Do you in nursing land find that old time nurses, those with many years in the career, dont want to learn new things?- like learning to care for a new kind of patient than they are used to, for instance going from LTC to a more acute setting or rotating from a geriatric unit to a unit with younger, more alert residents, which would require learning new skills?
Ive spoken to a few old timers, and they seem only to want to coast until retirement.
They dont seem to feel obligated to stretch themselves, to maintain and update there skills- wouldnt they feel better about themselves as nurses if they did take on new responsibilities?
Is this the normal course of evolution in the career of nurses?
As a student, I love this thread! So far, I haven't made any of the mistakes you've discussed, but now I know what to avoid :)
I do have a question, though - do you find it harder to work with a nurse who was a traditional college student (started at 18, working right out of school, not much previous 'life' experience - by that, I mean previous jobs, marriage, kids, etc) or one who has had another career and is moving into nursing?
I fall into the second category and know there is a growing number of us, and while I find it harder to be in school with the younger ones, wonder what your perspective is on that.
oh my god....i can't believe i am reading this junk. first of all old timers, old bats, old nurses...whatever you want to be called...get over yourselves...i think we can all think of a nurse or two, new or experienced, who isn't exactly open to new ideas. it is attitudes like the ones i've read that kill the enthusiasm new nurses have for our profession. posts like this make me realize why so many nurses leave the profession within 5 years and make me really afraid for the future of our profession. not only do we have to deal with attitude from doctors, families and other departments of the hospital, we treat our new nurses like they are idiots and bring them down. try being a mentor instead of a smart a**. i have worked with new grads that are not very good, but you know what, they learn and get better. i have also worked with nurses who have been around for 25 years who aren't very good and guess what...they usually don't get any better because they "know it all".
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
oh my god....i can't believe i am reading this junk. first of all old timers, old bats, old nurses...whatever you want to be called...get over yourselves...i think we can all think of a nurse or two, new or experienced, who isn't exactly open to new ideas. it is attitudes like the ones i've read that kill the enthusiasm new nurses have for our profession. posts like this make me realize why so many nurses leave the profession within 5 years and make me really afraid for the future of our profession. not only do we have to deal with attitude from doctors, families and other departments of the hospital, we treat our new nurses like they are idiots and bring them down. try being a mentor instead of a smart a**. i have worked with new grads that are not very good, but you know what, they learn and get better. i have also worked with nurses who have been around for 25 years who aren't very good and guess what...they usually don't get any better because they "know it all".
if there are any posts in here with attitude problems -- other than the op, of course -- this post seems to be the one. if anyone needs to het over themself, it seems like it would be you. most of the posters here have said they enjoy working with the new grads who like to learn. you sound like the sort of smart ass that no one would want to mentor. good luck with that!
I agree that there seems to be a trend for the Young to be trying to get rid of the old, at least in my hospital. Over the last few years our T/SICU has seen a lot of very experienced nurses head out the door. Many have been made to feel their experience was not valued. Ours is a large unit that cares for everything from level one traumas to heart transplants. In the last 5 years the newer nurses with less than 3-4 years of experience have seemed to band together for the purpose of making life difficult for anyone over 40. Most of these young nurses have never worked in another hospital or even another another unit. I'm a tough old bird so I won't be easily run off. The real tradgdy is hundreds of years of experience has been lost and they don't know what their missing. The people who run the place just want the bodies and the cheaper the better, so to them it's better not to have someone who is looking to work to retirement. Keep'm young and keep the turn over. Save the benifits.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
i agree that there seems to be a trend for the young to be trying to get rid of the old, at least in my hospital. in the last 5 years the newer nurses with less than 3-4 years of experience have seemed to band together for the purpose of making life difficult for anyone over 40.
i've seen the very same trend in a couple of different hospitals in the past few years. the younger, less experienced nurses band together and pack the selection committees for promotions, and pass over the more qualified, experienced nurses for their buddies, sometimes with barely a year of icu experience. after being denied a promotion or two, the experienced nurses move on, and new nurses are hired. the whole selection process for charge, assist nurse manager, special skills, etc. seems to be a popularity contest. the younger, single nurses and those without families band together and socialize frequently. older nurses are deliberately excluded from that, too. it all seems so mean-spirited to me!
if there are any posts in here with attitude problems -- other than the op, of course -- this post seems to be the one. if anyone needs to het over themself, it seems like it would be you. most of the posters here have said they enjoy working with the new grads who like to learn. you sound like the sort of smart ass that no one would want to mentor. good luck with that!
thanks for making my point. attitude problems don't stick with just one experience level. we all should know that. i also think a lot of people over reacted to the original posting. perhaps in her case it is a valid observation. i am not a new nurse and i go out of my way to help those that are because i remember what it felt like to be in a new position and unsure of myself. coming to a new unit or new health care facility can be scary enough without attitudes and egos coming into play. unfortunately not all new nurses want help and some just have to learn the hard way. those that choose that path have a very hard time. i also know that i don't know everything and have no problem learning a new method of doing something or asking someone to explain something to me. my post was simply referring to the hostility expressed by many in the 10+ pages of responses. we, as a profession, do eat our young and we do eat our old. that needs to stop. why are we so quick to call someone a smart ass or make some other form of derogatory comment rather than checking our attitudes at the door and coming together to help the patients? isn't that what we are there for in the first place?
Ruby. That really sad. I think admin. may "let" this happen in some situations because the "older" nurses cost more $, since they usually make more $/hour to begin with. This is a a situation which may suit some spiteful colleagues and doesn't bother admin. too terribly much. I haven't worked where it was so much of an age thing as there were certain "cliques" who schmoozed the doctors, etc. and advanced themselves. These nurses were quite capable, very social, and would go along w/ the docs' wishes, even if it went against policy, was a little risky, etc. They also spent a lot of time griping about "other" nurses who were less capable and "cool" than they were. Of course, after they alienated a lot of other staff, they were too "cool" and too "busy" to work all of those holes left when people fled the cattiness. (Be careful what you wish for, it may come true). I have seen the "clique" group really ride one nurse who needed a little mentoring, but embrace another who was a "celebrity's" relative who was completely clueless. The rungs of the ladder of social climbing are slippery, as this nurse made a serious error and fell from grace quickly. Some committees, etc. require a lot of "interaction" w/ admin. types which many seasoned nurses may be weary of. You know the admin. type who are so "sympathetic" to your needs at meetings and talk about team-building,etc. They usually can't tell the difference between an enema bag and an IV bag. If you are nasty to nurse of a certain "age", just remember folks you'll be there, God willing, one day yourself. We all want to feel important and appreciated. Nursing truly is a "team sport" and we should be watching out for each other. You never know when you might need that "dork" or "Older" nurse to trade a shift w/ you or back you up in an emergency.
Do you in nursing land find that old time nurses, those with many years in the career, dont want to learn new things?- like learning to care for a new kind of patient than they are used to, for instance going from LTC to a more acute setting or rotating from a geriatric unit to a unit with younger, more alert residents, which would require learning new skills?
Ive spoken to a few old timers, and they seem only to want to coast until retirement.
They dont seem to feel obligated to stretch themselves, to maintain and update there skills- wouldnt they feel better about themselves as nurses if they did take on new responsibilities?
Is this the normal course of evolution in the career of nurses?
It always amazes how the old eat the young and the young devalue what the old have gained over many years at the bedside. The basic human need of compassionate professional care never changes yet daily someone comes up with a better way. The old need to value the enthusiasm of the young, and the young need to glean all the wisdon from the old they can. Learning is a daily process and in 27 years at the bedside still very few days go by that I don't learn something new. When I stop learning I better retire. As for the young we better come along side of them and encourage them because we old timers know in a few years they will be in our shoes and the young will be saying the same about them.
As one of the "old time nurses", personally, I love what I do,(LTC) and do it by choice, I have tried many other areas of nursing throughout my career and this is what I love to do. As far as learning new skills, we have numerous inservices on new products and skills, we in LTC also, believe it or not, have a very rounded age group, that's why it's LTC and not "the old folks home". There are many different acuity levels in our facility. We have had several pt. come to us from major medical centers in our state, and have required intensive nursing care. We do learn new skills, or a new way of doing a procedure or treatment that may have changed. We are required to obtain 30 CEU's for license renewal just like the "young" nurses. As far as "stretching myself" there are some days I am stretched so far, I don't know if this old skin will ever shrink back to normal, ha! ha! And, as far as feeling better about myself, I feel fine about myself, if I didn't I couldn't get up and go every day and face the challenges that we as nurses face. I am comfortable with what I'm doing and I don't plan to change, but that doesn't mean that should a new situation arise, that I wouldn't stand up and face the challenge. I love learning new things and just because I choose to stay in a field that I love doesn't mean that I have stopped growing intellectually. There's nothing wrong with being comfortable with what you do and where you are in life. Don't knock the "older nurses" you can learn alot from us, just like we can learn things from the younger nurses. Respect us for what we know and what we have done, not for what you think we should know or do. Each generation of nurses paves a path of sorts for the next. We can all learn from each other.
I also am an old timer in LTC for 22 years. I have learned alot and continue to learn something new all the time. I feel like this is where I am supposed to be because I love older people, even though they are not old, I love them too. I think it takes a special nurse to work in LTC just like a special nurse to work in a hosp. setting. I tried that for 2 days and found out it wasn't for me. I don't mind learning from someone new just so they show respect and have a good attitude. I don't like know it alls. Because we are all still learning each day. May you see and learn from us oldies without a problem. Good luck in all you do!
i am an old timer i qualified in 1981 i have been studying ever since in different ways. i work in the community and have to do mandatory updates for clinical practise we also do exended prescribing and advanced clinical skills, and i know i can show these new nurses what nursing is all about, i am disgusted with the amount of patients they i get out of hosiptal with pressure sores, we never had this, or bad discharges, or lack of communication. i think this is what is lacking in young nurses and basic common sense.
as an experienced nurse in icu(25 years)-just thought you should know that stereotyping is not the way to make friends. i for one am first in line to learn new procedures-new drugs-new treatments and i study faithfully. mostly so that i know how to do the things that are asked of me-i worked hard for my license and don't intend to coast anywhere. but with your attitude i might suggest you sit back and get off the i'm better and retire the old horses...someday that old nurse coasting may just be the one to save your condescending self appointed better than self..............nurses are people with same needs-problems-ambitions or lack off-just like anywhere else---do you always function at 100% peak??
mom2cka
329 Posts
As a student, I love this thread! So far, I haven't made any of the mistakes you've discussed, but now I know what to avoid :)
I do have a question, though - do you find it harder to work with a nurse who was a traditional college student (started at 18, working right out of school, not much previous 'life' experience - by that, I mean previous jobs, marriage, kids, etc) or one who has had another career and is moving into nursing?
I fall into the second category and know there is a growing number of us, and while I find it harder to be in school with the younger ones, wonder what your perspective is on that.
Thanks!
Ann