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.
Do I think that all nurses are unkind to students and new grads? Definitely not! I have been able to work with many wonderful nurses as a student and will never be able to thank them enough for sharing their knowledge and patience. HOWEVER! as a student, I have been on the receiving end of a nurse playing the "blame the student" game. I have been yelled at, talked down to and treated like I'm less than human. All by a small group of nurses. I am not the type of student who thinks I know better than any nurse on the floor, I've always felt that a nurse with 20 years experience has a lot more to offer than someone with "book smarts". And again, while the majority of the nurses I have been placed with have been wonderful, that small group of nurses who are rude and hurtful to students "because they can" give everyone a bad name. I agree that it is wrong that the entire profession gets a bad name because of this. Unfortunately, people like to generalize. What I haven't figured out yet is why it is only nursing that gets the bad rap when employees in other fields act in the same manner and have nothing said about it...
Do I think that all nurses are unkind to students and new grads? Definitely not! I have been able to work with many wonderful nurses as a student and will never be able to thank them enough for sharing their knowledge and patience. HOWEVER! as a student, I have been on the receiving end of a nurse playing the "blame the student" game. I have been yelled at, talked down to and treated like I'm less than human. All by a small group of nurses. I am not the type of student who thinks I know better than any nurse on the floor, I've always felt that a nurse with 20 years experience has a lot more to offer than someone with "book smarts". And again, while the majority of the nurses I have been placed with have been wonderful, that small group of nurses who are rude and hurtful to students "because they can" give everyone a bad name. I agree that it is wrong that the entire profession gets a bad name because of this. Unfortunately, people like to generalize. What I haven't figured out yet is why it is only nursing that gets the bad rap when employees in other fields act in the same manner and have nothing said about it...
Hi ya,
Hazing goes on everywhere. I was a journalist in a news room - whenever there was some kind of real life maintenance problem, the sales guys would say "Let editorial deal with it" and then laugh. The writers were verbally smart, so the sales folks had to pull rank by describing them as not knowing how to hammer a nail in. Meanwhile, I'm a girl that does her own plumbing and her own car. I've heard it happening in lots of fields. Even though the term says "eat their young," it's really about the established and experienced people pulling rank on the less experienced.
Absolutely, not everybody does it. But you will probably hear more about it from nurses for the same reason allnurses.com has a quarter million subscribers. And at any time, I notice there are even more "guests" than subscribers. If anybody knows of such a strong site for another profession, I'd like to know, but I don't think one exists. Can you imagine a bunch of marine recruits complaining to each other online about how they're getting yelled at in basic training? It wouldn't happen. I think it's healthy to talk about it especially if somebody who does haze inexperienced nurses reads it, and reconsiders its effect. All it does is make somebody else feel bad. It certainly doesn't make the person on the receiving end think, "Gee, when my skills are better, people won't yell at me so much." They're more likely to just think, "What a rhymes-with-witch." I had a hospital employee learn over to me when I was a student after such an encounter, and say, "So where does she park her broom?" No matter what the rank of a hospital employee, I think there are more people out there with the sensitivity to know eating anybody doesn't do squat. It's just mean. So rant on. Nurses rock!
Diahni
P.S. My motto is "You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar," though it's hard to always do this.
Absolutely!!! Are there any other grad out there from the University of Pittsburgh? That place is the worst!!!
We should have a contest to see whose school was the worst. It pains me that the treatment of students at a particular nursing school doesn't really affect the reputation of the school. I went to Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The students there are treated like very bad children. God forbid you have to go to the bathroom during a lecture, and one has to get used to being verbally abused in front of doctors, nurses and patients. If you do complain, you are blacklisted. Some students just sucked it up. Some grumbled endlessly amongst themselves, and some, like myself, bailed. Excelsior College was a God send for me.
"Unfortunately, people like to generalize. What I haven't figured out yet is why it is only nursing that gets the bad rap when employees in other fields act in the same manner and have nothing said about it... "
I know that it happens in other fields,, but as professional nurses we should take care of each other .. it should be an unspoken rule that we raise our young well... Nursing is more than just a career.( just my opinion)
I understand the concept of it b eing a two-way street, but I have to ask, when some one comes to your home, whether invited or not, do you inquire of them their reason for being there or do you ask their purpose? Yes, students could come in and immediately engage staff, but the greater reality and ownership, lies with us, the employees. We would better serve a feeling of collegiality if we greeted the newcomers, if we asked if we could "serve them" (new concept, huh)? We are to be role models, we are at our home posts and should set a welcoming feel and attitude. Of course there will be many who disagree with me, that's okay, doesn't change a thing. As the home team on the home court we have the edge and could/should be gracious. nanacarol
I understand the concept of it b eing a two-way street, but I have to ask, when some one comes to your home, whether invited or not, do you inquire of them their reason for being there or do you ask their purpose? Yes, students could come in and immediately engage staff, but the greater reality and ownership, lies with us, the employees. We would better serve a feeling of collegiality if we greeted the newcomers, if we asked if we could "serve them" (new concept, huh)? We are to be role models, we are at our home posts and should set a welcoming feel and attitude. Of course there will be many who disagree with me, that's okay, doesn't change a thing. As the home team on the home court we have the edge and could/should be gracious. nanacarol
I have to agree Nana that an already established RN should be the one to say hello first and that sort of thing. Most students are terrified and intimidated and overwhelmed.
Basic etiquette in every day social life says that the host opens the door and welcomes the guest FIRST why do nurses expect for that to be different at work?
That being said students should be equally gracious and reciprocate the kindness if they are reached out too and not take advantage of a kind nurse mentoring them.
Setting the tone is important for so goes the oak so goes the twig. Much how we raise children to be a certain way we also "raise" new employees and that is in any field. If we act crappy to another human being we can expect to pay the piper for what goes around comes around.
That new student who was mistreated may one day indeed end up the Director of Nursing or the primary nurse to a now bedridden former nurse in an LTC. For those who want to flame me they may. It is a older, experienced nurse who bought this up to me when I was still doing my pre- reqs when I was hesitant to ask questions about her career. She said "I am always nice to students, only a fool would be cruel to those who will not only allow them to retire but may one day be taking care of them."
I keep that in the forefront of my mind daily!!! I want to have left a good impression, I want to have "trained" this new nurse to care for patients as I do and as I want to be cared for when the time comes. And it will come, believe me. I have had several surgeries and I thank God that I had a positive account with sharing and serving before the event, I was REALLY, Really cared for righteously. Imagine this: this new nurse or student nurse had come to my unit and I was less than helpful or engaging and encouraging, I failed to show them compassion, I took the "root little kid or die" approach, my goodness, what a nightmare. Thanks for the word of encouragment.
75% say yes!?! I guess that says it all right there. There is an abyss of information for nurses to learn, so it will be hard to find a truly adequately trained nurse straight out of school. Obviously, too many nurses forget where they came from. We are all green sometime and a nurse that gives a new nurse a hard time or offers no assistance, probably doesnt do very well with patients either. On the other hand, if a new nurse doesnt feel adequately prepared to take patients after his/her training, then he/she should ask their manager for a few more weeks. It will never be long enough, so older nurses (if they have the best interests of the patients at heart) should be willing to teach!
The question isn't "do nurses eat their young" it should be "do nurses eat their young more than other professions?" Let me give you an example from my pre-nurse "nerd" days. New hire, fresh out of school; first day, he's telling the boss all the things we're doing wrong -- wrong servers, wrong databases, wrong networking methodology. Never stopped to think (or ask) if we were constrained by upper management to use specifically what we're using. And the fact that the CIO's wife worked for IBM pretty much explained why we were NEVER going to get anything else. When this is pointed out to him, he proceeds to tell everybody that he's going to change that. Uh-huh.
Wonder boy then proceeds to start sabotaging his co-workers -- about day 3 of being hired, including putting his name on a presentation his mentor had been working on for 2 months. We all decided mister marvelous had to go at that point. We super glued the buttons on his mouse, we pointed his computer access to the test boxes only, we made the text on his computer "white" text on a "white" background. We locked out his internet access to all but Media sites, and we jury rigged his computer so that when he was playing solitaire (the only thing we could ever see he was any good at) a text box popped up on the boss's PC, saying "Wonder Boy's playing games again!" with a mini window of his PC, showing him playing the game. We stayed late and worked offdays to come up with ways to torment this guy enough for him to leave (Mister wonderful was the son of a friend of the boss, so he was NEVER going to get fired). When he came in and we'd taken all the power cords from PC/Monitor/etc., from his cube, he finally got the hint and quit. This was a guy who just worked on telephone company billing records (supposedly). No lives were at stake.
I'm still a newbie, and I'm busting my hump to prove myself everyday. I listen to EVERY piece of advice, ask questions before I try something I've never done before, and always make sure I'm on the "butter" side if I'm helping one of the CNA's bathe a combative or comatose patient. If I get caught up, I ask the person with the more acute patients if they need any help. Most seem to like me, a couple don't, and some are still witholding judgement. If I was the nursing equivalent of "mister wonderful" I have no doubt that my days would be markedly different.
I replied to this thread before as a newbie, newbie = If that makes sense. At first I said yes, yes nurses do eat their young!!! Now I realize after having been a nurse for almost one year nurses eat nurses. I think that because we are a female dominated field most nurses are catty, most nurses will report you in a heart beat if you are not doing your job or accidentially miss something. I can only speak for my experience. I have no male nurses on my floor. Most of the female nurses that I work with will stab you in the back in a heart beat if only to get in management's good graces. Everyone can disagree if they want, I am only speaking from my experience and this is not only in nursing. The young eat their young in almost every single profession if it means them getting ahead and getting into management's good graces.
Both stories are sad. Sad because they express a very poor picture of a profession that tauts itself as a "helping profession". How can we maintain the level of trust the public places in us if we abuse members of the public? Yes, each nurse is a member of the public, yes you are misrepresenting your self when you don't know how to be helpful or to accept help, when you would rather rat a peer out just to look good or when you can't come along side of an insecure new peer when the behavior being displayed is inappropriate and does not represent the group well. Is it really that important to be recognized, evidently, ones peers were aware that someone else prepared the presentation and if the people at the staff level were aware of the plagiarism, trust me management was aware. Bringing oneself to the level of the newbie sa ys very little about the maturity of the group. Forgive me, I don't want to be judgmental, the truth is the truth. Taking the high road is always an option for someone to take, why not the unit nurse? Including the negative behaviors of other groups is not a justification for nurses to "eat their young or to do any of the other negative actions that some take. Nanacarol
SecondGenRN
186 Posts
Do I think that all nurses are unkind to students and new grads? Definitely not! I have been able to work with many wonderful nurses as a student and will never be able to thank them enough for sharing their knowledge and patience. HOWEVER! as a student, I have been on the receiving end of a nurse playing the "blame the student" game. I have been yelled at, talked down to and treated like I'm less than human. All by a small group of nurses. I am not the type of student who thinks I know better than any nurse on the floor, I've always felt that a nurse with 20 years experience has a lot more to offer than someone with "book smarts". And again, while the majority of the nurses I have been placed with have been wonderful, that small group of nurses who are rude and hurtful to students "because they can" give everyone a bad name. I agree that it is wrong that the entire profession gets a bad name because of this. Unfortunately, people like to generalize. What I haven't figured out yet is why it is only nursing that gets the bad rap when employees in other fields act in the same manner and have nothing said about it...