ergs222

Dear raceteam91: I'm finishing my BSN and am writing my capstone paper on nurse bullying. I must say, you have really hit a nerve with me, and perhaps not in the way you intended. I am doing my practicum at a facility with almost exclusively ADN prepared nurses. There is one other student- an ADN student. The ADN student is openly favored while I am criticized for my choice of degree, excluded from social events, and used as a scapegoat for mistakes made by my preceptor. Fortunately my education has prepared me to identify horizontal aggression (bullying) and I am taking steps to address it. Yes, as you say I am inexperienced- I'm a new nurse! The new ADN nurse is inexperienced, too. That's what it means to be new. I understand that you are scared and frustrated, but I want you to realize that when you criticize BSN nurses like this you are promoting horizontal aggression which EBP demonstrates leads to decreased patient outcomes. It would be equally inappropriate for a BSN nurse to bully an ADN nurse, however that is not the situation at hand. I understand that you do not know me and your comments were not targeted directly at me, and that you are not "bullying" me directly, however you are contributing to a culture which pits BSN and ADN nurses against each other and sees bullying as acceptable. I realize that that was not your intention, however please take a moment to reflect on the impact of your statements. Thank you.