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?

So - where's the popcorn?

Hello darkness my old friend...

I just popped some and it has real butter and salt. None of that sissy popcorn. ;) And I'm humming that song . . .

LetLoveNReasonUnite, RN......the term might be overused AT TIMES

NETY is overused all the time. "Nurses Eat Their Young" aka "NETY" . . . grammatically that say all nurses eat their young.

We do not all eat our young. That is what sticks in our collective craw. :banghead:

Go back up and read Post #68 by RescueNinjaKY again.

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Specializes in Cath/EP lab, CCU, Cardiac stepdown.

I didn't realize that the prerequisite of a nurse is to be a perfect being. Do you honestly think that just because I'm a nurse, I'm expected to be nice to everyone. We are humans not saints. Yes, my calling is to be compassionate to my patients, but that is it. It does not mean I have to be nice to everyone. And speaking of hypocrites, as a nurse, is our job not to advocate for health, then does this mean that we should be in perfect health lest we be hypocrites? This is another common overused generalization next to NETY, "you're a nurse, aren't you supposed to be nice all the time". Nope, nope, nope. Believe me, I am strictly against bullying, but to make such wide generalization is wrong. Once again bullying exists everywhere, to claim and generalize that all experienced nurses do it is wrong, bullying is wrong, expecting a nurse to be nice 24/7 is also wrong for we are only human.

Also not everyone jumps to the conclusion that no bullying is present. We go off with what we get from the OP. In fact there are indeed other threads on which posters have called out bullies before. One in particular that I remember is when a nurse kept referring another nurse, who happens to be male, as girl. Multiple posters have told him to report that behavior.

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... This is another common overused generalization next to NETY, "you're a nurse, aren't you supposed to be nice all the time". Nope, nope, nope. Believe me, I am strictly against bullying, but to make such wide generalization is wrong. . .

This sentiment made a lightbulb go on in my head . . . people who cry "NETY" are being bullies to most of the nurses in the world. :blackeye:

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I did not accuse anyone on here of being a bully.. nor do I expect people to be perfect. I think we should be decent human beings to each other. Remember at any point a coworker can become a patient. At what point does the bully see them as worthy of their compassion?

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Specializes in Hospice.
I did not accuse anyone on here of being a bully.. nor do I expect people to be perfect. I think we should be decent human beings to each other. Remember at any point a coworker can become a patient. At what point does the bully see them as worthy of their compassion?

Good question ... obviously you haven't reached it yet.

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I did not accuse anyone on here of being a bully.. nor do I expect people to be perfect. I think we should be decent human beings to each other. Remember at any point a coworker can become a patient. At what point does the bully see them as worthy of their compassion?

And I don't think we should call others indecent human beings because they disagree with our opinions. Perhaps some nurses need to focus on being more resilient rather than playing the victim.

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I did not accuse anyone on here of being a bully..

The thread's title is "Eating Their Young". The term "NETY" comes up throughout.

When people STOP making generalizations and painting all nurses with a broad brush and instead talk about specific situations, then the conversation would go a lot better.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Yes, bullying is not just among nurses, that's true. It's still a despicable behaviour, and in nursing? It's hypocrisy. You cannot be nice to a patient and then turn around and be an utter ***** to a coworker... that person is a hypocrite.. Yes.. the term might be overused AT TIMES... but even here people jump to the ASSUMPTION that a bullying claim is illegitimate, and doing that is a victim blaming, which is not cool (would you do that with a patient? probably not!). There is plenty of scholarship to back this crap up... I think bullying is repressed group behaviour.. and it might not be everywhere within nursing but it's significant enough that scholars are trying to figure out a way to fight it. If you are a nurse, and a bully, sad to say, but you are a hypocrite. You are negatively effecting the health of your coworkers (like a poison) and you should seek the help you so desperately need.

I understand that you feel you've been victimized and that you seem to need big fat bullies to blame. That does not mean bullies are actually to blame or they are even present. I don't know what happened in your case; I wasn't there and I only know what I've read on the internet. What I've read on the internet from YOU does not support the theory that bullies caused your problems.

Education is a wonderful thing, and many nurses have acquired more and more of it in an attempt to say away from the bedside (and any actual patients) and then have to find something to do to justify their presence at the Important Meetings and away from the Actual Patients. I think a lot of scholars are chasing the bully theory for no good reason except that they don't have to clean up poop. I'm sure that some good comes out of those Important Meetings, but I'm not sure their conclusions are always accurate.

Somewhere, you've picked up the notion that nurses aren't real live human people, but that we're some sort of perfect nurse/angel hybrid. I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but that just isn't so. Nurses are people, too. And we don't like everyone. Co-workers who are unprofessional, incompetent or slow will not be popular, although most of us will try to mentor them to the extent possible just to keep our patients safe.

As far as blaming the victim even if it's a patient . . . come on now! Surely you don't believe there's lots of naked gardeners out there who just happen to slip and fall on the cucumbers in just the right way . . . . Or that "some dude" is out there going around SHOOTING innocent people who are just standing on they corner minding their bid-ness? Or that anyone whose last words were "Hold my beer and watch this" was behaving in a responsible manner? Of COURSE we blame the "victim" of such terrible travesties of justice, such awful coincidences. In most cases, we'll treat the "victim" with all the professionalism and lack of judgement that we can muster. Although I'll have to admit that I may snicker at the guy who has had to have an innocent vegetable removed from his nether regions more than once, I won't do it in front of him.

There's nothing hypocritical about being nice to a patient (whom we're being paid to be nice to) and then turning around and being short with the incompetent coworker who has screwed up your day again because you have to bail her out again. There's nothing hypocritical about being nice to a patient and then turning around and delivering negative feedback to you because you've made yet another medication error. Hopefully we're being pleasant to you, but sometimes when we're stressed already and you've just screwed up our day in a big way, it's difficult. Especially when you've done it AGAIN.

If you're constantly claiming your life is full of bullies who thwart your best efforts and you've done nothing to deserve it, perhaps you are being a bit disingenuous. Perhaps even a hypocrite yourself. Or even a bully. It has been my observation that the people who are most worried about finding bullies everywhere are the most likely to be bullies themselves.

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No idea. They eat their young, their old, their travelers, floats and per diems. Insecurity perhaps however why they all fail to feel ' elevated' unless there is someone else to look upon as inferior I do not know. Waited tables for years in youth, primarily female yet never encountered this....

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No idea. They eat their young, their old, their travelers, floats and per diems. Insecurity perhaps however why they all fail to feel ' elevated' unless there is someone else to look upon as inferior I do not know. Waited tables for years in youth, primarily female yet never encountered this....

Lord have mercy . . . :no:

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.

In my experience, LTC. It's a combination of poor staffing, heavy workloads, and high turnover. The employees who enjoy making life Hell for everyone else are allowed to continue because they bother to show up and stick around.

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What an angry video, what a brittle, angry person.

Seems like you've been a nurse for bit. I'd like to hear your opinion upon the points in the video. Surely, somebody with such a high post to like ratio could come up with something more clever than "angry, brittle, person."

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