Just starting your career in nursing

Published

When you first started as a nurse, were you treated as a rookie or did the other staff members encourage you in ur new career?

Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

At my first nursing job, some of the more experienced nurses behaved rudely and immaturely toward me.

Specializes in neuro, ICU/CCU, tropical medicine.
When you first started as a nurse, were you treated as a rookie or did the other staff members encourage you in ur new career?

Both.

It's the old "Nurses eat their young" maxim, but ya gotta pay your dues.

Earn their respect, show them that you want to learn. The ones who are the hardest on you are probably looking for validation and you're the easiest target. Be demure, the worst thing to do is get defensive! Say, "Oh, I didn't know that," or "that's a great idea!" or "could you tell me more about that?" (These are lessons I learned the hard way! This works well with arrogant docs too) Be ambitious without being abnoxious.

Eventually, you'll find yourself accepted by your peers - and as for the ones who continue to treat you as a lower form of life, eventually you'll realize that it's their problem and not yours.

Good luck!

Specializes in neuro, ICU/CCU, tropical medicine.

"If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Romans 12:20-21

Specializes in Emergency.

Some were rude and nasty, no doubt about that. But, at the same time I'm sure it wasn't easy orienting a new group of people every couple of weeks and some of them were getting burned out from it. Do some nurses "eat their young" absolutely. But, the way I see it, you gotta pay your dues wherever you work.

Many of the staff that I worked with were very receptive to new grads. My unit hadn't had new grads in a long while, so many of them loved teaching us ER things, rather than just orienting new hires to the department. I found someone I liked at the beginning, someone who was patient, seemed knowledgable and willing to take the time to teach me. I asked to be partnered with this person, and tried to do all my shifts with her, so that really minimized my exposure to the negative attitudes of some of the nurses in the unit.

Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.

people are individuals; there is no way to know how they will treat you! i think those nurses that were hazed a bit when they were new, hate that they are nurses, or are "know-it-alls" tend to be more likely to abuse new nurses. (although some of the last group can be very helpful because they want to share their immense knowledge).

as for me, the vast majority of nurses on my first floor (telemetry) were wonderful with encouraging and teaching, and i think part of that was because they were either really new themselves or had experience as educators. on my medsurg floor (i was still quite green then as well!) nearly everyone was helpful. i only remember getting attitude from one nurse because she was a miserable person. and she's not nice to anyone, not just new grads!

:spbox:my figure skating coach always said "your desire must exceed your fear" and i think this applies in this case. your desire to learn, do your job, and above all else, care for your patient must always exceed your fear of a nurse (or tech or unit clerk or doctor) being mean or discouraging. so what if they want you to feel stupid? you'll get over that, but what if you don't speak up for your patient? (and why does the soapbox dude look mad? he should be impassioned....)

jess

+ Add a Comment