I've worked in envrionments where I've had hostile coworkers too, not as a nurse (yet.... hoping that it doesn't happen), but they were wretched experiences. Sadly, the worst ones were by jealous/territorial women. The men seemed to just jump on board with the loudest, "alpha" female (which is not me, I am a nonconfrontational person). I can tell you some pearls of wisdom I learned first off, and what others shared with me (the people I loved who I vented to).
Frankly, the only thing that I felt worked in every situation was leaving the place of employment, or lucking out when the problem employee left. This is referring to the experiences I had where an incompetent manager was in place. I have had an experience (yes, sadly, 1) where I had a good manager who took care of the situation. Rarely ever are people given manager training (and let's be honest - does training even help?), and it seems like most people aren't cut out to be managers. The other aspect that helped is that I am an extremely hard worker. On bad days, just remind yourself to do the absolute best you can do, and if they don't see what a fantastic employee you are (and usually they do notice, esp over time), then that is their loss. I have worked several jobs, and the ones that had the great people to work with were my favorite jobs... not necessarily because of the work I was doing, but because of the fantastic people who were there. The people make all the difference (and I have worked with some AMAZING people!!). If I were you, I would stick with it if you can, try to make the situation better if you can, and quietly make other arrangements on your own to find another job during this process. There's no harm in looking, right? When you find one, especially a "dream job," leave. I found when I was in rough situations with coworkers, having a backup plan and looking for new, exciting opportunities made me less stressed at work, and better able to keep my chin up. Having the chance to find a better work envrionment also helped me to keep my emotions outside of work. I don't know about you, but I was feeling trapped and cornered for a while, and it really hurt my feelings that people who smiled to my face were deceiving me and stabbing me in the back. Taking control of the situation by planning my "escape" really helped me out and took the emotions out of things so to speak. If things get better, great you can stay if you want to, and if they don't, you have a new future to look forward to.
And oh yeah, if you do look for a new job, I would totally evaluate the place with your critical eye, and watch out for red flags, like someone who exhibits AN's swearing. You don't want to end up in the same boat with someone who has a poor work attitude. I will drop curse words, but not at a client directed place of employment. That's just so unprofessional. In my experience, those kinds of people are usually unhappy and really don't give a hoot about following rules, and so make pretty bad coworkers. At another job I worked at, there was a similar employee with a bad mouth. Although he was mostly friendly to other coworkers, he was not to clients, and he finally got fired for coming to work stoned. Great work ethic!
And I have never found a good way to vent at work about people at work. A good buddy, family member, or significant other is a great person to vent to - someone who isn't tied to work, so your venting won't make it back to the people you work with. Even if you're right, venting will still tick off a guilty party and make the conflict worse. Someone who you trust may also give you more insight on how to handle people at work, but bottom line, you should probably trust your instincts because you sound like you have a good head on your shoulders and can think things through AND you are the one in the situation, so you have the best picture of what's going on.
Just my 2 cents, hope everything works out!
