What Is the Problem With These Nurses?

Nurses General Nursing

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I've always thought the "nurses eating their young" phenomenon was somewhat of a misnomer, since we're not their children and I know students can impose a lot of burdens on nurses. But, when you're pretty functional and helping out with most of the work, and some nurses still beat you down to a pulp, I just don't get it.

What's the point of being so mean? I'm running my butt off all day, I'm giving all of the meds, doing all of the charting, aide work, etc. for most of the patients. Yet, no matter how hard I work, there's still a constant barrage of criticism ...

Of course, I make mistakes and I definitely need to improve in a lot of areas. No question about it. Nevertheless, I am not a total novice and, despite my shortcomings, I do know I'm making their day a hellava lot easier.

But ... I'm only human, and I do tend to make even more mistakes when I know I'm going to get slammed no matter what I do. After awhile, no matter how tough you are, it's difficult to concentrate and do everything the nurse wants when you know she's hostile and looking for any opportunity to jump on your case ... even when you do things right.

I actually don't need nor do I expect praise or reassurance but, like a lot of people, I don't tend do well when I getting slammed all the time either.

I can't wait to get out of there and let them get back to doing all the work. Thankfully, my days of slave labor will soon be over. I hope they got their jollies because if this is how they make themselves feel better or whatever it is ... good riddance.

:typing

These stories remind me why

I have never & would never work in a hospital.

Specializes in primary care, pediatrics, OB/GYN, NICU.
Whether management realizes it or not, the experience of nursing students during clinicals at their hospital is the most powerful recruitment tool there is - FOR or AGAINST. If the nurses on a floor are welcoming and helpful to the students, then the graduate nurses will choose that place for their first job, even if the pay is less than somewhere else, or they have to drive 30 miles. If the unit has a "toxic" feel, then graduates will avoid that place like the plague, even if the management is offering all sorts of pay incentives and bonuses, and the place is "local." Trust me, I know this from experience ;)

YES!!! This is SO true! The same thing happened when I was a student and my clinical group worked the swing shift at a certain hospital. The staff was SO horrible and the charge nurse would lie about us to our clinical instructor. The charge nurse also gossiped about how "awful and stupid" we were at one of her church functions and it was a small town and we heard about it. Fortuneatly we had the BEST instructor who knew this gal was a problem. When we became seniors and the manager was trying to recruit us to work on that unit, NO ONE - not one new grad - went to work there. And we told her WHY we wouldn't too! Our class went to work for other units and the two other hospitals in the area! Their loss. Students are our future colleagues - we need to teach and treat them well.

Give them the list of what we CANNOT under any circumstance do. What we can do on our own, and what must be done in the presence of an RN. Get an orientation to the lift machines that we haven't used before etc... We get an orientation to the clinical site, but I still see so much confusion from the staff that I feel like we need them to tell us what they expect and we can modify those expectations if they are not in line with what we can do.

I guess that's my complaint here. I can understand that when you're dealing with first semester students, just as an example ... it is a real hassle because the students don't know anything and the RN has to be with them all the time.

But by the time we get to preceptorship, the RN doesn't have to be with us at all. We've been signed off on everything and, before we go to preceptorship, we have to get signed off on several tasks again ... just to make sure we can do it.

There's very little we can't do as far as routine med surg floor tasks. The RN does not have to be with us unless it's something we literally have no experience with, which doesn't happen all that often with routine med surg tasks.

So, it's really not that much of a hassle for us to be there except ... teaching us the quirks of that particular facility's system and equipment. My RN has never gone into any room to watch me do anything. You are, at that point doing most of the work because that's what you have to do to pass.

But sometimes, I guess, it's just more fun to be mean than nice ... even when people are helping you out.

:typing

I think we all have a responsibility to speak up when we are maltreated. We can do this in a calm, courteous way but we do need to do it. We need to let people know how their stinking attitudes, their cruelty, their bringing their personal troubles to work affects us.

As a student, you have to be careful. And no matter how nice you are, some people will get angry and will misquote you.

But you can let the critics know what you said originally, OP. That it makes you feel like you shouldn't even bother to try to please.

Specializes in ICU, CCU, Trauma, neuro, Geriatrics.

I have been a nurse for 15 years now and I still find in new positions for me there are bullies, people who don't know a bit and try to pretend they can do their job. I am sure they exist in all jobs but when we are responsible for peoples lives it is a bit more stressful working with that type of person.

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

Bully OnLine: bullying in the workplace, school, family and community, action you can take, stress, psychiatric injury, PTSD, resources, case histories, news and contact the media

cause these people are BULLIES pure and simple. Don't be their victim.

As a student, you have to be careful. And no matter how nice you are, some people will get angry and will misquote you.

Yeah. I noticed you said something very similar on another thread ... basically, trust no one. And believe me, I don't.

I can't prove it, of course, but I suspect that another student ... who tends to be very competitive ... may have said something to my preceptor. Who knows what but, of course, she's sweet as can be to me ... which kinda makes me suspicious.

I've never said anything to this student ... nothing. But, of course, that doesn't prevent people from making stuff up.

Isn't nursing fun? Although, quite frankly, this stuff can happen at any job. It's amazing how people get into major fights over stuff that never happened.

:typing

Specializes in Day Surgery/Infusion/ED.
You'll find that as a new employee also. Some old fossils have worked at the same place so long, (it may be the only place they have ever worked) that they have no concept that there may be other ways of doing things.

They really ought to get out more. :roll

I really, really resent the "old fossil" remark. That is so offensive. If you are seeing experienced nurses as "old fossils," then that tells me all I need to know about why you have problems with some of your co-workers.

I don't precept students anymore. It's a lose:lose proposition, and I am frankly sick of reading these types of comments. I used to take my time and really try to teach. Apparently, nothing is ever good enough for some of you. On top of that, to know that many of you regard me and my experienced co-workers as worthless "fossils"...obviously you don't need our help, you already know it all.

Specializes in Day Surgery/Infusion/ED.
I guess that's my complaint here. I can understand that when you're dealing with first semester students, just as an example ... it is a real hassle to deal with students because they don't know anything and the RN has to be with them all the time.

But by the time we get to preceptorship, the RN doesn't have to be with us at all. We've been signed off on everything and, before we go to preceptorship, we have to get signed off on several tasks again ... just to make sure we can do it.

There's very little we can't do as far as routine med surg floor tasks. The RN does not have to be with us unless it's something we literally have no experience with, which doesn't happen all that often with routine med surg tasks.

So, it's really not that much of a hassle for us to be there except ... teaching us the quirks of that particular facility's system and equipment. My RN has never gone into any room to watch me do anything. You are, at that point doing most of the work because that's what you have to do to pass.

But sometimes, I guess, it's just more fun to be mean than nice ... even when people are helping you out.

:typing

And this is where you have no clue what it's like to actually be the nurse with the license. You may think you're doing "80% of the work," but the nurse who is precepting you is still responsible for what you do. That is extra work. You don't know that yet, because you haven't been in that situation.

There is a technique called 'mobbing' which is basically what junior high school girls do all the time. You can end up on a unit that supports this culture. Evening shift on Med-Surg where I work is dominated by this immature attitude, and will ostrasize those who don't buy into it's negativity. The Unit Secretary is the lynchpin, and she and one of the CNA's socialize outside of work a good deal. Anyone who challanges her bad work ethic, such as requiring her to redo orders, properly checking her work before signing off orders, etc and so forth, is subject to her wrath. She also controls a few of the younger nurses. It's a very unhealthy situation. I float there from CCU for the second half of evening shifts (I work 12 hour nights). It's like going back to Jr High. :uhoh3:

Unfortunately, I have seen that some new nurses get paired with a preceptor that has an attitude and they become (or maybe they were like that to begin with?) just as nasty as the one that is precepting them.

Interesting. I remember in one of the orientations I had for a job with one of the hosptials that the security guy kept telling us over and over: behavior breeds behavior.

If you react with hostility in a security situation then, the other person is going to increase their hostility also. But if you're calm, it's more likely that they'll become calm.

I guess the "behavior breeds behavior" phenomenon applies to employee relations as well.

:typing

Mobbing: another good theory. I've seen that behavior, and that's hardly limited to nurses or hospitals. What's really at issue here is why women of any kind, regardless of profession, feel the need to lash out at each other. One of my nursing text books refers to it as "horizontal violence." That's apt.

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