New Grad Nurse Arrogance

[gizmojamz, BSN, RN]

Recently, a friend of mine passed her NCLEX and I'm wondering how common it is that newly licensed nurses develop arrogance after passing the exam. I won't say she isn't allowed to "feel herself" a little bit or be proud of herself after such a feat but it's been almost a month now and I feel like this arrogance trickles into our conversations even outside of topics regarding nursing. If I disagree with something or she is wrong on a topic, it's "please don't lecture me on this" or "please stop" or "girl I know what I'm talking about." It's such an odd change in behavior and sometimes it feels like she is belittling me because I haven't finished school yet.

Don't get me wrong, she is a good longtime friend who has even given me helpful tips as I approach my final semester of nursing school this fall and I don't believe that she will be the type of RN who will be arrogant while on the floor that she might be a risk to patients but I think I just really miss the humbleness she had as a student. Has anyone else ever had this type of encounter with their nurse friends? Why do we have to be arrogant to uplift ourselves? Is it insecurities? Is she nervous? She's more of an extrovert and I an introvert so I'm not sure how I can open up this conversation. Should I just leave it alone? How long do you think this will last?

[HalfBoiled, BSN, RN]

She's still in the "honeymoon" stages of passing NCLEX.

Let her be.

Years of nursing school finally paid off, and that exam was the last hurdle of anything academic related at this time.

I would recommend she should go on vacation to celebrate. That's what I did.

[Sour Lemon]

Recently, a friend of mine passed her NCLEX and I'm wondering how common it is that newly licensed nurses develop arrogance after passing the exam.

Full stop. The fact that you and this girl talk doesn't make you "friends". If you have a poor opinion of her and can't discuss it with her face to face, the friendship has run its course. Move on.

[cleback]

Not sure how I'd feel about a friend telling me not to lecture her when I was just trying to have a discussion about a nursing topic. And I definitely would not tolerate it from a colleague. Sounds like the issue is more with her and your relationship than with a new nurse passing nclex.

[kakamegamama]

I would let her celebrate. If she is arrogant, becoming a RN on a unit or wherever she ends up, and facing her colleagues and being "low woman on the totem pole" will help her find equilibrium. Don't let it get under your skin.

[Lulu Belle, RN, EMT-B]

I think that when you graduate and see what the "real world" is like, it becomes very clear just how ridiculous nursing school is. I think things that felt like life and death to you in school suddenly seem so silly, and the way you learned things sometimes get thrown to the wayside once you're actually a nurse. I haven't taken NCLEX, but I've been doing a preceptorship all summer, and it's become really clear to me that real world nursing is so so different than school. Her attitude may be a reflection of that. That definitely doesn't give her a free ticket to be obnoxious, but that may be why she's acting that way.

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

there will waxing and waning of confidence as she goes through first job, orientation, coming off orientation, first code/RRT, etc. let her celebrate for now :)

[PeakRN]

I'm not sure how anyone feels more confident after taking the NCLEX, pass or fail, it dones't represent the real challenges of nursing. Most of us laughed about how ridiculous the questions were, it certainly wasn't any kind of reassuring milestone.

Over confidence can certainly be dangerous, but I'd be willing to bet that when she starts her first job she will quickly realize how much more she has to learn.

[Rocknurse, MSN, APRN, NP]

I wouldn't worry about it. The first few months of being an actual nurse will knock that arrogance right out of her. If she's lucky. If not, and she continues to be arrogant, she'll be over-confident and make a huge error and learn the hard way that humility is a great thing to have.

[markko]

She just proved to herself that her five foot high stack of books were appropriately memorized in order to pass 125 questions that will determine her future until she dies. Yeah. I was there in December 1993... Best Christmas present ever. It took a couple months on the job before I came down to the land of the humble.

[Davey Do]

Recently, a friend of mine passed her NCLEX and I'm wondering how common it is that newly licensed nurses develop arrogance after passing the exam.

This situation reminds me of a classic Peanuts comic:

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It really didn't go that way, but it still reminded me of this situation:

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[Neats, BSN]

When I first got my Nursing Home Administrator License I thought I had made it. My license hung on the wall, I was responsible for everything in that facility and I drove staff crazy. I was there all the time, I demanded perfection from everyone who crossed my path. Fortunately I had really wise staff members who asked me if I wanted to be a good administrator...in a meeting... in a department head meeting...I just looked around the room and felt like a failure. I responded yes and they agreed to teach me to be a decent Administrator. I got my BSN about 5 years after my Admin Degree and I did not have trouble with that transition as I was already in the medical field. One day I took the test and 48 hours later I was a BSN.

When you work hard for something you will most surely be proud and ready to put that knowledge to work, she sounds like a confident person to me. Now if it continues over a long time period I would be very careful because with power comes responsibility and that responsibility includes the right to be developed and the responsibility to develop others and yourself. She will just have to learn this concept, if not then she will struggle.