Nurses Eat Their Young

Nursing Students Student Assist

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How often have you witnessed or experienced peer to peer bullying as a nurse?

Specializes in Med/Surg/Infection Control/Geriatrics.
What do you define as bullying? Some young nurses these days consider constructive criticism to be "bullying"....

That's true. I've had some experiences when I was a L.P.N. many years ago, but it more to do with the R.N. who gave me a hard time doing things like asking me to hang certain drugs IV, when she knew darn well I wasn't licensed to do so, she would make snide remarks and the like, but finally she gave up on me when I didn't rise to the occasion. Bullying does happen, but I think it's more rare than when, as you say, "some younger nurses these days consider constructive criticism "bullying."

Specializes in Mental Health, Gerontology, Palliative.
What do you define as bullying? Some young nurses these days consider constructive criticism to be "bullying"....

Funnily enough my experience as a student being the target of a bully taught me a great lesson about constructive critisim.

This nurse told me she didn't think I had what it took to be a nurse. Rather than spaz I decided to use it as an opportunity to learn and asked her what she thought I needed to improve on

She said 'go home and read up on the nursing basics'. I'm like "anything in particular?" she was like 'no, just the nursing basics".

Knowing how much is involved in the nursing basics it left me fairly confounded.

In comparison I had another nurse preceptor who told me to go home and read up on why we give warfarin at night, and to read about other alternatives to anti clot medication.

Constructive critisim is always specific and it always gives the person a way to improve.

Non constructive criticism is always vague, it leaves the person feeling lost and not sure how to procede or improve

Specializes in CMSRN, hospice.

I remember one time in five years where I thought, "Wow, she is really going after that one new nurse." The rest of us did our best to be supportive, but the object of the bullying had a poor attitude after spending so much time with this nurse. She doesn't work here anymore. Even with this, it's hard to say whether it was actual bullying or merely a terrible preceptor-orientee relationship; they both made big mistakes.

Is there conflict, discomfort, and disagreement in nursing? Hell yeah! It does not always amount to bullying. Probably everyone can think of moments where we wish we'd used different words, tones of voice, etc., but that doesn't make us bullies. (I say this as one of the most sensitive people alive who still takes EVERYTHING personally, lol; even I've had my moments of being too abrupt and impatient, and I like precepting.) The problem is definitely there, but often other issues are misinterpreted as bullying.

Specializes in Ortho, CMSRN.

I had one nurse who I got the feeling did not like me when I was a new nurse. Nothing specific, until she obviously rolled her eyes at me when I came up to the desk to ask her a question one night when she was charge. Granted, I was very anxious and had a lot of questions... I don't know that she was a bully, but that was not nice though. Also, when my mother began nursing 17 years ago, she worked with a nurse who was very cliquish and one day, mom overheard her brag to a co-worker about the other nurses that she had gotten fired. She painted a target on moms back, and she didn't last long there. It absolutely happens.

Specializes in Community Health, Med/Surg, ICU Stepdown.

I've never seen or experienced nurse to nurse bullying. Gossip is another story... I hear gossip about q 2 hours every shift! Haha

Specializes in Pediatric Specialty RN.

I'm a nursing student and I've encountered one or two grumpy nurses on clinical but I've not seen any bullying (I'm almost done with school). Now, here on AN...that's another story...

How often have you witnessed or experienced peer to peer bullying as a nurse?

NEVER. Truly. And I am OVER this phrase. I'm triggered.

Specializes in Psychiatry, Community, Nurse Manager, hospice.

I have seen a lot of bullying in nursing. It's very common. I work mostly with therapists and social workers now... Lots of drama and bickering but not what I would call bullying.

I love and respect nursing deeply. But this is a problem for us.

Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ICU.

I witnessed it once as a student. She was an inexperienced nurse who was known for going after students and being condescending to patients. Never had an issue with her personally but most of my classmates did. As an RN now, I've experienced it once but that was resolved. She was an experienced nurse that felt new grads "these days" were overly confident and basically made it her mission to try to "put them in their place." Things got pretty inappropriate. She grabbed me by my wrist at one point to scold me like a child at the nurses station because she had a misunderstanding. In the end, I was assertive and I think well liked enough by my manager and coworkers that she backed off. So overall, I'd say it's pretty rare. If it does occur or you become aware of someone with that type of personality, nip it in the bud like I did and you should be fine.

I've worked with some unhappy people. I don't think they bullied anyone, they just were such unhappy individuals that it was horrible to be around

them. Especially as a new nurse, their irritability and unfriendliness were scary for me.

They stand out in my memory more than the mostly pleasant people I've worked with. That is unfortunate.

I used to think I was the problem. But I was just new, needed orientation and guidance, like any new nurse or any nurse new to a department.

One decided I should be Charge one night, which would have been OK if I'd had any training about how to do it. She was sick in body and soul, just a wretched person to work with. I think she had been passed over for a promotion, or lost her boyfriend, or God-knows-what. Maybe she just hated training people.

I hope her life got better.

But nurses often eat their young and they eat their elders, too.

As for a person who is new here knowing to Search - not everyone is as sophisticated and knowledgeable about such things as some others are.

OP, come back and respond to the replies you've received.

Specializes in Med-Tele; ED; ICU.

I can only think of one nursing bully... unfortunately, his act is condoned by management. As with all bullies, he only picks on the weak or meek.

Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
I just Googled ad nauseaum. It's Latin and literally means "to sickness". Then I had to Google literally vs figuratively, my English grammar figuratively sucks. So I'm glad for the post, I actually learned a lot from it.

I spent so much time pondering this that I am now so hungry, I could literally eat a horse (or a new nurse, I suppose).

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