing to the new nurse and students on your unit.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
i can't tell for sure but sounds like you are still a student. just be aware that the world looks very different from the somewhat protected position of being student than it does from the stand point of a new nurse. i hope you continue to work with a large majority of positive nurses. unfortunately it is the few bad eggs that can cause you excess stress in a already stressful work environment.
good luck to you, and keep the positive attitude, just don't avoid facing reality.
mahage
while it's true that being a student is very different from being a good nurse, i firmly believe that if you go out into the world expecting to find mean people, that is what you will find. and if you expect to find nice people, you will.
I am just a student, but I have observe some great nurses who I can ask anything, where more than happy to explain and help me. I have also observed a few who were just awful, went out of there way to put you down and embarass you. On one floor we had one who reported all kind of things to our professor, everything from how we did bed baths to refusing to do things we weren't sign off on. I am an older nursing student and have been around awhile, believe me I have seen the same thing in corporate world. However I think it is more serious in nursing just because of the work we do. Especially as a new nurse you are unsure of what you are doing, then you have a person sniping at you and undermining your confidence. It is really a shame, all you can do is the best you can, do your shifts go home, have a glass of wine, or a cup of tea or whatever makes you feel better and remember, this too will pass.
Well I agree with a lot of your comments but you should consider removing the connection between old and bitter. :clown:I am a fairly new nurse age 58 and am a long way from bitter! Some of the most bitter folks I have met on the floor are the late twenty somethings to thirty somethings who feel that they have done it all and seen it all, they have their competency down and sure as heck aren't gonna share it with some new upstart, especially if they are old as or older than their mama! I have also caught some garbage from a few my age, but, by and large it is not the really seasoned nurses who act like jerks, it is the half done pickles. Believe it or not I have also had a really bad experience with a young chick less than a year out of nursing school who was really teed off about having to help turn a patient. I have worked in several other fields and have never found one where there was so much throat cutting and back stabbing as in nursing. It amazes me. I try to be helpful and supportive, but have learned if someone treats me badly, not to go out of my way for them. When I do help someone who has treated me badly, I do not waste the opportunity to point out the value of team work. Yep, mama lectures sometimes!
Mahage:monkeydance:
I should clarify, when I say "old" I mean they've been in the profession for a long time, not necessarily in age.....same with elders. I don't mean elderly people, I mean elders that have been there much longer than me (like in a sorority).
I am just a student, but I have observe some great nurses who I can ask anything, where more than happy to explain and help me. I have also observed a few who were just awful, went out of there way to put you down and embarass you. On one floor we had one who reported all kind of things to our professor, everything from how we did bed baths to refusing to do things we weren't sign off on. I am an older nursing student and have been around awhile, believe me I have seen the same thing in corporate world. However I think it is more serious in nursing just because of the work we do. Especially as a new nurse you are unsure of what you are doing, then you have a person sniping at you and undermining your confidence. It is really a shame, all you can do is the best you can, do your shifts go home, have a glass of wine, or a cup of tea or whatever makes you feel better and remember, this too will pass.
I totally agree but it is still hard but I will hang in there do what I have to do and go home :)
I should clarify, when I say "old" I mean they've been in the profession for a long time, not necessarily in age.....same with elders. I don't mean elderly people, I mean elders that have been there much longer than me (like in a sorority).
Sorry, I know that age doesn't = bitterness.
No because of the the "Greater than thou attitude nurses" are actually in the 20's and 30's---like I said before I am 55 a new nurse and the nurse I am talking about is in her mid 20's very young and graduated the RN program same time as me but she was an LPN for 1 or 2 yrs prior to getting her RN
I agree I am a 55 yo senior in nursing school, 3 months to go, most of the really witchy nurses I ran into are young I mean in thier 20's just out of nursing school and trying to prove to me how much they know, how great they are, I think to myself "get over yourself sister, you ain't all that"
I agree I am a 55 yo senior in nursing school, 3 months to go, most of the really witchy nurses I ran into are young I mean in thier 20's just out of nursing school and trying to prove to me how much they know, how great they are, I think to myself "get over yourself sister, you ain't all that"
I am just a student, but I have observe some great nurses who I can ask anything, where more than happy to explain and help me. I have also observed a few who were just awful, went out of there way to put you down and embarass you. On one floor we had one who reported all kind of things to our professor, everything from how we did bed baths to refusing to do things we weren't sign off on. I am an older nursing student and have been around awhile, believe me I have seen the same thing in corporate world. However I think it is more serious in nursing just because of the work we do. Especially as a new nurse you are unsure of what you are doing, then you have a person sniping at you and undermining your confidence. It is really a shame, all you can do is the best you can, do your shifts go home, have a glass of wine, or a cup of tea or whatever makes you feel better and remember, this too will pass.
I agree with your comment. As a nursing student, I found nurses who were superb in their teaching skills. They were very receptive to me. On the other hand, I have observes nurses who treated the the clinical groups like animals. I think that nursing students need all the support and encouragement that they can get. Nursing school is already stressful enough, especially in an accelerated program like the one I completed. I have now graduated and will not treat the students on my floor any less than how I would want to be treated. Nurses do NOT just become nurses automatically. We all go through nursing SCHOOL. The nasty nurses seem to forget that they were once in the "student's " shoes.
I should clarify, when I say "old" I mean they've been in the profession for a long time, not necessarily in age.....same with elders. I don't mean elderly people, I mean elders that have been there much longer than me (like in a sorority).
while it's true that being a student is very different from being a good nurse, i firmly believe that if you go out into the world expecting to find mean people, that is what you will find. and if you expect to find nice people, you will.
well i don't remember having any expectations set when i started to work as an rn. actually i did, as i think back. i expected that those more experienced would show a much higher degree of support and professionalism than i found, so unfortunately from my stand point i did not get what i expected across the board though many proved outstanding. self fullfilling prophecy only works on ourselves but not on others in my experience. i think what we do with outcome is extremely important. that is my self fullfilling prophecy. i learned to call it the way it was happening and review my own actions, stand up for myself and change as i find i need to change. there is never a shift that i don't find something i need to change. sometimes that change is in my own technique, approach, time management, stress control and sometime boundary setting.
ruby, in reading your posts, i always think we could learn a lot from you, but you seem
defensive of the negative behavior of those nurses of whom we speak when we post on this issue! how long since you have been on the other side? you have been around a while and sounds like you know your stuff, but sometimes it is helpful to put yourself in someone elses shoes. i agree with a whole lot of what you say but there always is the catch of putting the responsibility on the shoulders of the newcomers.
as a two year old, i feel very strongly that it is my responsibility to assist, support and mentor! if i am having a bad night, well i just have to work around it. sometimes situations are that i have to get out of the teacher/mentor role due to patient crisis but i explain to the student/newcomer, that i have to attend to a crisis and they are welcome to follow, but i will not be able to explain as i go. sometimes the situation allows me to review the situation in increments and sometimes it has to come later.
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
I can't tell for sure but sounds like you are still a student. Just be aware that the world looks very different from the somewhat protected position of being student than it does from the stand point of a new nurse. I hope you continue to work with a large majority of positive nurses. Unfortunately it is the few bad eggs that can cause you excess stress in a already stressful work environment.
Good luck to you, and keep the positive attitude, just don't avoid facing reality.
Mahage
I am a student, but I don't think that gives a protection, in fact, it seems that we are often seen as the bottom of the pecking order. The rude people I have seen were pleasant with everyone else BUT the students. A lot of times the nurses are assigned co students without much of a choice to where those that orient the new nurses sign up for it. (at least at my hospital). Being a student I talk to a lot of new grads since they are so fresh out of school and so far not one of them has had anything bad to say that would fit the "nurses eat their young" scheme of things. I can tell you, I have seen a lot of unity on all the floors I have been on and the only "negative talk" I have seen much of was shift to shift. Day shifters complaining about evening crew and stuff but not a lot amongst each other. Also being a student and going from nurse to nurse (especially with all the shift changes I am there for) I get to be a really good fly on the way and I am really good at observing a situation and getting a feel for it. It's one of my strong points probably from growing up in violence and always having to be aware of things going on, and believe me, I am very much a realist. I don't go around wearing rose colored glasses. I do though have a very good attitude when I step onto the floor and it has shown in the feedback my instructor gets about me and on my evals. When I encounter a rude nurse I either stay out of her way, or if that is not an option I stay polite, I don't get snippy and I try to get to know them a little better and more often then not, by the end of my shift, they have a much better attitude towards me.
2 of my best friends in my real life, we started off not liking each other.
At the same time though, I think attitude determines about 90% of your work experience. As in how you mesh with people and patients, not talking about your physical experience although that can play a role too.
You're right, I don't know what it's like to personally be a new grade, but I don't think someone goes from enjoying students, to eating and spitting out the new grades. I mean students come and go, the new grad hired on will most likely be with them for a while which is reason in itself to not try and be nice.
Not everyone is like this of course, but it's just what I observe. If this has been your experience, I am not trying to downplay that at all, just giving my observations and I hope things get better.
Sorry for any major typos or sentences that don't make sense. lol it's late and I just worked a 12 basically because I had to go in for patient research a couple hours before my shift, had 1 stroke alert, 1 code and I am trying to wind down lol
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
I agree I am a 55 yo senior in nursing school, 3 months to go, most of the really witchy nurses I ran into are young I mean in thier 20's just out of nursing school and trying to prove to me how much they know, how great they are, I think to myself "get over yourself sister, you ain't all that"
Really? Some of the most friendly and helpful nurses I have met are one my age or younger ( I am 30) and a new grad, less then 2 years experience most just fresh off orientation themselves.
On another note, not posted towards mb1949, but a general statement in light of this topic,
something I wanted to share on how I think YOUR attitude can change a bad experience around.
I have a friend in the program that is one of the most chill relaxed guys I have ever met. Never gets angry, never has attitude, does yoga, very earth friends, wants to do ameri corps when he is done. Totally easy going reliabal guy and so mature for his age, I can't believe all he has done and he is like 23, even traveled the world. Very good student as well, him and I studied many times together and he almost always did well in school and is not one to rock the boat in nursing school.
Anyway, he got a clinical instructor that was one of the "meaner ones" not mean as in, stern no nonsense, always heard a lot of complaints about her from all kinds of students all semester and it appeared she especially didn't like guys. Didn't think guys should go into nursing. So he was telling me how he almost got written up, the teacher threatened him or he did actually get written up, I can't remember which it was. He already was trying to make the best of a crappy situation because she always made degrading comments about the male nurses. So I was really surprised and asked him what on earth he would have gotten written up for. He tells me she said he had to much attitude. I about died laughing (ok not that dramatic) but seriously, him attitude??? Not buying it. So I asked him what happened and he said during his assesment she kept stopping him and scolding him and embarrassing him. He said the pt just seemed kind of uncomfortable with the whole situation. So the instructor got on him about something, I don't remember what, but that it was probably annoying the patient or something of the sort. So while he was redoing that part, he asked the patient was that ok to make sure he wasn't annoying them or anything. He said after that she was so upset and that attitude was totally unacceptable etc etc. He didn't know what to do because he thought he was doing what he should do and wanted to take to heart what she said and make sure the Pt. was OK with what was happening.
So here you have this student and this was his second clinical day with 11 more to go for the next 6 weeks and right then and there he could have let this ruin his whole clinical experience and looked at it as like a jail sentence. We only had 3 guys in the program, 1 we lost this semester a few weeks ago so only 2 now and this guy was the only one at this hospital from our class, so he didn't even have someone to share the "heat" with. But he decided to not let his clinical experience go this way, so he tried to get a better feel for the instructor. After doing that he then decided she was someone that liked to feel like the go to person for her students, the type that wanted students to actually depend on her a lot and not be so independent more then normal, like other instructors want you to learn to function more on your own. Hopefully that makes sense. So the next couple shifts he made sure to go to her and ask her a few questions, nothing dumb, something that would make her feel useful and feel like she was sharing her wealth of knowledge, she felt that guys in general feel like they know more then everyone especially young guys. Although he wasn't like this, she just had a biased towards all the guys. So he would find something important, even if he really knew, and he would go to her and ask her to show him this procedure or the rationale behind this or that. He said by a couple shifts later her attitude towards him had completely changed and he had a really great experience the rest of our clinical rotation.
The point is, when faced with someone that is mean or rude to you, make it a challenge, learn about them and get their attitude towards you to change. Be smart about it, and go about it the right way. You can't change them all but I bet you can change the minds of a few that didn't like you. But no matter what, don't let it ruin YOUR experience. Honestly, if more then half the people you work with are "mean" to you, it might be time for some self evaluation.
Again, this is a general statement and not directed towards anyone in particular.
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Ruby Vee, BSN
17 Articles; 14,051 Posts
while it's true that being a student is very different from being a good nurse, i firmly believe that if you go out into the world expecting to find mean people, that is what you will find. and if you expect to find nice people, you will.