Is the nursing environment hostile?

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I'm a college sophomore a with nursing major, plans to eventually pursue a CRNA. From what I've been reading on this forum, it seems like nurses back stab each other a lot. Is this the case or am I getting the wrong picture? If so, does this kind of childish behavior actually affect peoples jobs and get them fired?

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It's different everywhere, some places are very toxic work environments and others are fantastic. You might get along with 99% of everyone on the ward except your boss. It's really no different than any other profession in that regard.

When in an online forum users have anonymity and will often behave differently than they would in the work place. Some subjects that people feel strongly about like politics and religion are discussed here whereas they are entirely inappropriate at work. If you reveal your political leanings at work, don't be surprised if you end up getting fired.

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11 hours ago, HandsOffMySteth said:

It's different everywhere, some places are very toxic work environments and others are fantastic. You might get along with 99% of everyone on the ward except your boss. It's really no different than any other profession in that regard.

When in an online forum users have anonymity and will often behave differently than they would in the work place. Some subjects that people feel strongly about like politics and religion are discussed here whereas they are entirely inappropriate at work. If you reveal your political leanings at work, don't be surprised if you end up getting fired.

so its not one big mean girls club?

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Specializes in NICU.

Nursing is like every other profession out there contains the entire spectrum of personalities. Some personalities get along with each other and others don't. A member may enjoy their job and have a good work environment, have ten good things that happened during the week, but they come on here to vent about the one thing that they are upset over. You only read the complaints, because it feels better to vent to people that can relate to the issue, but all you read is the person complaining which gives you the impression that everyone hates their job. We need a Happy Forum on AN. People can post all of the good things that they encounter at their job to counteract all of the bad things people post.

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Not every unit is the same - I rotated through toxic units during school and the nurses were more than happy to vent to me about management/petty co-workers/*** unit culture.

When you decide on the ICU you want to work in after school, vet the work environment. I was really lucky and found a tech job in an ICU (mostly) full of helpful people and really supportive management; the most important thing for me was if you ***ed up your charting, you wouldn't get fired like you would in a lot of those magnet facilities (in my particular unit, you'd just get coached and be asked to go back into the chart). Having a tolerable work environment is going to be the key to keeping your sanity while pulling your 3 12's + OT landing crash-and-burns all day/night.

Good luck on your CRNA journey!

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Specializes in Home health.

Nurses DO eat their young. And I don’t care who argues with me on that, they do. Be prepared for that. But once you get comfortable with standing your ground, a lot of times they back off some. The first couple years are rough. People try to test you, make you feel stupid, and just in general make it rough. You can find numerous posts on here from new nurses saying that another nurse, EMT, MD, whatever questioned every decision they made and made them feel less than. Don’t be discouraged. I say this only to point out that you need to be willing to learn and at the same time be confident in your knowledge. Don’t let people make your job rough just because you’re new. Once you learn to let some things roll off your back and hold your stance, things become a lot better. This year I’ll have been a nurse for 5 years and I’m just now getting the hang of that.

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Specializes in Nurse Anesthesiology.

The "nursey nurse" mentality is horrible and pathetic to me. I recommend if you are looking at CRNA that you just get through your RN program, work a few years SICU or CVICU and apply. Just keep your head down and get through it all.

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Hi, I just came across your post. Yes, you will meet some very rude and mean nurses. And you should be prepared. I never prepared, so when I got into the situation, I did not know how to deal with it. Good luck! I added my post here. If you do not mind, you can take a look.

 

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.

Unit cultures vary from place to place and management can play a big role in promoting unity or conflict.

The thing to remember is that when the focus is on the patient, your own comfort and feelings play a much lesser role.  This has been difficult for some students and new grads to get used to.  When people are speaking bluntly, or letting their own stress get the better of them, the newbie will often personalize this behaviour instead of just absorbing the lesson and moving on.

Hospitals are not easy places to work, because management is often trying to accomplish more with less.  Short-staffing, big workloads, missed breaks get in the way of nurses fostering nurturing relationships with one another.  Then they themselves are blamed for the culture that ensues.

At one time, school was a prep for what happened in the real world.  Now there is a disconnect with new grads feeling thrown to the wolves.  Some units have managed to avoid this, so when you're looking for work try to get a sense of the unit you're being hired to.  While doing your clinicals in school, you'll have to tough out wherever they send you.

People are people wherever you go.  I don't think you have to worry unduly.  Best to you.

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