Published
We have all heard the saying "Nurses eat their young". Do you feel this is true?
Please feel free to read and post any comments that you have right here in this discussion
Thanks.
This article sums it up for me... ?
http://www.dcardillo.com/articles/eatyoung.html
QuoteThis 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 say yes and no ! I strongly believe it's the individual nurse. You have some nurses that will take a new nurse under their wing and groom the to fly on their own and then you have the nurse that truly think that he or she were born a nurse. I believe it's worth to treat alll with respect.
Tomorrow I have an interview in aged care. Wish me luck. I have told them I will need some guidance, I am not stupid but in my present position, we do not get to see many different things and we don't do any obs. I am willing to ask but I also use my common sense. This will be my second casual job if I am hired and my third job overall.
absolutely. that stuff isn't restricted to the "young". got some part time extra work in a post op r.r. got the same don't show the newbie where anything is, how to expedite the paperwork,how the docs call schedule works or how to department wants problems handled. plus being sure to tell me how to do things they've been doing for 2 years that i've been doing for 30. just rolled off my back having been there 10-15 times. a friend started the same gig the same time. she's only been a nurse about 7 and decided to not go back anymore after about 10 sessions. this is one of the worst features about nursing. i've worked at many hospitals and in many settings and it is universal. it is a practice of only a minority of nurses. most are glad to have some new help and pretty much want to keep it. the guilty minority usually don't even treat their long term colleges very well and can be hell on training young docs(if in a teaching hospital). i often wonder how many doctors go into a private practice setting after residency hating nurses for just this reason.
I agree Steph! I was raised in New Orleans not exactully a small town. We live in a very small town now. In my 30 years in New Orleans I would say that happens in most professions. :angryfire
Lisa:
Mea Culpa! I was talking about my experiences in a particular small town. I am a small town girl, too. In this particular one, more than a few non-local nurses have noticed this clannishness. Somebody just wrote in this string about how some nurses (everywhere, probably) will make a point of not telling new people where stuff is, or how to fill out paperwork. This happened to me as a student - the nurses I'd follow wouldn't tell me anything, and when I asked, they'd roll their eyes, as if doing my job - i.e. being a student - was nothing but a big pain to them. Maybe this strong "townie vs. non-townie" is peculiar to certain areas, where few leave, and few move there. This place is about 150 miles from both Boston and New York, and I have met people, adults, who have been to neither, hard to believe. Being this insular creates an "us vs. them" mentality, which can happen anywhere, I suppose.
Diahni
I think it starts while still in school, for some... I was in the ER last night for clinicals (halfway through LVN program), and the unit secretary, who will graduate with her ADN in May, asked: "So, are you going to go on to nursing school after this?"
"...what do you think I'm in now?"
She repeated herself. My instructor laughed and commented about how "sensitive" we LVN students are :angryfire
I think it starts while still in school, for some... I was in the ER last night for clinicals (halfway through LVN program), and the unit secretary, who will graduate with her ADN in May, asked: "So, are you going to go on to nursing school after this?""...what do you think I'm in now?"
She repeated herself. My instructor laughed and commented about how "sensitive" we LVN students are :angryfire
Sara: Look at it either one of two ways: This nurse is a rhymes-with-witch, and wanted to place herself above you, so blow her off, OR she made the assumption that since she went to an ADN program, so maybe you were planning it too. (I suspect the former!!!) My take on this (here I go again making generalities) that the more insecure somebody is about their own position, the more likely they will try to pull rank on somebody else. HAving an ADN doesn't exactly place you on top of the heap of the many degrees one can get as a nurse. But yeah, I hate this kind of thing too. I had a fellow student say to me (after my commenting on how hot the lab was) that I was probably having a "hot flash." Pretty insulting, huh? She was very young, and I have had more than one career and am in my fifties.
One thing I'd observed is that respect for elders doesn't apply in nursing school. In fact, I've found that the younger students can alienate you by things such as the anecdote above.
It's funny, it seems that the nurses, male and female, young and old, on allnurses.com are so cool, so unlike this. It's great to have a support system when people can be jerks at work and school.
Diahni
I think it starts while still in school, for some... I was in the ER last night for clinicals (halfway through LVN program), and the unit secretary, who will graduate with her ADN in May, asked: "So, are you going to go on to nursing school after this?""...what do you think I'm in now?"
She repeated herself. My instructor laughed and commented about how "sensitive" we LVN students are :angryfire
I think I would report the instructor (at graduation,of course) If she has that kind of attitude why is she teaching LPN's? I think I would have turned the tables on the unit clerk and asked her the same question.orifice-and reminded her that the "n" does stand for nurse....
Sara: Look at it either one of two ways: This nurse is a rhymes-with-witch, and wanted to place herself above you, so blow her off, OR she made the assumption that since she went to an ADN program, so maybe you were planning it too. (I suspect the former!!!)
She had been great the entire 12-hr shift until that comment, so I more suspect that she just didn't think about the implications.
One thing I'd observed is that respect for elders doesn't apply in nursing school. In fact, I've found that the younger students can alienate you by things such as the anecdote above.It's funny, it seems that the nurses, male and female, young and old, on allnurses.com are so cool, so unlike this. It's great to have a support system when people can be jerks at work and school.
Diahni
Alarmingly enough, I'm the youngest one in my class (turned 19 a month ago ) It does seem that there will always be a group of people in any class who never get past the high-school style gossip-mongering, one insufferable and inaccurate know-it-all, and twenty-five others who just try to learn nursing!
Ktwlpn, my clinical instructor has been phenomenal apart from her comments in that situation. I was considering emailing her privately and letting her know how I felt.
they definitely each their young! in med, the faculty protect each other. in nursing, perhaps due to female domination, everyone is very bitchy/catty... female nature maybe? people viewing nursing from outside see the obvious display of nurses eating their young... the other allied health people that i work with commented more than once... that nurses do eat their young... so i guess... nurses do eat their young... :monkeydance:
in modern society, i think there is a general lack of respect for elders, so it's not really anything exclusive to the nursing culture. however, younger nurses might not be respectful of older nurses becoz older nurses seem condesending at times. i guess the age gap also reflects a cultural gap and sometimes young people are not mature enough to relate to older people... and older people might not tolerate the follies of younger people. :monkeydance:
at my tertiary institution, we decided to give them the benefit of doubt and really tried our best to achieve the highest results possible. however, no matter how hard we tried, we would always get mediocre borderline passing grades. we were really puzzled and got together to compare notes. we realised that the people who got really good grades were "friends" of the faculty and favourited by the faculty for various reasons. we found this out when one of us handed in the EXACT copy of an assignment of a previous year's "friend" of the faculty. that assignment in the previous year scored 90%. when handed in by a "non-friend" of the faculty, the student received only 50%! the SAME copy of the assignment! should we take it to court? should we bring down the faculty? we tried. but couldn't even get past the red tape. the faculty and institution will support each other... afterall, they are "friends". and how many students would dare to go against the faculty (and testify) and risk being put in the "non-friend" category and fail everything?
this particular institution is now famous among it's graduates as a supremely lousy place of learning. there is no progress here. only envy. i believe the practice of favouritism also leads to bullying and manipulation in this institution. many students dropped out after being jaded by unfairness in grading. it's like the faculty are culling whoever they think they don't like or whoever they personally think are not going to make good nurses. and usually those that they do not like are in fact bright and promising students.
i guess this is also called the "tall poppies" syndrome, or begrudgery, or sticking big pins in people's dreams. the faculty, made up of sour women (99.9% of faculty is women!) are terrified of younger students outshining them or getting ahead of them! the hang on to their MSN or phD and use it as power to cut anyone down in case they got left behind by people with potential to take over them. this institution also has recruitment issues for staff precisely becoz no one wants to go there!
it is so upsetting. my biggest mistake is to enrol in this institution. i had mistaken their feigned and temporary friendliness as being helpful and supportive. it's all pretense during enrolment drives!!!
so i guess in this place, the nurses really do eat their young... beware the female dominated fields! women can be really uncomfortable when other women (or men) get ahead of them... :monkeydance:
kathi yudin
61 Posts
for 4 yr rn.. 30 residents is not unusual for a nursing home.. as a supervisor.. you don't take care of the residents per se.. you supervise the lvn's.. answer phones.. pick up orders.. do some documentation and admissions/discharges.. at least at my facility.. i like to bring in rn's and orient them to the floor so that they know the residents that they will be responding to families about..it is not necessarily as thorough an orientation as the other nurses as far as meds go.. but.. the goal is not to be proficient at dispensing to residents as it is to have an idea who they are inorder to respond to staff.. drs.. and families... i am trying to work w/4 nurses on days and pm's so that there is always a desk/supervisor nurse.. not always possible however.. nursing homes is the best experieince you can obtain because you don't have anyone to rely on but you and your other few nurses.. there are no docs around to help... you truly hone your assessment skills!!..good luck to you..