Sure to Get Flamed for This

Time to don the fireproof underwear. It is 0500 and the reality alarm clock is ringing, and some people do not like to hear it go off. So whether you agree with me or not, I feel it is time to inject a little thought provoking ideas into your life. Nurses Announcements Archive Article

I am sure I am about to get flamed for posting this, but I feel the need to anyways. I have been seeing these threads talking about bullying and teachers or preceptors hating the students, and new nurses or abusing them because of some perceived slight or injustice. Well guess what?

The world is a hard cold nasty place that does not need to be polite to you or worry whether your feelings got hurt and you feel offended. You need to grow up and realize that the abuse that you claim is rampant, or the bullying that you experience all the time is not their problem, but rather your problem.

I see so many posts about this and I wonder how some of these people have survived as long as they have. School is tough? Deal with it. You think that someone else is getting it easier? Well too bad, they may be but no one ever promised you everything would be fair. You have to learn that there is inequality in life. It's how you overcome that inequality that matters. It teaches perseverance.

Abusive teachers? Maybe they are trying to get the best in you to come out. What you think is abuse maybe is pushing you to your limits, to get you further along in your potential. So your feelings got hurt at school, grow up, feelings get hurt every day.

Your preceptor is unorganized and does not like you and bad mouths you to your manager, and all your patients love you but no one at the hospital sees how great you really are?

Well your preceptor may actually have great time management skill, but when having to slow down and teach someone their job, things do tend to get disorganized. You may be part of the blame there.

Did you ever stop to think that you are the proverbial monkey wrench in a well oiled machine? The need to teach you, and I realize you do need to learn, can be very time consuming. They may tell your manager that you need improving or that you are not advancing fast enough. They may be all smiles to you, because they want to support you and keep you positive, but they need to tell the manager how you really are.

Speaking of orientation, how often have I seen statements that say the other nurses are not supportive and will not answer questions. Have you ever thought that maybe you are asking TOO MANY questions?

After a bit it may seem that you are not retaining the info provided and everyone gets tired of answering the same questions over and over. Part of learning is knowing when to shut your mouth and just watch. It has been said by people wiser than me that the only question you should ask is the question that you already know the answer to. If that does not make sense to you, think about it for a while and you might just be surprised that a light comes on.

So basically what i am saying is grow up and act like the adult that you are. Life is not fair, school is not fair, work is not fair. You just have to learn to deal with it.

So correct me if I am wrong. You have less than a year of nursing experience and you are advocating bullying when it can teach right from wrong? I am here to say that bullying is NEVER the answer to learning or teaching. Whoever taught you that is ignorant and you are irresponsible to advocate it.

This was in response to ixchel, rn

I think women tend to be really unkind to each other in the work place. There is competition and jealousy. We as women need to stand by each other, support one another and realize we can be our own worst enemies. Taking that negative energy we can combined our strength and wisdom as nurses and do amazing things for our patients...

the OPs use of that well known phrase, and corrupting its meaning was just silly, actually I want to use a more forceful word...but you know, then I WILL pay the price.

I don't know where the saying "nurses eat their young" came from, and I was a nurse for over 10 years before I heard it, thankfully. I think I was spared a lot of angst by not having a hook to hang every gesture, look, or snippy reply onto. Lest anyone think I give all preceptors a pass by saying that, I have been victimized and bullied in my career.

People have really fixated on the OP's "don't ask a question" remark when I'm sure he did not literally mean that. He meant a perfectly sensible bit of advice to use other resources at your disposal to find your answer and then ask. He meant to remember the answers you get so that you don't ask the same questions repeatedly.

When you need to learn something from someone else, you aren't really in a lateral relationship anyway. Believe it or not, we've had a good number of new preceptors come here and ask how they can best teach/serve new grads. We've had new grads opine about and thank their preceptors. We've had new grads with a few months of experience under their belts give us tips on how to relate successfully to their preceptors and get the most out of their orientation.

Aside from that, I'm curious to know what it is about this thread that leads you to believe you are destined to be a victim of "lateral violence"? I think most of us, when we read something may be drawn to the most provocative and emotion-laden descriptions of someone's experience. Text-only communication in particular leads to things devolving into a black and white contrast, but I really believe you may be selling yourself and others short by assuming you will be beaten down.

Specializes in critical care.
So correct me if I am wrong. You have less than a year of nursing experience and you are advocating bullying when it can teach right from wrong? I am here to say that bullying is NEVER the answer to learning or teaching. Whoever taught you that is ignorant and you are irresponsible to advocate it.

What in the world?! No, I am not advocating bullying. How is anything I have said advocating bullying? I am advocating for honesty in a preceptor/student relationship because it is necessary for growth. I am advocating for knowing what bullying actually is. As an actual victim of bullying, it burns me up inside to see that word thrown around incorrectly. Honesty that hurts your feelings isn't bullying. Intimidation and/or violence that is targeted and repeated is. No, I do not advocate for that.

Specializes in critical care.

P.S. I don't believe nursing experience is necessary to have relevant input on a topic about bullying. You do realize bullying happens outside hospitals, right? I have not in any way overstated my nursing experience and have been forthcoming about my role in this conversation.

Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
P.S. I don't believe nursing experience is necessary to have relevant input on a topic about bullying. You do realize bullying happens outside hospitals, right? I have not in any way overstated my nursing experience and have been forthcoming about my role in this conversation.

Don't worry, ixchel. You were fine.

Specializes in critical care.
Don't worry, ixchel. You were fine.

Thank you. That post burned me up because out of this entire thread, my posts were call-out worthy when the poster clearly misunderstood all I'd said. Plus I've been on nights, which apparently shortens my fuse a little. Perhaps I was a bully, too. ?

Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
Thank you. That post burned me up because out of this entire thread, my posts were call-out worthy when the poster clearly misunderstood all I'd said. Plus I've been on nights, which apparently shortens my fuse a little. Perhaps I was a bully, too.

​Only if red jello was involved. ;)

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Yanno, "suck it up and run with it" was a saying by my drill instructor in the military. I hated it at first, but I know what she meant. Life ain't fair. Everyone isn't nice. Suck it up, buttercup. If there is TRUE bullying/hostile work environment, then you are not the only one suffering and you have a hostile/toxic workplace. If I go running to the manager/boss with a problem, I am careful to also offer some solutions. The manager is not there to salve our sore feelings or be a counselor. I don't just whine.

My advice to anyone feeling like they are unfairly treated is to be constructive and try to solve some of your own problems. Also---- cliques? I never try to be in them. I do my thing, am fair, honest and direct with all the people I work with. I did not get the job to make friends, and if that happened, I considered it a plus. Otherwise, what they think of me is none of my business and I don't care. If I am not in a clique, I don't have to worry about mores of such things and tailor my thoughts and behavior to their satisfaction; I am free to feel, say and do as I must and not worry "they won't like me".

Life is like that, unfair. Feelings get hurt. But in the end, WE control how we react. None of us would make it far or long if we could not grow a thicker skin and get on with it.

I didn't read the majority of the responses to OP's post but good lord... I just pray that the care of patients isn't negatively influenced by attitudes such as this.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
I didn't read the majority of the responses to OP's post but good lord... I just pray that the care of patients isn't negatively influenced by attitudes such as this.

Sadly, care of the patients could be negatively influenced by the attitudes of orientees who assume that every criticism is a personal attack and that they're wonderful and their only problem is that no one else recognizes it. In fact, it's down right sure to be!