So there have been many posts on the subject, and I was wondering what your thoughts were on the subject. At my job, there are a few, nurses you have to take with a grain of salt, otherwise you'll go insane. They're really hard on the new nurses that come into the door, and I was one of them. But since I've been there for some time, i start seeing myself get upset when i see things done wrong, or poorly written (we do not have computers at all and yes its 2011 i know). And I write them notes telling them i fixed what they had done and explain the correct way of doing that particular task. But after the 5th or 6th note its like COME ON!!!
I started nursing on a very toxic floor. I remember backstabbing, infighting, my schedule being changed without notice, I remember the time I wrote up an ancillary staff member who then made my life hell. I was written up for not hanging a second bag of IV fluids, when the order was written x 1 liter, and it was my NM that wrote me up! I was written up for yelling at someone, but what wasn't mentioned was what I yelled was "call a code".
I can say I tend to try to be supportive of new nurses, but I cannot abide it when someone cannot take any criticism at all. The types who have a constant chip on their shoulder, and it's never something that they are consistently doing wrong or incorrect. They can never look in a mirror and take the criticism or redirection to heart, it is always some form of discrimination. The offended party is hated because they are too pretty, they have a BSN, they are of the wrong race, they are smarter than the experienced nurses/RTs/Doctors that have been working in that specialty for years. It is never their doing.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
i can say i tend to try to be supportive of new nurses, but i cannot abide it when someone cannot take any criticism at all. the types who have a constant chip on their shoulder, and it's never something that they are consistently doing wrong or incorrect. they can never look in a mirror and take the criticism or redirection to heart, it is always some form of discrimination. the offended party is hated because they are too pretty, they have a bsn, they are of the wrong race, they are smarter than the experienced nurses/rts/doctors that have been working in that specialty for years. it is never their doing.
those types of folks, unfortunately, seem to be more of the norm these days. i suspect that's why the expression "nurses eat their young" is so popular. it's easier to dismiss constructive criticism as nurses eating their young than it is to take it to heart and change your practice.
I used to agree that nurses eat their young until I trained a few new nurses. I met some really good new nurses who would ask questions, let me know they've never done a procedure, or dealt with pts that have mental disorders. I also trained some brand new nurses just out of school with no experience at all (besides clinicals) who pretnded like they knew it all.
Honestly, I did want to chew them up and spit them out. Not because they were new, but because they didn't understand the importance of learning. Giving an IM to a pt who is escalating is not the same thing as giving insulin. Don't pretend to know it all and then draw up haldol dec instead of haldol while your hand shakes so bad you can't even draw it up. I can't help you learn if you don't answer me honestly. You are putting my license at risk as well.
I'm not one of those nurses who bets on who will stay and who will go, but I shake my head at some of them. I still tell my manager if I have never done a procedure. I'm always up for learning and practicing skills that are more medical than what I normally see.
Specializes in ICU,ED, Corrections, dodging med-surg.
I will never forget how I felt at 21, being a new nurse, training with the "experienced" so I would never want a new grad/student to feel ill at ease with me. You don't want to appear stupid, but competent(and sometimes that means not admitting what you don't know.) Just ask questions and most of us will answer without judgment.
I don't usually get much of a meal break so if there are young'uns nearby, watch out!
Also, leaving notes correcting other nurses is really not cool. Treat the other nurses with some respect and have the courage to talk to them face to face. Maybe there is a reason they did something the way they did, a reason that fell outside of the parameters of what is normally done.
In nursing there are many times that things get so wonky that stuff does not get done by the book. Give those nurses an opportunity to talk these things out with you so that maybe you can commiserate and trade war stories and make them feel like part of a team.
Also, leaving notes correcting other nurses is really not cool. Treat the other nurses with some respect and have the courage to talk to them face to face. Maybe there is a reason they did something the way they did, a reason that fell outside of the parameters of what is normally done.
In nursing there are many times that things get so wonky that stuff does not get done by the book. Give those nurses an opportunity to talk these things out with you so that maybe you can commiserate and trade war stories and make them feel like part of a team.
Excellent point. I try to tell this to my students (every semester), as they spend a great deal of their day trying to compare what thru have been taught, to what the floor nurses are doing. I said that very thing to them today, that they may have a reason for doing what they are doing. But somehow they almost always see it as the nurse is doing something wrong. I tell them to imagine themselves in 5 years from now, and what would you do if a student or new grad called you out for something you were doing.
Probably no one is reading this anymore, but I want to add that any peacful, loving, quiet, introspective, calm society of peoples have been completely obliterated by the aggressive societies of peoples throughout all history. As Diva RN mentioned, it is part of evolution unfortunately. I don't know why it always has to be this way.....but the Dali Lama is still trying to get Tibet free...it still happens in every substrata of society. So I agree, let's just move on from complaining about it. What did that president say?"Speak quietly but carry a big stick?" Or something like that.......
Well its OK... That's their work and what you can do is you already did..So relax..There's a disconnect and lacking between nursing school and work that takes years to master..You are also new so it can be happen with you also..
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GHGoonette, BSN, RN
1,249 Posts
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