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 can't imagine you being told "you'll never make it"...like I said before there is always one bad apple, the trick is to not let her spoil the entire bunch...
I was told in my early days in an ICU by a nurse that she "would hate to be my patient." Here I was with about 4 weeks of experience ... such a sweetheart. I've since left that unit ....
As a student nurse, I have had the privilege of working with some wonderful nurses, who have really helped me to feel confident and supported. My guess is that most nurses are generally nice people who occasionally have bad days. Unfortunately for me, I have also run into the kind who anonymously call one's instructor to report things that never even happened as absolute fact. And they are nurses; why would they lie? So obviously I must be lying. Also had the misfortune of running into an adjunct instructor who had never taught before, hadn't been oriented to the units, didn't know how the computer system worked, couldn't read the pumps, and couldn't explain how to write a care plan. After five weeks of asking her questions, she finally exploded at me "what's your problem!?". I told her I wanted her to teach me the same material the students in the other clinicals were getting, so I would be on the same page they were the next semester. She started personally attacking me, I started crying. We hadn't been assigned patients yet, so I told her I needed to go home. Big mistake. Next day, I was no longer a nursing student. Kicked me out for abandoning my (imaginary) patient. I know I'm not perfect, and I rub people the wrong way sometimes. But they took a 3.95 GPA student, who writes great care plans and has good clinical skills, as well as excellent theraputic communication skills, 40 years old with 6 children, trying to escape an abusive husband, and tossed me in the trash. I didn't get to say a word in my defense, and there is no recourse at my school - the Nursing department can do whatever it wants. So now I am a nursing student in search of a school. I know that most of the nurses who visit this forum are really decent, hard-working, caring individuals. I have been reading your posts for quite a while now. But I do believe that some nurses "eat their young". I have watched my class as they have picked us off one by one - seven out of twenty-seven so far - and only one of them really couldn't wrap her mind around the way a nurse needs to think. It seems to me that nursing is a profession where, if we don't all hang together, we will all hang separately. How do you go about changing the climate so that people will want to and be able to become nurses and stay actively nursing? That is the question that truly needs to be answered.
I was the youngest in my class (I was 17 when I started the program and turned 18 a couple of weeks into the program) of about 100 in my LPN class. My clinical instructor was in the mind frame that no one my age should even be in nursing. She made it very difficult for me in clinicals. I had three clinicals. Each clinical rotation was divided into thirds. Each third of my clinicals my clinical instructor (who wasn't my main instructor) stated that I was doing better each time, but stated that I needed to improve on some things (well duh.....I was 18 and had no skills as a professional......but I also acted alot more mature than most of my classmates). At the end of my third clinical my main clinical instructor flunked me...she stated that I had not improved at all in my clinicals. She all but stated that I wasn't worth teaching, that I was too young, and that I shouldn't be a nurse at all. She made me feel that I wasn't woth teaching when she told me that day. I had walked across the stage, gotten my LPN pin, and two days later, I found out that I didn't pass my final clinical. I felt like my mentor stabbed me in the back......Yeah I know that I am young, but don't insult my intelligence.
I apoligize for such unprofessional behavior. Each nursing school has to be accredited by some regional board and if enough students follow correct procedure, i.e., documenting the conversations between oneself and the instructor, keep copies of the syllabus, and follow it, even students have recourse. The scenario you described is totally unacceptable. New instructors are also evaluated. I really wouldn't let this go. Oh, State nursing boards also certify nursing programs. nanacarol
Thanks nancarol for your post, wish there were more out there like you. I had to deal with at least one nasty person at almost every clinical site as did my classmates. Anyways last night, I was talking to my spouse and he said that he and his guys were giving the student the gears and I asked him why he did that and he said "It's just a rite of passage". My spouse is in engineering/trades work area. I tried to explain to him that he should be the one to stop doing it but it fell on deaf ears. I wish I could say that nursing is different.
Linzz, it has to do withhow comfortable we are with our pathway. If we know we are secure in ourselves we won't need to cause pain to others and rights of passage will cease as will nurse to nurse hostility.
yes, yes and yes. The unfortunate thing is that I don't think a lot of nurses realize how much us younger nurses look to the more experienced ones with loads of respect, experience, wisdom, and the list goes on. We can all learn so much from eachother, but especially us from the wiser ones. I hope this aspect of the nursing career will improve because I have been ( or witnessed) discouraged, dismissed, and disregarded by quite a few older nurses, for no reason other than being young. And I by no means am stereotyping or saying all nurses do this, but to say that nurses do not eat their young is fiction.
I by no means am stereotyping or saying all nurses do this, but to say that nurses do not eat their young is fiction.
I am by no means saying that there aren't nurses that eat their young. Would you say it's the predmoninant behavior of experienced and older nurses? Taking all the nurses you encounter in a day, is it the predominant behavior to brand the entire profession as a profession that eats their young?
Being a new grad at any age is tough and sometimes demoralizing. Even with the support of mentors, and never being eaten, I had a rough time with the ratios, the sick patients, the paperwork, and the overwhelming amount of work, having a huge load after orientation and being on my own. So perhaps we are a profession that eats their young. It just seems a nasty thing to say to those of us who are older in age and experience and in the trenches. It demoralizes me as an experience person who has precepted countless new grads and students to hear someone say "yeah, nurses eat their young.....".
In this place that I just finished an assignment You would be trying to give your report and the b--ch would be interupting with an attitude from hell.
I'm only on page 5 of this thread, but when I read this one, I cracked up laughing! My sisters are RN's, too (there are 4 of us) and one of them told me that when the above happens to her, she says to the nurse, "Here is a cup of 'Shut-The-Hell-Up!' Sip on that while I finish giving you report!" Bwahahahah!
Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.
I still maintain that nurses do not eat their young, they eat each other !!!!!!!!!as I posted before, some will stab you in the back no matter how old and experienced you are and some will work together as a team....when you find a good team at work, that is the place to stay.....even tho there may be one bad apple, do not let it spoil the entire bunch....
Sorry, it is a very applicable in many places. I left the field for sometime because of it, and never have really trusted or felt allied to other nurses since. I will never forget (though I would like to)my days of training on med-surg with a horrible teacher who thought the best way to train a nurse was to act like the meanest drill sgt. on the military base. THis doesn't make for tough nurses, just scared and stupid ones(because sometime they will hesitate to ask ?'s or ask for help) I had previously been in the military and in some tough places but had great support and was happy and relatively nonstressed considering the situations. Nursing soured on me because support just was not there. I hope this can turn around eventually.
I think it is very fair of a teacher or preceptor to have high expectations of a student and to let them know when they are falling short but being nasty about it does lead to a breakdown in communication and to a student who feels inept. That said, it is also the student's job to be an active learner and to be open to good and bad feedback. JMO.
In addition to my original reply of yes I agree with the fact that nurses eat their young.. I want to clarify..I don't think young reflects age I think it refers to experience ..where I worked it didn't matter the "age" if you were new you had it rough bottom line..I have seen new nurses reduced to tears more than once..because a more experienced nurse was overly harsh to them and spoke to them in a way that made them feel like crap..We had a new nurse who left the unit and never came back no resignation or anything just never came back..and for those of you who started out in med surg as I did, if some of you think back to when you were new you know somehow you had first admission ALL THE TIME and you know you had the code cart or narcotic count all the time and the frequent flier(drug seeking)"pain" patient all the time!!! like I said before not all nurses were this way I have had some wonderful mentors in fact the nurses that were older than myself who had children my age were great to me..so it's not always the"older" nurses the nurse who gave me hell was actually in her 40's..
SoundofMusic
1,016 Posts
I was told in my early days in an ICU by a nurse that she "would hate to be my patient." Here I was with about 4 weeks of experience ... such a sweetheart. I've since left that unit ....