Do nurses eat their young?

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Hi there I am currently done my academic foundations in nursing and I am awaiting year two placement ( my program is a 1+3) structure. I am just trying to get a feel for what nursing will be like once I'm a new nurse, and I have heard experienced nurses are hard on the younger less experienced nurses. To the point that it makes these news nurses want to quit and disrupts morale. Have any of you experienced this? I hope I'm wrong! Older nurses should be mentors for the young nurses to increase productivity and patient care. New nurses must learn from experience and I imagine that would be difficult when the new nurses are afraid of what might happen.

Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.

You are asking about an oft repeated topic here on AN, but to your credit you seem to asking out of genuine curiosity about what you may or may not face as a new nurse instead of assuming that you will find yourself in the situation of being a more seasoned nurses snack.

So...does the phenomenon of nurses eating their young exist? Sometimes, yes. It truly does depend a lot on the culture of your work place. It is much easier for the more seasoned nurses to provide the guidance and continuing education that new nurses need when they work in a place that allows them time to do so. In a place where staff is so overwhelmed that the experienced nurses feel rushed and unable to provide decent care to their own patients it will be much more difficult to find those few nurses that will still take time away from their own patients to stop and answer all the questions a newer nurse may have. Especially when it's not a matter of a quick answer, if you need help with a procedure that is unfamiliar to you it's not always easy to find another nurse with the time and the patience to walk you through it so you can learn it yourself. Much quicker and easier for that more experienced nurse to just do it, then the new nurse loses out on that learning opportunity.

I don't think this really qualifies as "eating the young" but as more of a reality check for the young. Unfortunately nursing is a career where the majority of your learning in the early phase happens on the job, and not all workplaces are conducive to this.

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When you were a new nurse, and the seasoned nurses didn't have time to show you a procedure, did you get to observe? Was that still helpful?

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.
When you were a new nurse, and the seasoned nurses didn't have time to show you a procedure, did you get to observe? Was that still helpful?

I can't really answer that as I've been a nurse for quite a long time. Back when I was new we had decent staffing plus I worked as a 'nurse tech" for a full year and a half while I was in school with a fabulous nurse that taught me way more than I ever learned in school. As a result when I graduated I really was ready and able to hit the floor running. Maybe some of the newer nurses can chime in with their experiences.

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Specializes in Education.

With ketchup. Or salsa. Maybe a nice red wine reduction...depends on the day. ;)

When you were a new nurse, and the seasoned nurses didn't have time to show you a procedure, did you get to observe? Was that still helpful?

Yes. And yes. My facility also has every single procedure that we may need to use written down on the intranet and the doctors themselves will tell you what to do. You'll have a chance to observe and do a lot of things during your clinical rotations as a student, and then on orientation you'll have a precepting nurse to follow around and be there as a helper.

On the flip side, there are times that I, as a nurse, get to teach the doctors things that traditionally fall to the nurses to do. Like, oh, getting a patient cleaned up. Those are always fun moments!

Now, is my unit and facility like every one out there? No. If we have a high census with a lot of high acuity patients, we're sometimes sink or swim.

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wow. sounds great!

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Yes, nurses can be very difficult to work with, I have been bullied several times and I am a new nurse. Frankly, I have come to understand that it reflects more on the bully's lack of professionalism than anything I've done. Unfortunately it is common in my chosen field of psychiatric nursing. I have also found many nurses are very poor communicators, which doesn't help the situation. The most important thing is to pause and not react, and this can be very difficult. Recognize bullying for what it is and remember it is often not because you have done anything wrong, but the nurse doing the bullying has done something wrong.

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best of luck!

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Specializes in Family Practice.

Unfortunately, it is true in some cases. I have seen seasoned nurses literally berate new grads leaving them in tears. I find this behavior self destructive and it will only harm the nursing profession as a whole. At my work there are a couple of nurses who are nasty to new nurses. I pull them to the side and explain that you are a registered nurse just like them and you will have to assert yourself in that manner. Learn and take in all the knowledge you can. Utilize resources beyond your preceptor. Do not be afraid to speak up if you feel your orientation is not helping you grow. My saving grace I was a LVN first and was not intimidated by RNs and I spoke up. I know not everyone is going to do that, next best option talk to your educator and have a sit down let him/her be the mediator and get to crux of the issue.

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I have been a nurse for 2 years, I have not experienced this "nurses eat their young". If anything, it has been the exact opposite and I have had nothing but people who have been open and receptive to my questions and have offered their guidance. If anything, I really think it's the CNA's that have tried to eat me. For some reason, it has been an extreme power struggle no matter how nicely, or how many different ways you have to ask somebody to do THEIR job!!! This has led to me doing most things myself, but then that leads to resentment as well because they are like "oh I just did vitals", or "I'll do that", but when you ask them, it's "that's not my patient", or "I don't have that room". Can't win no matter what, you just have to go with it.

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My first nursing job was great, everyone was very helpful and willing to answer questions.

At my second job, I learned what that saying meant.

You never know what you're gonna get, it depends greatly on the people.

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Hi there I am currently done my academic foundations in nursing and I am awaiting year two placement ( my program is a 1+3) structure. I am just trying to get a feel for what nursing will be like once I'm a new nurse, and I have heard experienced nurses are hard on the younger less experienced nurses. To the point that it makes these news nurses want to quit and disrupts morale. Have any of you experienced this? I hope I'm wrong! Older nurses should be mentors for the young nurses to increase productivity and patient care. New nurses must learn from experience and I imagine that would be difficult when the new nurses are afraid of what might happen.

Hi, I can't say for sure that nurses eat their young, however I can say that where I work (LTC Facility) they are not very welcoming to new nurses whether they are young or older lpn or RN and I hear all of the nurses and nurse aides talking about each other behind each others backs. I just turn the other cheek to it all, be nice to the one's who's nice to me, do my job, focus on the residents and stay out of the petty childish gossip.

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I've seen this go both ways.

I've watched a new nurse be eaten alive by seasoned nurse and on the other hand I've seen young new nurses be mean to seasoned nurses.

This profession is full of toxic people who want to bring their peers down.

You got that right!!

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