RN's and the Cult Mentality

Cults, wonderful on the outside but on the inside are very manipulating. Cult leaders are desperate to trick you into joining. They are after your obedience, your time and your money.

RN's and the Cult Mentality

Today I want delve into my previous statement "Nurses are one big Cult" and see whether the statement could have some bearing on reality!

I found this web site which actually pasted a warning "Be careful this site contains information that Cults don't want you to know" So I read further out of curiosity and laughed out loud because RN's could seriously fit into 'CULT' mentality.

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Cults, wonderful on the outside but on the inside are very manipulating. Cult leaders are desperate to trick you into joining. They are after your obedience, your time and your money.

How true is this statement we are expected to obey, policy and procedures, we are expected to work 36/40 hrs per week. Not a second more because they don't want to pay overtime but if they are short they expect you to work extra hours even on your day off! Most facilities don't pay you if you are 8 mins early or out 8mins late therefore they take your time and your money?! Or you get accused of 'Milking the Clock"

For those of you who are interested in reading the source - the website is howcultswork.com. The first statement on this web site is as follows

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Cults are easy to spot, they wear strange clothes and live in communes

Well RN's are easy to spot! We all wear strange clothing called SCRUBS or Uniforms depending on which country you live in. However we are not easy to spot because everybody in our commune wears scrubs, so we are not easily identifiable as RN's. We could be one of many professions in a hospital.

We don't however live in a commune we just feel like we do!

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Cults are full of the weak, weird and emotionally unstable.

Are we surrounded by weak, weird and emotionally unstable co-workers? Look around you I know in your healthcare environment you can find a weak RN a weird RN and we are all emotionally unstable because at some point in you life and career as an RN we do let our emotions run out of control, it is the nature of the beast.

Most of my 22 yrs some outrageous decision by some ivory tower executive has caused me to be angry and outraged.

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Cults are just a bunch of religious nut cases.

Well a lot of us may be nutcases but does religion play a role in our delivery of health care? I don't know and I don't have an answer to this without offending a great many people and that is certainly not the intention of this blog to expose religion in healthcare I will save that for another debate.

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The modern definition of a mind control cult is any group which employs mind control and deceptive recruiting techniques. In other words cults trick people into joining and coerce them into staying. This is the definition that most people would agree with. Except the cults themselves of course!

Ok how many of you have seen nursing magazines which describe the hospital you work in, in such a magnificent way that you want to work there now!

They describe how wonderful the area is, how you can swim, hike, enjoy a new and start a new excellent life, if you come and work for them!

Then you realize this place is where you work now!

You can see how we are being recruited in by playing with your mind, you are being tempted by the glamorous advertisement.

How many of you have been to recruitment days where different hospitals have lovely young men and women incising you to come and work for their healthcare facility and how wonderful it is.

You never really get to see the real workers in the hospital the ones who are worn out after a 12 hour shift with staff shortages!

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Cults that use commercial gain as their base are called "cults of greed". They will promise you that if you join them and follow their special program for success then you will become very rich.

What can I say! Do we not believe that we the hospital we work for will make us successful and financially viable. We go to work to be paid, we expect to be paid what we are worth and most of us work hard to achieve success. We expect to be support, encouraged and developed.

In reality are we successful and how do we measure success. For me success is when I have adequate time to complete my work and made my patients feel safe and well cared for.

Do I always have the time No, do I always leave work feeling like I have achieved everything I wanted to NO.

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Commercial cults use mind control to get you working for them for free, and to make you pay for an endless stream of motivational tapes, videos, books and seminars all of which are supposedly designed to help you succeed, but in reality are designed to enhance the cult's mind control environment and keep you believing in their almost impossible dream of success

We don't work for free, but we do often feel we don't get paid enough for what we do.

A lot of nurses work through their lunch time so we work for free because you are not paid for some of your breaks.

I know nurses who 'clock out' because they don't want to get into trouble with the managers for not completing their work in a timely manner, they have not completed their documentation so they work for free!

We do endless streams of courses which are mandatory, they never change they are the same every year.

I doubt anybody really cares whether you understand them all they care about is that you are compliant which in turns means we 'meet the condition of coverage'. I know when I have done these courses on the intranet all I wanna do is pass, and move on!

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Cult leadership is feared. To disagree with leadership is the same as disagreeing with God. The cult leaders will claim to have direct authority from God to control almost all aspects of your life. If the cult is not a religious group then questioning the leaders or program will still be seen as a sign of rebellion and stupidity.

How many of you 'fear' the leadership? How many RN's actually disagree with the leadership on your floor? How often have I heard gossip and expressed dislike of certain 'charge nurses' and 'floor managers?

How many of you will actually go to that 'leader; and tell them that you disagree with their leadership!

I doubt many of you will or have because it would be seen as a non compliant member of staff, you would be considered a rebel, troublemaker and that you don't fit in with the 'team'. How many times have you heard the expression 'they are not a team player'.

Nobody wants to be accused of not being a team player it is almost like a swear word!

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Guilt, Character Assassination and Breaking Sessions. Guilt will be used to control you. It's always your fault, you are always wrong, and so you must try harder! You will also be made to feel very guilty for disobeying any of the cult's written or unwritten rules

Part two next week

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madwife2002

About madwife2002, BSN, RN

RN with 26 years of experience many of those years spent in dialysis. I have worked in acute care, home, ICHD as a CN, FA, and currently a director.

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Specializes in Operating Room.

Lol, this is very true!

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Specializes in cardiac, ICU, education.

I disagree that the nursing profession is a cult, but certain hospital cultures may fit that description. Nursing is too diverse.

However, I think you just described America right now. Don't trust our leaders, do what we are told, political parties brainwashing members to believe they will rescue them, losing our rights and privacy on a daily basis, etc.

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I so can relate! Thanks for sharing! :)

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I, too, read the post and read the link, last week. I think it's a very fitting analogy in many respects.

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Specializes in ED, ICU, PSYCH, PP, CEN.

Well thought out, and sadly very true

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The same could be said for many lines of work, not just Nursing.

We have to pay those bills, so we toe the mark. It's not cult, it's survival.

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I am really confused about nursing or doing respiratory therapy my passion is nursing but bmcc is very hard to get into

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I still like this article and IMO it is refresshing to see somr of us are awake to reality of society we choice to live in.

Nursing like any other field has it pros and cons, Since I been a RN, I seen nursing change for the better or I would of left the field along time ago. I always remember the power of one individual thoughts,words,attitude and action can be powerful and make a positive differance and change for the betterment of all in a society/world.

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Specializes in none.

RN cult is very true. I used to work with a nurse as an LPN she and I were a team. When she got her RN, She thought she was speaking with the voice of God. She was now Superior to me. Even though she still did the same job I did. Every decision that she made was now a matter of life and death. For she had been to the mountain top. She had been slapped in the hither regions by the Almighty himself. What a pain! Even the other RNs' laughed at her. So I think there is a cult and this Little Mary Sunshine is it's leader.

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so silly nursing cult................lol

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RN cult is very true. I used to work with a nurse as an LPN she and I were a team. When she got her RN, She thought she was speaking with the voice of God. She was now Superior to me. Even though she still did the same job I did. Every decision that she made was now a matter of life and death. For she had been to the mountain top. She had been slapped in the hither regions by the Almighty himself. What a pain! Even the other RNs' laughed at her. So I think there is a cult and this Little Mary Sunshine is it's leader.

HA HA HA HA. Hilarious! Little Mary Sunshine :lol2:

I guess she was overcompensating for the time when you were the decision maker. It is very difficult to transition from one role to another in the same facility. One reason why they often hire managers from outside.

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