Nurses eating their young

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Everyone has heard this: Nurses eat their young. What I want to know is; why?

As a group we have the power to change our behavior and the culture of nursing, so why does this happen? Do we resent new grads having it a little easier than us? Are scared of their knowledge? (stuff they learned in school, that we had to learn on our own.)

How and what do we do to change this?

Anyway, if we could identify and talk about possible reasons...we might find new ways to change how we do stuff.

All of us above a certain age have experienced ageism, and I don't like it one bit! So is "eating our young" a similar form of discrimination?

Your thoughts and advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

This distructive and hurtful behavior is about "power" and "control".:uhoh3:

Maybe its more about personality. Most nurses are nice, some arent.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.

S.I.G.H.

Specializes in Emergency Medicine.

They taste like chicken...

Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

TL:DR (Scroll to last sentence for the abridged version.)

When you are new, you are bright eyed and bushy tailed. You are immune to office or floor politics. You have a temporary force-field that repels cynicism and absorbs knowledge/skills with enthusiasm.

To some, all of the smiles, curiosity, and mistakes resulting from being inexperienced are irritating and possibly threatening.

My first ever preceptor was irritated by the fact that I needed a rationale for everything. I wanted to know why something was done a certain way. While I realize this was not conducive to time management, I still think her reaction of "You're a nurse not a physician"..was less than helpful. There were others in the bunch who did not take kindly to my question asking mainly because they did not know the answers to said questions ;)

There were a handful of nurses who met my curiosity with kindness and direction. They (even when swamped) when out of their way to teach me or guide me in the right direction. Yes, they were stressed and overworked; but they also knew if they taught me something, I wouldn't be asking the same question again. The best nurse who ever mentored me in the workplace copied a few scholarly articles from journals and told me the answers were somewhere buried in the text.

My point here is:

If the new-grad is open to learning, has a great work ethic, and shows signs of progress at the appropriate times...you should thank your lucky stars they were hired to be in your dept. Even if said new-grad is awkward, takes too much time at the omnicell/pyxis, asks too many questions etc... enrich their beginnings in nursing and they will remember you always. They will also become a more competent nurse!

I think the problem is certainly multi-faceted. But remember no one was born an expert in anything. Eventually, you might have to rely on that once incompetent new-grad to be your wingman when the sh*t hits the fan.

We're all in this together people.

This is not about the perfect "RN Hospital USA" which you would think is kind, compassionate and caring. This is "real life". Ego-centric, power and control with other Nurses including students.

Specializes in PICU, Sedation/Radiology, PACU.

I'm very fortunate to work on a floor where, from the time I came in for my interview, I felt welcomed. I've been treated kindly and taught patiently every step of the way.

My co-workers are not cannibals.

I agree with the power and control theory!

Nurses are an odd bunch.....we have very little power/control or autonomy. We are subject to the orders of physicians and the policies and protocols of our place of employment.

I personally feel that the low levels of autonomy and feelings of powerlessness lead to aggression.......that aggression manifests itself through lateral violence.

Nurses spend a lot of time criticizing other nurses......look around this forum and you can see it first hand. You don't really see that with doctors. Nurses judge each other very harshly...."I would never do that," or "I have never made a medication error." Or we make a HUGE deal out of a nurses error.....somehow it makes us feel better about ourselves.

The whole thing is a shame.....but I am not sure how it can be fixed. I think it really is important to acknowledge that tearing others down really has more to do with how we feel about ourselves.

The subject comes up so frequently that we have what is called a "Sticky" - a recommended reading area. Here is the link to the sticky on "Nurses eating their young".

https://allnurses.com/nurse-colleague-patient/do-nurses-eat-302909.html

"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."

steph

Specializes in LTC.
They taste like chicken...

:lol2::lol2::lol2: Too funny !

I don't believe nurses eat their young, I just believe there are some mean nasty nurses out there from the ones with the least experience to the ones with the most. Nurses eat each other, period.

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