bethgrace

Based on 23 years experience in the profession - yes and yes

You put this beautifully. This is exactly what I went through. That awful fear of getting fired, of making a serious error. Driving home from your shift worried and scared. I wish I could say it gets better. I personally have never been able to stand any bedside type nursing job for more that 2 years because of this. I don't think the fear is same in other fields becuase I don't think too many other professions hold life and death in their hands the way nurses do. Its like our coworkers are out to prove wedon't care about causing harm, and that our skills are substandard compared to their own. Causing harm is most nurses worst nightmare. And chances are if you graduated nursing school your skills are pretty good.

Actually, I do go to the person who has been catty and speak to them directly regarding their accusations. This is, however, tiring. I'm supposed to be focusing my energy on my work and my patients. Ruby makes an assumption that none of us ever talk to our coworkers about these things and isn't it ironic how catty we're being by posting on a website about catty people. Who feels like defending themselves all the time to a nasty coworker? If talking to the coworker worked, I wouldn't need to look for support on a website, now would I. Nice try, Ruby.

I keep thinking about what someone posted here about the male nurses being immune to this. I've worked in hospitals all over the US and the male nurses being immune seems to be pretty much true everywhere. Usually, no one bothers to attack them and any transgresion is forgiven without a fuss or even a mention. I think this is so because any complaints or cattiness are unlikely to have much impact here. Men tend to shrug this stuff off. Nurses and managers who enjoy causing distress in other nurses are wasting their time on a male nurse, usually. So they don't bother. Which just tends to reinforce my idea that this behavior is really sadistic at its core. Managers who take part and reinforce are as sadistic as the nurses who initiate. Many managers seem to enjoy it.

Truth66 I love your ideas. I think alot of the misreable work environment so many of us have to live with might be improved if the catty ones had to put their cattiness in writing. And RNperdiem? You either have a very thick skin or have been very lucky. We are in a profession where there is very little margin for error. An error could be lethal to a patient. Competetive hospitals demand top notch customer service skills from their nurses at all times. I think most of us are horrified at the idea of a mistake. A mistake is our worst nightmare. I think some nurses enjoy tormenting other nurses with that terrible fear of an error. We also fear being perceived as less than skillful in dealing with difficult people, even for a moment. Heaven forbid we say the wrong thing once in awhile. The Pirhannas will be at us for even a small transgression, even if many wouldn't consider it a trangression at all. Just to be accused is a mark against you.

I've been an RN for 23 years now, and there is an awful aspect of this profession that I will never get used to - nurses attacking and tearing down their fellow nurses. Nurses who seem to revel in trying to make themselves look good by trying to make other nurses look bad. Its at its worst in bedside type nursing. And worst of all in hospital nursing. I don't work in hospital nursing anymore because of it and am moving away from all patient care type situations. I can't stand it anymore. Most of the reporting that goes on is ridiculous and mean spirited. Managers need to stop feeding into this kind of nurse's behavior because it make life miserable for everyone else. I think some nurses are so scared of making a mistake themselves that they go looking for mistakes in others, and spend large amounts of their time reporting their coworkers. Or maybe they are just mean.

I have worked Home Health on and off for the last 15 years. I learned the 1st year in this specialty that I'd rather take my chances on income as a per diem than take my chances as a full timer. The chances you take as a full timer? That you will be required to travel vast distances in a day because your agency "just doesn't have enough work in your territory". That you'll be sent out on a visit with an 19 year old gang member with a gun shot wound in a drug and crime infested urban neighborhood. That you'll spend 7 hours on the road, 3 hours on the phone, and 5 hours on paperwork and get paid for an 8 hour day. That you'll be dumped all over by your agency non-stop because "you're the case manager".