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.
sooooooooo sad and very true. Nurses(majority) do in fact eat the young nurses.
I disagree that it's the majority in nursing. I'm sorry that the majority of nurses in your experience eat their young.
I'm still wearing my rose colored glasses and remain steadfast in my belief that it's only a few (perhaps maybe too many) that make the rest of us look bad.
I refuse to brand the majority of nurses that way and cringe when I hear it. Granted when you're eaten by a nurse, or come across a unit where everyone does it, it's hard not to feel that way.
But to the newbies and the students..............not all of us, and in fact the overwhelming majority of us don't eat their young.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Rather than branding the entire profession and just accepting it, we should be learning the skills to deal with those nurses that eat you when you come across them...........and you will.
I also think that raw and sensitive new grads get reality shock and eating their young confused. (Flame me if you will........please don't read this as nurses don't eat their young, because I know we do. But I know a nurse will snap at a new grad, the only nurse all week, and he'll run to this bb and post "nurses eat their young" and brand the whole profession when it was just this one nurse having a moment in time. Or sometimes a new grad needs a gentle push into the realities of nursing, and they come scream "nurses eat their young" when the hand holding coddling time has past.)
]Yes nurses eat their young. Where do you think that saying came from? It sure didn't come from a new grad that was welcomed into the open "nurturing" arms of a 20 or 30 year veteran nurse! One doesn't necessarily have to be a new grad even, just new. So, to those nurses that are guilty of harrassment...that nurse that you treated so badly may one day be the nurse caring for YOU.
Personally I am a 3year new grad and I have seen this type of behavior to other nurses and to myself but I have very thick skin. When your in the break room minding your own business but you hear everything about "The New nurses". Instead of spreading appreciation and positive energy some nurses focus on the negitive. I have worked in a few different settings my last being not an influence on this viewpoint Tweety because I had formed this opinion a while ago. I am sorry to have experienced this in my presence too.
Specializes in Critical Care, Pediatrics, Geriatrics.
It's the same as any profession/career. The 'newbies' will always be under intense scrutiny by the 'experienced.' Nursing is not immune. Some will be polite, seeing shortcomings as an opportunity to teach; others will be silently waiting for an opportunity to pounce on a weakness and envoke humbleness; while still others will want to pulvarize any inkling of self-confidence the 'newbie' may possess...and so the world turns. If you dislike the phrase 'nurses eat their young' and feel it does not apply to you, then take off your 'rose colored glasses' (as Tweety put it), and view it from the perspective of someone who believes nurses do eat their young. And if you are an experienced nurse and you witness a fellow experienced nurse being unfairly critical of a new RN...say something. OTOH, if you are a 'newbie' feeling jaded or rejected by the 'experienced', then you know how NOT to treat new grads when you are the seasoned veteran. It's just that simple.
What would be really shocking would be to see some new nurses here post about the positive experiences they have had with experienced nurses. But that doesn't happen. It's just so much easier to rant about how "nurses eat their young." I agree with Tweety: 500 nurses could be nice and helpful to a new nurse, and one could be curt. As sure as gun's iron, the new nurse is going to post about "the nurse who ate me."
Yeah, experienced nurses never show kindness to new nurses. We're all just a bunch of burn outs. New nurses just somehow magically gain skills and experience, because older nurses never take the time to help them.
Maybe some of the tension is there because there is a lack of appreciation from the new nurses. You know, we experienced nurses are not like computer programs; you can't just "download" knowledge from us. We are people with feelings, too. It is rare that you will see a new nurse here express any thanks toward experienced nurses. Maybe new nurses need to do some soul searching, too. Maybe they own some of the blame, too.
The general tone that I read here and other threads gives me the impression that new nurses disdain older nurses. It has become one of the reasons why I don't do much precepting anymore. We don't take new grads in our dept. but we do get students. It's just too tiring to try to engage students who are disinterested or waft away to Lord knows where, then reappear and wonder why a procedure wasn't saved for them. (I'd have gladly saved it for you and talked you through it, but I had no clue where you were, and it's not like our dept. is so huge.)
Personally I am a 3year new grad and I have seen this type of behavior to other nurses and to myself but I have very thick skin. When your in the break room minding your own business but you hear everything about "The New nurses". Instead of spreading appreciation and positive energy some nurses focus on the negitive. I have worked in a few different settings my last being not an influence on this viewpoint Tweety because I had formed this opinion a while ago. I am sorry to have experienced this in my presence too.
I surrender then, if the definition of a nurse eating their young is one who isn't spreading "appreciation and positive energy", then you're correct. Nurses eat their young.
Of course it would be nice if students and new grads did a little spreading of that appreciation and positive energy to balance things out. Then perhaps in 20 years as we die and retire, the world of nursing would be a happy better place with no eating of our young.
I am very proud to report that at clinicals so far, there has been no young-eating. The nurses are nothing but helpful and wonderful but make it clear when they're too busy to have us tag along or distract them with questions. I've noticed that offering to help and not hogging their space makes them even nicer. I was scared for awhile, as I was chewed up and spit out several times when working in a horrible nursing home. I'm sooo relieved.
It starts the first day of class when your instructor spends 45 minutes explaining all the letters after her name and why she is smarter than you- flash ahead to first day of clinicals when I am being treated like crap by my LPN charge nurse on a med/ surg floor. When she was asked why she was so rude, her comment was classic" Because in 2 years you will be my boss!!!!!!!!!"
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 concensus 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 lilnk. 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 nuturing to the new nurse and students on your unit.
Tweety, BSN, RN
36,354 Posts
I disagree that it's the majority in nursing. I'm sorry that the majority of nurses in your experience eat their young.
I'm still wearing my rose colored glasses and remain steadfast in my belief that it's only a few (perhaps maybe too many) that make the rest of us look bad.
I refuse to brand the majority of nurses that way and cringe when I hear it. Granted when you're eaten by a nurse, or come across a unit where everyone does it, it's hard not to feel that way.
But to the newbies and the students..............not all of us, and in fact the overwhelming majority of us don't eat their young.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Rather than branding the entire profession and just accepting it, we should be learning the skills to deal with those nurses that eat you when you come across them...........and you will.
I also think that raw and sensitive new grads get reality shock and eating their young confused. (Flame me if you will........please don't read this as nurses don't eat their young, because I know we do. But I know a nurse will snap at a new grad, the only nurse all week, and he'll run to this bb and post "nurses eat their young" and brand the whole profession when it was just this one nurse having a moment in time. Or sometimes a new grad needs a gentle push into the realities of nursing, and they come scream "nurses eat their young" when the hand holding coddling time has past.)