nursing eating young

firstinfamily, RN · Dec 18, 2014

Nurses eat their young when they put them in situations that are not successful and then rake them over the coals because of their inexperience. When I was a new nurse, I asked a lot of questions and I still do when I am not sure about something. I have been in my current position for 2 months and even though I am not a new nurse, I still feel that I will be having to "prove myself". I do not get excited about some situations because I have already been exposed to them, I may not seem as aggressive as other nurses, I rationalize things out and think about them before I act. I also believe in prevention. I was recently asked by one of the younger nurses why I am making rounds with a flashlight(night shift). Well,"that is to make sure my patients are OK and their chests are moving up and down". The younger nurse then said, "well, wouldn't you see that on the monitor?" At which point I told her,"you can see it sooner by looking at your patients, and pts can go into respiratory arrest before cardiac arrest". It is a generational shift, and you will most likely find the more mature nurses making routine rounds on their patients. Doesn't it make sense to try to see if your patients are sleeping, are they climbing out of bed, do they need something, are their chests moving??? To me, that is part of normal nursing, to the younger nurse, it is not normal, and she would see changes on the telemetry readings. There is more to nursing than monitoring by a machine. Because the more mature nurse has the varied experience, and was trained differently, it is very hard to compare both nurses. Does the more mature nurse eat the younger nurse? Not necessarily, it could be the more mature nurse is providing the younger nurse with learning experiences, however, the mature nurse may not be comfortable with the way the younger nurse handles these experiences. The mature nurse almost "throws" the younger nurse into situations that are challenging to get the younger nurse to "mature." Is that considered "eating their young??" We all learn differently, the younger nurse, although hesitant, needs to be thrown into uncomfortable situations in order to learn a variety of skills, priorities, etc. I don't feel nurses eat their young to make them feel uncomfortable, but to make them learn, perhaps in a way that may not be readily accepted, but will result in a maturing nurse who will be able to grow.

Libby1987 · Dec 18, 2014

I've been in the mentoring/orienting role for a long time now but I still remember that saying when I graduated in 1987. I was only 22 at the time and everyone was patient with some saintly, but there was this one who approached my lack of adequate relevant training in a way NETY way and it has stayed with me.

IME I have worked with two types of nurses, those that need to move on for a myriad reasons and those that are worth the effort, and I'm continuing to look for the most effective teaching approaches and growing as a trainer myself.

joanna73, BSN, RN · Dec 18, 2014

I've worked with many different types of nurses and I've never found that NETY. It's more a tired cliche. If you show a genuine desire to learn and be humble, and accept accountability, you'll be fine.

shermainenevels · Dec 18, 2014

Teaching a new nurse in a terrible way isn't professional .I wondering if the 20 year nurse see the nurse as a threat, but I would draw the line with the snatching things out of my hand.

shermainenevels · Dec 18, 2014

I am the person that ask a million questions, is there a such thing as asking to many questions?? I wouldn't mind being thrown in as a teaching experience, but if they eat their young in a more professional way I wouldn't mind being ate.

Lev, MSN, RN, NP · Dec 18, 2014

Teaching a new nurse in a terrible way isn't professional .I wondering if the 20 year nurse see the nurse as a threat, but I would draw the line with the snatching things out of my hand.

I think some older nurses may think that "they're next" and some have expressed this on this site. It's not the new nurse personally, it's just fear of common facility hiring tendencies of late, which is to hire the younger and less experienced for less pay vs the older and more experienced for more pay. I don't think this is a common reason though for treating staff poorly. I think if someone mistreats their coworkers, they are just not a happy person to begin with.

Unless it's a code situation, snatching things out of your hand is not appropriate. The first time I had an opportunity to do a blood transfusion, my preceptor snatched the blood out of my hand and set it up herself because "there isn't enough time." (The hospital policy is that blood must be hung within 15 minutes upon receipt from the lab). It would have taken 5 minutes to teach me. The next time I hung blood, I was off orientation and had to ask another staff member to help me.

Lev, MSN, RN, NP · Dec 18, 2014

I am the person that ask a million questions, is there a such thing as asking to many questions?? I wouldn't mind being thrown in as a teaching experience, but if they eat their young in a more professional way I wouldn't mind being ate.

You are not going to be eaten! Get it out of your head! You will have a wonderful experience with lovely and hopefully experienced nurse. You are allowed to ask questions, but they should be based off prior knowledge and investigation. Don't expect to ask silly questions like "What's a normal heart rate?" and get an answer. There are certain things you should know and are easy to look up. Hello...Google. You have to show your preceptor that you are THINKING and eager to learn. This is all premature for you, but I guess if you ever become a nurse, keep it all in mind.

LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN · Dec 18, 2014

Teaching a new nurse in a terrible way isn't professional .I wondering if the 20 year nurse see the nurse as a threat, but I would draw the line with the snatching things out of my hand.

Sometimes the "snatching" is to prevent undue harm to the patient; I have done this and have had it done to me; in hindsight, it was to prevent or prolong complications..it was never about me or that person.

As a new LPN, preceptor (to new and experienced LPNs and RNs) and as a recent new RN, I can honestly say NETY does not exist; however, there are people that are not good preceptors, have a varying degree to which they measure competency, and the like, and THEN you have unprofessional people, whether it be their own personal issues or personality. Unprofessional behavior does need to be called upon, no doubt; always be sure to advocate for yourself and use those wonderful skills you will learn in your mental health rotation to understand how ones personality may fit in a particular trait, and respond accordingly without taking it personal and not missing the lessons that a particular person is attempting to instill into your practice.

You can look up those threads, and you will see that I think: the NETY saying needs to be deep-diced because there are attitudes and personality and communication barriers in EVERY profession, and I do get offended when NETY or hurt feelings is misconstrued to true bullying behavior; and some people do take the perpetual victim role and for reasons otherwise, can not look into the mirror and analyze their own feelings, and do the work to either improve, especially when these issues continue to follow them-either they have a bad string of poor work environments perhaps, but the common denominator is that person-point blank. And I say this as a DV survivor, so I also am intolerant to someone comparing unprofessional behavior to being in a DV relationship, especially when they haven't been in one.

What it REALLY takes to be a great nurse IMHO from many nurses who have mentored me over the years and I have continued to pass along is the three Cs: competency, consistency and confidence; those skills take time to hone and one must be willing to dedicate that to their practice; if one is willing to do so, I have found that had transcended anything ANYONE puts in their way.

Best Wishes.

shermainenevels · Dec 18, 2014

What is the normal heart rate???

shermainenevels · Dec 18, 2014

If a nurse is doing everything that you listed. It's that still nety??? No matter the reason why there doing it???

LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN · Dec 18, 2014

OP, can you please use the quote, or at least list the person who you are responding to? That way you questions could be answered by the person you are responding to. Thanks!

Ruby Vee, BSN · Dec 18, 2014

To minimize or deny the existence of this, or blame it entirely on the new nurse is like blaming the victim of domestic abuse for 'causing' their partner to abuse them. The relative few who come into nursing with massive chips on their shoulders and cry 'abuse' get a lot of attention, as if this were the REAL reason anyone calls 'abuse'. For some reason blaming the victim is common across the board. I think as a society we are beginning to take a long look at ourselves. Bullying in school, the increased awareness of domestic violence and what it looks and acts like -- fifty years ago no one thought about this and in general blamed the wife for her husband's beatings, and blamed the newbie for 'causing' her preceptor to be impatient and angry.

You've just offended domestic violence survivors with this piece of nonsensical bovine excrement. Obviously, you have ZERO idea what you're talking about because you have never experienced domestic violence. I'm happy for you. But you still have no idea what you're talking about.

"Blaming the victim" is a whole different thing than asking the perpetual crier of "NETY" to take a long look at their own contributions to all of those interactions they find uncomfortable, negative or less than satisfying. No one should ever be hit, kicked, punched, shot or knifed by an intimate partner. Ever. (Unless, of course said intimate partner is in the process of attempting to kill or rape THEM, but that's another argument.) Uncomfortable interactions are a whole different thing entirely. All too often, newbies claim "NETY" so they don't have to take responsibility for their own mistakes, errors in judgement, faults or wrongdoing. Or they mistake the professional work environment where everyone is expected to step up for a harsh environment because no one has told them how wonderful and special they are so far today. Or possibly they've mistaken a worn out, overworked preceptor for a bully because the gentle nurturing guidance they were expecting didn't materialize and the preceptor's teaching style is more along the lines of an adult expecting another adult to follow along.

I've seen getting angry, but rarely have I seen yelling. Unless it's between surgeons and pulmonologist, cardiologists or nephrologists, but that's another thread all together. I have seen snatching -- in the rare instance when a newbie persists in doing something stupid even though the preceptor is trying to catch his attention to get him to STOP doing that. I once snatched 20 mEq of KCL out of a newbie's hand -- he'd drawn it up and was attempting to give it IV push no matter what I told him about that not being a good idea. Preventing harm to the patient was more important than further attempts to protect the young man's ego. I watched a preceptor snatch Mrs. Robert's blood out of her orientee's hand when the orientee was getting ready to spike it on Mrs. Thomas's IV -- but I also saw multiple tactful attempts to interrupt the orientee before any snatching took place. I saw an orientee body block an intern one time to prevent him from pushing the "zap" button on a defibrillator on a patient whose ECG LOOKED like V fib but whose art line showed perfect regular contractions.