Nursing is a profession built on compassion, respect, and care — not just for our patients, but for each other. When bullying happens among nurses, it breaks down the very foundation of what nursing stands for.
You may have forgotten, but every nurse was once a beginner. We all had shaky hands, unsure voices, and moments of doubt. No one becomes strong by tearing someone else down.
Bullying isn't leadership. It isn't toughness. It's a betrayal of the oath we took to advocate, support, and heal. When you bully, you create fear instead of teamwork, silence instead of learning, and pain where there should be encouragement.
"Nurses eat their young" should never be a tradition — it should be a warning that something needs to change.
If you've bullied someone, it's not too late to reflect, apologize, and do better. Real strength is shown in kindness. True leadership lifts others up.
Be the nurse you once needed. Be the colleague who heals with words, not wounds.
First, from my reading of your posts in this thread, we have opposite viewpoints on the nature and effects of " American meritocracy". While I intend to respond to your post and explain my own, I decline to go further down this rabbit hole in a thread about bullying.
I come by my opinion on the decline of quality healthcare from 50 years of providing it and 75 years of receiving it. I lived through the changeover in the 70's to for-profit models of financing and delivering care. I am not academic and numbers make my eyes bleed, so I cannot pretend to be authoritative about the metrics you presented, but here's a few to look up in addition:
Maternal and child health, national and worldwide.
Access: who gets it and who doesn't
Preventive care/health maintenance: who gets it and who doesn't
Costs and efficiency.
Social and class differences in the quality of care provided.
Meanwhile, I'm struck by the fact that I cited large corporations while you countered with small businesses. Two very different animals.
If you want to continue this, I suggest starting a separate thread, perhaps over in the breakroom.
A moderator can move the posts if they want. Just declaring healthcare economic points without any context is not defending a position (and I thought we were just talking about America, not world wide health care.) I can just say 'lying' but that doesn't support my position. None of these things are peculiar to the American healthcare scene. You brought it up in a bullying thread, I just responded.
The American society is not really a good example of meritocracy.
offlabel said:
A moderator can move the posts if they want. Just declaring healthcare economic points without any context is not defending a position (and I thought we were just talking about America, not world wide health care.) I can just say 'lying' but that doesn't support my position. None of these things are peculiar to the American healthcare scene. You brought it up in a bullying thread, I just responded.
Actually, no, I didn't't. You're thinking of another poster. If you don't want to get into the weeds of discussing your assertions, that's your right. In this thread, I'm done with it.
Actually, no, I didn't't. You're thinking of another poster. If you don't want to get into the weeds of discussing your assertions, that's your right. In this thread, I'm done with it.
"Meritocracy as practiced today n the US just incentivizes cheating. Think Enron and WorldCom.
So, riddle me this: what merits are demonstrated in American meritocracy?"
Nope...I was quoting you. I'm happy to discuss as long as you're comfortable with it.
The average American lifespan has shortened. Vaccination rates are dropping. Preventable disease is on the rise. A significant percentage of the population suffers under crushing debt and even bankruptcy from medical costs. Tens of millions of Americans don't access health care because they can't afford the co-pays and deductible costs after they pay a monthly premium for access.
None of those things speak to a successful health system.
That 2 realities exist at the same time doesn't mean that the two realities have causal relationships. That's a logical fallacy. It is indisputable that health care here is expensive and that metrics like obesity, maternal/fetal morbidity etc. show rises, but to ignore factors that are completely outside the medical care delivery system just serves a narrative that is outside the topic at hand. For example, the maternal/fetal health aspect....violence and other crime in those areas where morbidity is on the rise, drug use, pregnant women with no partner....these are all cultural issues that contribute to higher mortality, not the 'system' per se.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
offlabel said:
That 2 realities exist at the same time doesn't mean that the two realities have causal relationships. That's a logical fallacy. It is indisputable that health care here is expensive and that metrics like obesity, maternal/fetal morbidity etc. show rises, but to ignore factors that are completely outside the medical care delivery system just serves a narrative that is outside the topic at hand. For example, the maternal/fetal health aspect....violence and other crime in those areas where morbidity is on the rise, drug use, pregnant women with no partner....these are all cultural issues that contribute to higher mortality, not the 'system' per se.
I'm not ignoring anything. The society creates the outside elements. Healthcare chases payment because that's what the society values; money. .
I'm not ignoring anything. The society creates the outside elements. Healthcare chases payment because that's what the society values; money. .
That's nothing new human history. Not at all specific to American culture. You and I both value money as the devices we're communicating on are worth enough to provide nutrition to a 3rd world family of 6 for at least 6 months. I see you have the NICU in your history. Those units are disproportionately large (like 100 beds) in metro areas with high low income/minority populations. NICU care is among the most expensive in the system. And it can't exist in a vacuum. When you need your knee done, it has to cost more at least in part because of all of those NICU's saving the lives of meth and opiate addicted preemies. We agree on the 'society' thing. More to the point, society-cultural. SC LA, SS Chicago, NYC...all of them have populations whose conditions from the 60's to now have gone from not good, to bad to catastrophic...all because of well intentioned but failed from the start social policies. Don't deal with that, those populations will just continue to crater. And health care cost will increase or just eventually leave those populations our altogether.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
offlabel said:
That's nothing new human history. Not at all specific to American culture. You and I both value money as the devices we're communicating on are worth enough to provide nutrition to a 3rd world family of 6 for at least 6 months. I see you have the NICU in your history. Those units are disproportionately large (like 100 beds) in metro areas with high low income/minority populations. NICU care is among the most expensive in the system. And it can't exist in a vacuum. When you need your knee done, it has to cost more at least in part because of all of those NICU's saving the lives of meth and opiate addicted preemies. We agree on the 'society' thing. More to the point, society-cultural. SC LA, SS Chicago, NYC...all of them have populations whose conditions from the 60's to now have gone from not good, to bad to catastrophic...all because of well intentioned but failed from the start social policies. Don't deal with that, those populations will just continue to crater. And health care cost will increase or just eventually leave those populations our altogether.
It sounds like Americans just deserve what they've built.
All Americans. We built and defend a capitalist system to address health. Aren't you defending it now?
Yep, defending it. Did not 'build' it. Healthcare just followed the same trajectory as any other US industry in the 20th century so I guess that's how it developed it's profit motives. Whatever the disparities are, what is not really debatable is the speed with which technological advances occur here that the rest of the world benefits from and at a lower cost to them in the long run. Medical innovation occurs in the US for the profit motive, of course. It is what it is and the rest of the world depends on it and we benefit from it, generally. Lots of waste and futile care, for sure. Wouldn't want to be really sick anywhere else. I've seen tertiary lever care to John Doe homeless to state government level VIP's.
offlabel
1,743 Posts
A moderator can move the posts if they want. Just declaring healthcare economic points without any context is not defending a position (and I thought we were just talking about America, not world wide health care.) I can just say 'lying' but that doesn't support my position. None of these things are peculiar to the American healthcare scene. You brought it up in a bullying thread, I just responded.