nurses eating their young

There's a story here. Would love to hear it.

You were very brave to work in ICU as your first job!!!I can imagine being "bitten" in a normal setting as a new grad, let alone in critical care, as we say in England "I tip my hat to you!!"

tortisshellcat -

There's a joke going around in our hospital that goes ---

"They found a body downtown without identification, but they knew it was a nurse."

"How did they know?"

"Stomach was empty, bladder was full and the a-- had been chewed out."

I've been in nursing for 23 years and, like you, started out in ICU. Trust me, the best thing you can do is 1. not take it personally, and become immobilized by it. 2. move on to the next thing to be done and 3. if it still bothers you later, talk it over with the person (the chewER) because you (the chewEE) want to avoid being chewed on again.

Good luck :kiss

Why do other experienced nurses have to be that way to new nurses? Do they forget their days as the new nurse? (I am a student nurse). Thankfully I have become more thick skinned over the years, and I won't take crap from anyone. I mean, lets all get along little doggies!

We all get a few bites taken out of us every day. It's not just nurses eating their young. It happens to me as a charge nurse every single day and I've been a nurse for many years. Gotta have thick skin. Doesn't mean it's right, doesn't mean I put up with it, but it happens again and again.

I think the first few times it happens to a new grad, they feel because they are new it's nurses eating their young, and that they should be exempt from any negative feedback because they are new. When it fact it has nothing to do with the fact you're new, nurses eat each other up all the time.

To answer luv2quilt:), I don't know. Just get some thick skin and try not to generalize. The first time one gets their feelings hurts it's "why are nurses like this....." and we forget that 99.9% of us are o.k. What I mean is don't let the bad apples spoil the bunch. Stick with the winners, stand up for yourself, concentrate on the patients.

The overwhelming majority of us are good to new grads. We don't forget.

I've been a nurse for 11 years, and get a few bites taken out of me each time I work.

Unfortunate, but it's like that.

I hate seeing this going on. My husband suffered from it tremendously as a new grad last summer. I've been an RN for over 10 years and try my best to be supportive and help educate.

I will admit to "coming down" on two new nurses. Both had the same issue; They really didn't need any help or advice from any of the rest of us. They already knew how to do things. The 1st one I was precepting (the only one of dozens I've precepted that had any problems) I took her aside and tried to talk with her. She wouldn't hear it. She ran through several units in our hospital that just couldn't "accept" her before going to Home Health where she found her place. The second was a very arrogant gentleman new grad. He knew it all. He also screwed up a lot which I was used to with new nurses and I usually tried to help them out, get tests ordered, orders taken off, yell at pharmacy for them to get the drug that wasn't coming. He routinely made no effort to get meds from pharmacy if they didn't just appear and any med ordered to be given after 5pm was kinda optional to him (he worked 7a-7p). I finally wrote him up for several med errors (hadn't written anyone up in years at that point). He became much meeker at that point, at least around me. Checked all his MAR's before handing off to me. Really, I'm not a b****, it's the only time I was ever tacky to a new nurse and it was a legitimate issue. I usually do all I can to prevent having to write someone up (call them at home to verify if a med was given, if it wasn't give it a couple of hours late, not usually big issue if med is ordered qday or b.i.d., if given, let them know to sign the MAR next shift). I just didn't give him that same chance.

Originally posted by luv2quilt:)

Why do other experienced nurses have to be that way to new nurses? Do they forget their days as the new nurse? (I am a student nurse). Thankfully I have become more thick skinned over the years, and I won't take crap from anyone. I mean, lets all get along little doggies!

And why do brand new nurses have to be that way to older more experienced nurses???????????

I am sure that I am guilty of taking a couple of bites out of new nurses but I have also lost some of my tailfeathers to both fellow RNs and to a couple of ER MDs..In high stress environments sometimes it is hard to remain patient....I was born with a limited amount of it anyways..I did some precepting but I know my limits and there were some personalities that I just couldn't take. I think I was pretty effective with aggressive, type A new nurses but the others, I wasn't. It was not fair to them or to me...I pretty much sidestepped precepting because of it. I loved to teach a new skill like ABGs or Lavage or help with IVs but having someone with me the whole shift made me nuts. It slowed me down and I didn't like it. We had several awesome preceptors in the ER that were saints tho... The problem with the ER (at least mine) was you had X number of shifts or situations in which to prove yourself worthy..every new nurse (exp or not) had the same chance..if you didn't cut the mustard both nurses and the MDs wrote you off..It may not have been fair but that is definately what I saw. In that sort of environment you need to know that the person next to you is competent or in the very least that with a little more training they would be "good"...I didn't see that when I floated the units... Erin