Is it really this bad?

[Brookelin]

I've been on here for a little while and have noticed many posts commenting on "nurse bullying" or how nurses "eat their young". While I've often wondered what everyone is talking about, I kind of brushed it off. But then I had to go to the ER the other day because of gallbladder issues and could actually here the nurses being snarky and catty with one another. Maybe I didn't understand the situation and that was just their sense of humor, but it really looked to me like one of the nurses was just being an outright B to another nurse. Now this is making me kind of nervous. Is nurse bullying really that big of an issue? Do I have to prepare myself for this? I am a very nonconfrontational person and don't like the idea of having to deal with this when I become a nurse!

[IndyElmer]

There certainly are plenty of anecdotal stories about nurses eating their young. I have to admit that it concerns me too, particularly since I have seen while working/volunteering in various medical settings. However, some departments/floors are worse than others and I haven't seen it in every department/floor. I keep trying to figure out how to tell during an interview/tour whether the staff really work as a team and does the team have a big, small or no problem with eating of the young. So far, I don't know the answer to that and I worry that I'll end up accepting my first RN job in a toxic environment, but I remain hopeful that I'll end up somewhere that is low on the backbiting scale so I can really get my new career off on the right foot.