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.
I have never personally run into a nurse who ate a nursing student. I think it's one of those rumors that gets bigger each time you hear it.
See I don't know... Sure you couldn't do it in one meal (maybe a little person student?) unless it's a bigger conspiracy and a bunch of older/experienced nurses get together and do it all in one sitting. Make a night out of it with popcorn and a golden girls marathon.
Before you can get "creative" in a field, you need the solid experience to be able to do so (like 10 years minimum). So it may not be them trying to sabotage you so much as them genuinely doing their thing, but you not really being in a place yet where you can go ahead and do that. I mean, why do you think it would be fair or even wise for someone to come in and start leading the older people who've been there and know what they're doing?
Yes, it's generally a good idea FOR ANYTHING to go by the book until you are experienced enough to play around with the methods.
I think it depends on the unit and the hospital you work for. My first job there was a lot of snacking on the new nurses, and nursing students. It comes in many forms. There was one nurse who when she you wanted a nursing student (who was turned the other way) she call out ("Hey you student come here) in a tone like you would call a dog. She was a preceptor for new nurses and if you asked a question she would say LOUDLY in front of other nurses and patients, "You don't know that" in a really snippy your stupid kind of tone. There was lots of backstabbing all around where people were nice to other peoples faces, and then ran to the manager to tattle for every little thing or talked bad about them to other nurses or spread rumors. The one nurse mentioned above would set the new nurses and students in her charge up for failure, and then make them feel stupid, and run to the manager to tell her how hard her job was to take care of these stupid new nurses.
Its not as easy in this career to just avoid the person. You go in and have no idea where things are, what the policies are, and how things are done. You are a new nurse. You have to ask, and to follow the lead of your preceptor, and the older nurses. You can't avoid them you need them. If you run to your manager to complain or ask for someone else then your often seen as a problem and someone who cannot work with others. And if you work in an environment where this type of behavior is accepted you could easily jump out of the pot and into the fire by getting someone just as bad.
I now work in a great hospital and everyone is wonderful. I have not seen any of this type of behavior at all. The hospital system will not tolerate it, and its a great environment to work inf or everyone involved.
Again I think it all boils down to what the manager will and will not allow. At the first hospital the manager was actually the worst one. She was right in the middle of the rumors, and talking badly about people and bullying so she had no problem with everyone else doing it.
But - I'm a pre-nursing student, I'll start NA1 clinicals next semester, but I'm wondering - is this really a concern? This phrase seems to be used to describe older nurses who use experience to intimidate and manipulate younger/newer nurses so that a solid pecking order is established.
What I'm wondering is - is it really seen more often in nursing than many other proffessions, or isn't this just the way people are?
I've worked plenty of low wage jobs and this has gone on in some fashion in most of them. My current job, a vet tech, this very thing happened where my co-worker, who is due to experience essentially a lead tech without the title, has given me advice or steered me in a direction that has gotten me in trouble with my direct boss, more than once.
I fully expect to deal with people like this all my life, and the bottom line is - I just learn who these people are, and know what boundaries to set. In this case, I don't confront her unless she gives me advice I solidly question, but instead if I have questions or need further training on something, I go directly to my boss. Problem solved, and me and her manage to get along.
But with that phrase being used over and over again on these threads, should I really prepare for a culture of backstabbing, intimidation, and manipulation? I've worked in environments like that, it sucks...
Just looking for feedback.
Yes, it happens. More or less than in other fields.......IDK. Matter of perspective I guess. When I was a landscaper, new guys were welcomed/tested different ways. If they weren't careful, they'd be scamed into doing the work of three while the other laborers did a wonderful job of "looking busy". They'd learn and adjust accordingly. Thats the key though........."They'd learn". What I mean is, when it comes to the phrase "Nurses eat their young", I'm not so sure the judgemental eye should be on the field of nursing. Perhaps it'd be more useful to put it on the "young" who are eaten.
If you are the type of person who enjoys working in a team, is confident, doesn't lack the character foundation necessary to listen to constructive critisizm, you won't have a problem. If, in your past experiences you tend to work better alone, found yourself attracting the types who like to dump work on co-workers or couldn't get along with others........well, its probably going to continue in nursing, "nurses eat their young" or not.
In my first job, I was surrounded by many experienced nurses who considered the new nurses a huge asset. They understood/knew: This new nurse, once able to practice without supervision, is going to be the one that gets me holidays off, helps keep me off night shift, will keep me from being mandated cause someone didn't show up. I had a small group of intelligent nurses who made sure I didn't turn into anyone else's main course. There were a few, singular nurses who insisted I should be doing all their "labor-ish" duties for them (ADLs, getting pt's up and down from bed, walking people to the BR) and tried to make me their serogate CNA, but I had enough guidence to tell them to pick up their own slack.
These days, I see a lot of vet. nurses abuse the Charge nurse role. They'll avoid getting admissions, make the assignments up in a way that favors them etc.... We've all seen that. When I was younger, I'd have struggled with them, not so much now. I just put the cards on the table and they quit playing games: "Ummmm, I don't agree that I need to be the one getting this admit, how about we call the supervisor and see if they have any input."
Then you have the other side of the spectrum in which a new nurse refuses to "join the team" and do their part. They want this or that accomidation for being new (oh, I can't possibly take such an aggitated pt, I'm too new), need this and taht accomidation on the schedule, call off a lot. Now, these people probably claim they are being eaten because they are young when reality is............well, nuff said.
To make a long story short, when it comes to "Nurses eat their young", its more a question of will you let it happen to you (or cause it) than a question of whether or not it goes on.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
See I don't know... Sure you couldn't do it in one meal (maybe a little person student?) unless it's a bigger conspiracy and a bunch of older/experienced nurses get together and do it all in one sitting. Make a night out of it with popcorn and a golden girls marathon.
There's no conspiracy. I never heard the phrase until I read about it in allnurses in 2004. The problem with it is that the definition can mean anything from a student feeling ignored or spoken to in what sounds like a sharp or rude tone, or a nurse seeming too busy to stop and listen to their concerns to some cases of very real "lateral violence" ie bullying that members have posted about here.
It's for the very real situations like that - I don't conclude that everyone making that complaint is petulant and imagining things. To be honest, the phrase has been so misused, overused and all other useds that to me it's nothing more than a cliché that annoys me more with each passing day.
Training in nursing is something that requires quite a bit of time in close proximity with the experienced people. When you mix that with the pressure cooker of too much work in too little time and the fact that it's a when, not if a hairy situation will occur - you aren't going to have time in many cases for the normal social niceties present in most other professions. I think that is the genesis of many "eat your young" complaints.
Also, allnurses is self-selecting and most people don't join to tell us how fabulous everything is going. This is not the "real world" and not reflective of characteristics in the nurse world in general.
In 35 yrs of nursing I have met 3-4 of them and they are truly a piece of work. The best thing when you meet one is to avoid a fight unless you are very confident. I met one when I was a tech and she very nearly ran me right out of the business. If it hadn't been a couple of very nurturing nurses I wouldn't have stayed and there are more of them than the bad ones. The last one I met couldn't cut me out of the herd because I knew my stuff. She even tried to set me up to get fired and it blew up in her face. and very nearly got fired herself. Stick with the winners and you will know who they are.
I have a couple of theories about this annoying phrase:
1) Most people who are drawn to the field of nursing are (IMO) strong-willed, driven people. Sometimes, those personality types do not take constructive criticism/direction very well. From the first day they hit the floor of their new job, they are driven to carry their own weight, do it themselves. It is very easy for a highly motivated nursing student to take events/comments the wrong way.
2) 99.9% of the time, those battleaxes that truly do appear to be "eating their young" are also "eating" (so to speak) most everyone around them. The semi-derogatory comments, the sharp tone, etc., aren't just directed to young nurses, the barbs are thrown at everyone around them. It's just that the more experienced co-workers have learned to dodge, ignore, or bite back at the crusty ones.
And no, this dynamic isn't limited to nursing. If you look at any other profession that is as heavily weighted with females, you will find the same dynamic.
Specializes in M/S, MICU, CVICU, SICU, ER, Trauma, NICU.
I have to admit some of the newer nurses annoy me and I do show some annoyance in my voice.
The problem I think is that the ones I've run into don't listen. They ask me the same question over and over again even though I've said the answer multiple times. At the end of the conversation, I'll simply comment, sometimes with that annoyed stance, "did you listen at all?"
That's the only issue I have, otherwise...I don't eat new nurses.
I do however, eat children--especially my little niece who is so yummy!
Specializes in OB, L&D, Geriatrics, Peds, MedSurg.
I am a nursing student now and have been to several places to do my clinicals from hospitals to schools to assisted living homes and I worked as a cna as well. My experience with experienced nurses and the young new nurses is that if the new nurse or student is consistently asking questions and can't capture a certain technique or protocol or procedure, the experienced nurse may get frustrated especially if they still have pts to take care of. I mean I get frustrated! I know they love to teach but new nurses/students are so entrigued and question everything because we are new to floor, practice, or systems and because we want to get it perfect. Overall they have been great to me and out of all the places I have been there only has been one experienced nurse that specifically does not like students but that's because she has her routine and students throw her off. I do think some nurses eat there young, but very very few!
Specializes in Emergency Department, House Supervisor.
Once I obtained my masters in nursing I got a sweet full-time job teaching advanced nursing at the ADN program at the local community college. There I discovered that nursing instructors also definitely eat their young. Luckily for me, I was also starting my doctorate and was quite able to leave those vultures in my dust. They began feasting on my remains before I was even DEAD!
Specializes in Emergency Department, House Supervisor.
I am a nursing student now and have been to several places to do my clinicals from hospitals to schools to assisted living homes and I worked as a cna as well. My experience with experienced nurses and the young new nurses is that if the new nurse or student is consistently asking questions and can't capture a certain technique or protocol or procedure, the experienced nurse may get frustrated especially if they still have pts to take care of. I mean I get frustrated! I know they love to teach but new nurses/students are so entrigued and question everything because we are new to floor, practice, or systems and because we want to get it perfect. Overall they have been great to me and out of all the places I have been there only has been one experienced nurse that specifically does not like students but that's because she has her routine and students throw her off. I do think some nurses eat there young, but very very few!
Dear Jesse,
As they say in the realty business. There are only three things that matter:
1. Location
2. Location
3. Location
Good luck and keep up the great attitude. Just DO not allow yourself to be victimized. Students are people too...Yes, even nursing students...:redbeathe
jossjjojo
38 Posts
I have never personally run into a nurse who ate a nursing student. I think it's one of those rumors that gets bigger each time you hear it.