Eating Their Young

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Hey everyone!

I'm curious- which nursing specialty do you think has more nurses that eat their young and is more likely to have a toxic work environment? And why?

Hey everyone!

I'm curious- which nursing specialty do you think has more nurses that eat their young and is more likely to have a toxic work environment? And why?

While this is a serious topic open for discussion, if you do your homework, you will find multiple threads devoted to just this issue.

Believe me, you will not lack for reading material. No need to open a new thread. Just do some digging and you will find a treasure trove.

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Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).

In my 17 years of nursing I have never been bullied, But I don't have a passive personality. I find the whole NETY thing to be untrue in my experience. My daddy used to say that just because you got your feelings hurt doesn't mean you have been bullied.

Hppy

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Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.
In my 17 years of nursing I have never been bullied, But I don't have a passive personality. I find the whole NETY thing to be untrue in my experience. My daddy used to say that just because you got your feelings hurt doesn't mean you have been bullied.

Hppy

I am glad that you have positive experience. Unfortunately, it doesn't mean it is the same for others. I was bullied, with following long term sequela for my health.

The one thing we all can do to stop bullying and lateral violence in nursing is to speak about it. We all know what denial does with people, so let's not follow this way.

Toward the question - in addition to the lack of male nursing personnel and high stress, I made some observations which represent red flags, IMH(umble)O:

- "core" of old-timers with the rest of nurses coming and going. The worst case scenario is a unionized hospital which is, at the same time, close "feeder" to high-profile grad programs where new grads come with the purpose to "serve the term"

- affiliation with religious organizations

- areas experiencing rapid and sharp economic changes, both ways

- sharp difference between demographics of hospital staff and surrounding area (i.e. 90% Caucasian nurses in a city with 30+% non-Caucasian population)

- existence of rhetorics signifying administration's position toward bullying, "inclusiveness" and such. If they speak about it, they basically admit the existence of the problem. It is another question entirely if they really want to deal with it.

- poor standing with EEOC

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

Maybe it's time for another "nursing students behaving ridiculously in clinical" thread. Or maybe a "nursing students abusing staff nurses thread." We haven't had one of those for a while.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Do a search and figure it out for yourself.

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When I saw the title, my first thought was, "another one of these?"

No specialty is immune. All nurses eventually develop a taste for young flesh. The toxic environment results from the subsequent passing of gas as those old nurses digest their young meals. :yawn:

I believe we younger nurses are also crunchy and good with ketchup... ;)

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Another man's trash is another man's treasure. An unit can be the perfect fit for one new nurse, and a nightmare for another, no matter the unit's specialty. So many factors play a role in a nurse's success on a unit that one can right a book on it...:writing:

Side note: For any nurse looking at new job, I highly advise shadowing the unit, during the shift you are interviewing for (day, night, rotating, etc.), for multiple days if possible - especially if you are interviewing for hospital connected to a network :/ Once you pick a unit, you are stuck on that unit (usually for six months or more, depending on your hospital's policy for transfer).

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Thank you for those who gave me their input! :up:

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Specializes in Pediatric Critical Care.
Assuming that this is a serious post...

I find that the more stressful the environment, and/or the more

saturated with females (yes I'm serious)... the more likely you

will have nurses "eating their young", as well as any other nurse,

new or seasoned, who opens themselves up to being easily bullied

by having a more passive personality.

I believe med-surge, ICU, and ER to be the worst areas for this.

Your conclusion is surprising, because I think ICU and ER are the specialties with the most MEN. If more women = more NETY, I would have thought your conclusion would have been that something like L&D was the top area for this.

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Your conclusion is surprising, because I think ICU and ER are the specialties with the most MEN. If more women = more NETY, I would have thought your conclusion would have been that something like L&D was the top area for this.

Not so surprising unless you believe that both men and women react to stress in the same fashion.

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Specializes in ER, Med-surg.

All the nurses who have ever been seriously unpleasant to me were just a year or two more experienced than I was at the time. I have had no issues with older nurses, only with those who were insecure about their tiny bit of technical seniority.

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