Nurses Eating Their Young- A Different Perspective

[Kyrshamarks]

Nurses eat their young. It happens and people complain about it like it is a bad thing. It may be in your eyes if you are the one being eaten, but in my eyes I am going to eat you alive and spit out your bones into something that resembles a nurse. You are entering the cauldron of fire, so expect to get singed.

That above statement is already setting some of you on edge. I understand that and I accept that. I felt the same way at first, but as the years have passed by I have learned why we do it and more importantly, the reason. Let me explain to you why in a way that is not nursing.

Imagine if you are a soldier ... Lets take it from there

1. Patient = fire team
2. Pilot = Nurse Practitioner
3. Officers = management
4. Your squad mates = your fellow nurses with more experience
5. Enemy = death
6. MD = (sometimes the enemy) a fellow service member form another branch

You enlisted in the service, you passed basic training (nursing school) and now you are ready to join your unit. ( I know I skipped AIT, for those military among us) You show up on the bus all excited and happy to be chosen for this special unit. It is everything you wanted, it is just where you wanted to be. Great, happy to have you aboard, now get out the salt and pepper, or maybe the opposite is true. You do not want to be here, but rather this is the only place you could get to right now.

Fine, get out the salt and pepper

Be prepared to be eaten. I am your new squad Sargent. I am there to help you get acclimated to the unit and the patrols as FAST AS I CAN. You show up in your new shiny uniforms, new boots and the new weapons (ie: stethoscope, tablet, etc) and look around you and see the older squad mates' uniforms are faded, they may even be a bit tattered, our combat boots may not be shiny, heck they may even be a bit soiled. But you know what, to us your uniform looks uncomfortable on you and those ugly boots we are wearing, they are like a second skin to us and those new ones you got are going to blister your feet. We accept that and realize that with age your boots are going to get broken in and your uniform will fade. Just don't point out to us how yours is better or newer. New does not always mean better, sometimes our weapons that you think are old and stupid are the ones that never fail in combat. You start out like that and I will eat you so hard right there that you will wish you were never born. Your old Drill instructors (nursing instructors) have nothing on me in making you feel small if I choose to.

I introduce you to your squad mates and I show you around

I know you are new and do not know where everything is, but LISTEN to me when I am talking to you and pointing things out. I know it is a lot of information to digest, but it may save your life and your fire mission's life if you listen. I expect you to ask me questions, but think about the question first. Did I already answer it? Did I not just show you where the supply tent was? Did I not point out where to keep your gear? Did I not show you how to reload your gun or program in the fire coordinates on the fire control computer? I probably did and if you keep asking I am going to start to wonder about you and think maybe you are going to get me killed or the fire team killed.

Time for your first patrol

The officers come by and gives us our mission. We need to work as a team to complete it, there are no Rambos in our unit. Accept the mission, I will be there to help guide you and keep you alive, for now. I do not want the fire mission to fail at all costs. When I feel you are strong enough to do more of the mission on your own, I am going to let you, whether you think you are not.

So now we go into the field for combat against the enemy. I know you learned all these supposedly fancy new ways of combating them, but the enemy doesn't always react the way you were taught it would. Things are different in the field, than in the classroom. Don't tell me how to do something unless I am asking you how it is done the new way. Listen to me how to set up an ambush. I have been fighting these battles many years and I am still alive. Don't look above at the pilots flying around doing their thing while we are in the trenches and say you would rather be there. It takes time to learn to fly, and I skin you and filet you alive if you think you are better than the rest of your squad mates. If you express an interest in learning to fly, I will be happy to help you get to the point you can learn to fly. I want all my squad mates to succeed, because the fire mission will then succeed.

I am going to jump on you during the training I give you, I am going to eat you up, I am going to speak bad of you, I am going to report on you to the officers. I will make your life miserable for a while. I may not let you take lunch with your buddies from basic who are now in an another unit in your command. They may have their own mission to conduct, or our mission is going badly. Sometimes I may make you work extra hard helping another soldier out, who is up to their butt in crocodiles. I am also going to praise you when you need it, but don't count on it very often. I am going to ride your butt so hard, you are going to wonder why you even enlisted. You are going to think I am unfair, that I am trying to get you killed, that I am giving you too big of missions at times, but know this. AT ALL COSTS THE FIRE TEAM MUST DO THEIR BEST! Sometimes we don't win all the battles and death does come for the mission. we accept that and expect you to accept it and pick yourself up and carry on soldier. The time to grieve is later in private when it fails, but know this; we old eat their young and are also grieving about the loss, but realize there are other missions we are needed on at that moment.

My Goal

My goal in eating you up is to toughen you up so that you may lead other soldiers in combat and save the fire missions, maybe even help you get to be a pilot or an officer, which not all of us want. Some of us were previous officers but decided we liked the trenches with the blood and guts and muck better. My goal is to see you succeed and carry on our legacy and eventually replace me when I fall. Which one day I will fall and become a distant memory. Until that moment I am going to eat you up and spit out your bones into proud strong self reliant Nurse. That is why eating our young is not a bad thing.

Related topics...

Why Do Nurses Eat Their Young?

Nurses Eating Their Young Is Not Okay

Watch WHY Nurses Eat Their Young?! My Story video...

[osf2680]

Thanks for sharing! :-)

[AmyRN303, BSN, RN]

Well said.

I'm finding the "coddling" alone is leading to nurses who don't take criticism well, and are unsafe and dangerously confident at least in my current experience.

As a preceptor, and the most senior experienced nurse at the facility that I work at, I don't mince words on how I feel about standards of care, and a work ethic; I am starting to develop a "crust" due to the incompetence that I have to follow and managements focus on the bottom line-it's doing nothing for the healthcare system.

So I'll keep swinging the bat and throwing down the gauntlet for making sure that there is a high standards of care; don't mistake it for NETY; rather, think of it as "would you want YOU as a nurse?" meaning, not being prepared or looking up things or being adequately prepared to care for pts-would you want to be entering the room and taking care of YOU woefully inadequate?

To add: I'm a strong believer in Karma.

I agree with you that holding new nurses to a high standard makes for safer and better nurses. I don't want my hand held. But I don't want to be chewed up and spit out either. I think there is middle ground.

[funtimes]

I am a product of the military, but more than that I am the product of many years of nursing. Nowhere in my post did I say i would eat you up in front of patients or out in public. I would never do that. I will chew you up in private, and I will tell my coworkers what you did so that they may be on the watch for you repeating the same mistake. I am going to wonder about your learning capacity and the ability to retain simple info if you ask me 7 times the same question. Carry a notebook,...write down what I tell you. REMEMBER what I tell you. All this hand holding and comforting the new nurse was done in nursing school, where everything is roses and sunny days. Welcome now to the real world where there is never enough time, never enough resources or help. Where people die and people live literally, where management needs you to do more with less, where docs yell, families yell, and people bleed, poop, and puke all the time. Where no matter what you do you will not please a fraction of percentage of anyone and it is never enough for some. It is dirty and stressful and painful and even sometimes wonderful. It is life and death. Being easy on you is not an option when you carry the life of someone in your hands.

furthermore, it is interesting to realize how few people read all of my post. I can tell by the responses that most did not read the last few sentences....

If the job Is so tough, they don't need some self appointed new employee hazer trying to make it tougher, who appointed you guardian of the profession? That's great you have been doing something long enough you are in your comfort zone, that doesn't make you better or stronger than anyone else, it just makes you insular.

Ive seen an experienced RN with your mentality crash and burn trying to step into EMS. No one wanted to spend 12 hours in an ambulance with them and they had spent so much time as the alpha dog in their hospital gig they couldn't take criticism or accept being a rookie again. Step outside your comfort zone and remember what its like to be a rookie at something and you'll likely have a different perspective.

Nobody respects people with this mentality. Its an example of poor leadership. If you were in the military you were probably a POG where having the people under you trust and respect you didn't matter much, so you picked up bad habits and now claim this is a product of the military.

Sorry if that sounds harsh, but being harsh Is apparently your thing.

[USMCRN2015]

"Eating our young".....bad

"Teaching" our young.....better! :)

I do not mean teach them what they aalready learned from school.....teach them about how that certain institution or facility carries out the best patient care...

Teaching is more effective for your staff members.

The military analogy was pretty cool. But let'skeep in mind that the majority of those who come out from serving are CRAZY.

Do we want crazy people giving care to our patients??

I don'ttthinkso! Lol

The eating their young thing is the reason why their is a shortage of nurses out there. The whole ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVE mentality is a downfall....

But thanks for sharing this....!

Oh really? We are all crazy? Sounds like another spoiled brat who had Mommy and Daddy hand them everything. You are welcome for your freedom. Wow. Disgusting.

[USMCRN2015]

Seriously some of you need to grow a backbone. I don't agree with militant style of teaching, however, coddling causes people that shouldn't be caring for patients to cause harm and injury. There's a line, find it. But if you are on here to just bash Veterans, educate yourself. Because first of all people don't serve "just bc they were too dumb to do anything else". I was in college and dropped out because of September 11. I served honorably and lost many friends in Iraq. So shut up, sit down, and read a book before you try and say that, because you didn't have the guts to serve your country. Don't worry, we got your back even though you stab ours.

[osf2680]

Thanks for sharing :-)

[USMCRN2015]

No problem :) lol

[osf2680]

:-) hehe

[vianne]

funtimes, I so agree with you ! kryshamarks could maybe do with trying another area, try the shoe on the other foot, I cannot believe this post is real its got to be a spoof, yeah of course newbies need to be introduced to reality, nursing certainly aint like the movies, but come on they need to be guided surely not frightened or threatened ? and if they don't make the grade fail their placement, tell them why, can you do this in the US? I know training is different and (I apologise for my lack of knowledge) I don't know what the process is ...

[glencovediva]

The behavior you described is SO unprofessional and does not belong in nursing.

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

Seriously some of you need to grow a backbone. I don't agree with militant style of teaching, however, coddling causes people that shouldn't be caring for patients to cause harm and injury. There's a line, find it. But if you are on here to just bash Veterans, educate yourself. Because first of all people don't serve "just bc they were too dumb to do anything else". I was in college and dropped out because of September 11. I served honorably and lost many friends in Iraq. So shut up, sit down, and read a book before you try and say that, because you didn't have the guts to serve your country. Don't worry, we got your back even though you stab ours.

YES!!!

[RNexplorer]

If you want to teach me as FAST AS YOU CAN, scaring me to death and paralyzing me with fear are not effective tactics.