Not All Nurses Eat Their Young...

[NurseLife88]

Hey all! So I have read many threads and comments alike on here about nurses eating their young. Heard many horror stories of nurses being quite frankly terrible to those whom they train and work with whom have less experience than themselves. I myself have had more than a few encounters of this sort but instead of talking about the bad experiences today I wanted to be thankful for the good. I wanted to give a big thank you to all the nurses out there who train, mentor, precept, and teach all of us newbies in the field. It's such a positive and enriching experience to have fellow nurses surrounding you that have your back. Those nurses that answer questions without judgement. The ones who show and tell. The ones who help guide you through experiences that nursing school could never have prepared you for. The ones who lead by example. The ones whom teach you something but are more than open to learning from you as well. There are so many great nurses that don't bully or belittle the newbies it can sometimes be discouraging to hear all the stories of the ones that do overshadow those whom don't. I have been blessed in my new position to have such wonderful nursing staff to assist me in my transition. Nurses who work hard everyday and whom I appreciate and respect greatly. Nurses who also take the time to appreciate and respect me as well new or not. Thanks to all of you nurses who are leading the next generation. Please share your stories of mentors, preceptors, teachers, etc who have helped you for the better! Let's get some positivity going:)

[HermioneG, BSN, RN]

Oh wow, I didn't know that there were a lot of students who acted like that! I've heard students say things like that sometimes, but always very infrequently. I guess I was wrong! I would think that dealing with students who had that kind of entitlement would get tiring after awhile But please don't give up hope on the rest of us! Many of us (some of us?) so deeply appreciate seeing something interesting, even if it's from the back and hands off, and understand when the answer is no! I've found that by "expecting" less but being enthusiastic and extremely thankful when you do get opportunities actually gives you more in the long run. It also seems so much healthier than coming in ego blazing with a sense of entitlement

Good talk, you sound like you'd be a great nurse to learn from! :)

[Skippingtowork]

CCU BSN RN, BSN, RN: I loved your post and it inspired me to share one of my "it takes a village" experiences from nursing school as well, and would love to hear other people's stories!

It was my last quarter of nursing school and I was doing my practicum in the ER. The ER is large and fairly spread out, and one part of the ER is a short walk down the hall and back behind the rest of the department. My nurse and I were assigned more towards the front of the department in the pediatric ER.

I was in my patient's room when I heard a nurse at the station say "has anyone seen the nursing student?" I poked my head out of the room and there was a nurse (one of my favorite nurses, actually!) who was talking to my preceptor. The nurse said to my preceptor "mind if I steal your student for a bit?" and then asked me if I wanted to go with her and access a power port. I said yes, and she took me back down the hall and to her station which was in the part of the department that was down the hall.

Her and a second nurse sat me down at the nurse's station and together we watched a YouTube video on the skill. Then they both helped me gather the supplies and had me access the port, while they helped and walked me through the skill. With their encouragement, and a wonderfully kind patient, I was able to do it mostly by myself! It made me feel so fortunate and lucky to be in a department where nurses will go even a step further and search out the student to do an interesting skill. I had never experienced it before my practicum in that department. Granted this wasn't like an everyday thing, but that wasn't the only time a nurse did that! I can think of at least two other times off the top of my head where a nurse in the ER came and got me when there was an interesting skill to do. It was also wonderful because many of the physicians would explain concepts to me, explain why a medication or order was given, give me feedback or teach me for a few minutes after a code or after sedating a patient for intubation, or even take me into the physician workroom to show me an interesting x-ray that my patient had and explained what I was seeing. The other two students who had their practicum in this ER had very similar experiences, I think the culture there is just amazing. It really was, as CCU BSN said, an "it takes a village" type situation.

One of the preceptors that I had, who has worked in that ER for about 15 years, loved to constantly remind me "we don't eat our young here in the ER, we feed them!" :) :) I can't wait to be able to do that for a student someday, wherever I end up.

What a wonderful testimony! A culture of learning! A Culture of teaching!