Well, it is a tiring topic, and it's getting better I think, but I went through things no one should have to endure.
As a new nurse, when I asked two of the most senior nurses a question, they most generally said either "call the doctor" or some stupid blow-off answer. And now knowing what I know now, they were deliberately dumping me.
And it went farther so that as soon as I was almost out of earshot they would exclaim to each other "she should know that by now." I was only two or four months a nurse!
And it went even farther, night after night I would find my charts racked with orders on them. And my med sheets would disappear. Things like that! I really did think I was losing my mind and I wanted to quit so badly because I thought I was so bad.
Finally, a couple of other co-workers confided to me that they were witnesses to me being sabotaged. They were tired of watching the whole sham and told me about it. One of them had their tires slashed afterward, they didn't live far from the hospital. They didn't and still don't have the courage to come forward.
But when the tires were slashed and the police became involved, I went to the director. Especially when I found some nursing notes hidden between two books of a bookshelf after I had searched for them far and wide.
I don't know what my director ever did or said to anyone but a CNA was fired and nothing else.
I eventually learned what I needed to know. And probably damaged my reputation for life because if I even thought I might need to call about anything, I called the doctor, and yes, I called in the middle of the night.
The meanest of the nurses has gotten a lot better. But she still singles people out and harps about them endlessly behind their backs and goes to the director every day with every tiresome issue. But some things she reports are necessary and she really knows how to get action. She's like a watchdog.
And I wanted to change places of employment desparately but I rationalized that if it was so horrible where I was at a faith-based hospital, it must be even worse somewhere else.
So, I kept reminding myself that I had graduated top of my class and breezed the NCLEX and I would be okay. Now, I am a senior nurse and a preceptor and we make it a point of pride to nurture the new nurses. And I have been approached at least three times by at least three different new nurses who were discouraged and felt "all chewed up" and was able to encourage them appropriately and now they are doing very well. They are smart and good nurses but were about to quit.:heartbeat
