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I'm really amazed to find so many grouchy nurses on the floor I'm a "student" on. These aren't long time nurses, but fairly new nurses with only one and two years of experience. I can only imagine if they can be so bitchy at only 23-25 years old, what will they be like in the future?! Nearly half of the nurses are this way; the others are either nice or at least reasonable. Our instructor told us today they are like that because they are overworked and underpaid!! Is that really our problem? After all, we're not making a dime, are paying them to be there, and are very nice to all of them!! The treatment is so bad I don't know even one student who wants to work in this hospital. A couple nurses report every tiny mistake to our instructor. I realize some thing should be reported, but not to the extent it is being done. It makes for a troubling environment and doesn't help others to learn. I'd love to say they are great nurses regardless of this, but one overdosed my 80 year old patient on pain meds the other day. It was crazy what she did. All you hear about is the nursing shortage and how those working as nurses are often very unhappy. Isn't it time, we treat others with respect and work as a team?? Maybe if we could be good to one another we'd be happier. Shame on those who want to be in a field in which you help others, yet treat those you work with so terribly. For those who deal with students/ coworkers, they appreciate your treating them fairly. I'm so blown away people can be so cruel who are being so nice to them!!! WOW!!
Thanks for all your responses!! It's nice to see so much support. For those who don't fully agree, that's fine. However, as I'm just getting back into nursing, I feel I'm well aware of how overworked nurses are, although I don't think we can quite fully know until we actually work as nurses. Nevertheless it is my belief that no matter how busy or stressed ANYONE is, they have no right to take it out on ANYONE. I don't care if this is a nurse treating a student poorly, a cashier treating a customer poorly, a teacher treating a student poorly, a daycare worker treating a parent poorly, etc, etc. My husband has a very successful business and has been stressed more than I can tell you at times, but never lashed out at a customer. If he had, he'd have no business. Being older, I realize, it isn't me they are really upset with, but try to tell that to a younger student. We all need to help each other. If you see a crabby nurse maybe you can step in and help answer a student's question if at all possible. Or maybe the crabby nurses can be honest and tell the student they're really stressed and ask for a little space. That might work among the nurses as well. Most people can understand that. I tell my husband to give me some space when life is getting tough and he does...maybe that's why we've been married 20 years!!
I understand. Students are in a delicate situation and are just as stressed out as nurses with clinicals and school work, not to mention jobs and families, and we would do well to remember that. I'm a preceptor to students and new grads and I refuse to be crabby.
Good luck to you. Don't let the trolls and crabs of the world jade you. :)
I remember one of my instructors in nursing school writing "wanders about aimlessly with nothing to do" about me when I had one patient to care for. I had worked as an aide before school and had bathed up to 15 patients in the same time frame! She was a degree nurse who had no clinical skills and I resented it and never forgot it. I have had at least two jobs in my career that were so stressful from older nurses being hateful to me that I would vomit before going to my shift. I concentrated on my patients and learned to just "do my job" ignoring cruel remarks from jealous coworkers. I have also had some of the happiest and most fun times of my life in nursing. I am a NURSE and I would not ever think of leaving this wonderful profession. The nursing profession is filled with all kinds of personalities from sweet to poison and it has never been boring to me. It has been almost 40 years from candy striper to Case Manager and I don't regret any of it. My daughter followed me into nursing and she also probably would not trade jobs. She tells me about the little old lady who she helps by holding her hand and the sweet little 3 year old with fear erased with a soothing voice and I know she is a NURSE. That is what it is all about and the bad comes with the good. Dwell on the good and keep helping people in pain and fear from illness. You will be blessed.
I have to say that during my clinicals I had great nurses to work with. My instructor actually worked at that hospital and she knew which nurses were the ones that would be patient with us.
It wasn't until I graduated and got out on the floor that I started having problems. I felt like I was thrown to the wolves. Anytime I asked a question I was treated like I was stupid. I tried my best to smile and be polite, but I can't tell you how many times I cried all the way home and wondered what I had gotten myself into. I also found out early on to stand up for myself and not become the whipping girl for the rude nurses who treated me badly. Once I stood up for myself, it seems that they respected me.
When I was experienced enough to have students work with me, I tried my best to treat them the same way that my great nurses treated me. Some days it was hard, but I remembered that I was once where they were.
Keep a smile on your face and realize why you chose nursing. Of course, the days and nights will be challenging and sometimes a nightmare, but just keep your eye on the big picture. :)
I have to say that during my clinicals I had great nurses to work with. My instructor actually worked at that hospital and she knew which nurses were the ones that would be patient with us.It wasn't until I graduated and got out on the floor that I started having problems. I felt like I was thrown to the wolves. Anytime I asked a question I was treated like I was stupid. I tried my best to smile and be polite, but I can't tell you how many times I cried all the way home and wondered what I had gotten myself into. I also found out early on to stand up for myself and not become the whipping girl for the rude nurses who treated me badly. Once I stood up for myself, it seems that they respected me.
When I was experienced enough to have students work with me, I tried my best to treat them the same way that my great nurses treated me. Some days it was hard, but I remembered that I was once where they were.
Keep a smile on your face and realize why you chose nursing. Of course, the days and nights will be challenging and sometimes a nightmare, but just keep your eye on the big picture. :)
I hate to see new nurses that get no help...but then sometimes floors are just so understaffed that taking time with a student is more than you can do. I precept students and new nurses also. I think the one on one approach works better....there is more learning going on. I have also worked in places where you have go do your job and try not to worry about everything else it is hard. Good luck to the students......you will find nurses who care.....
I agree. I was a phlebotomist before a pre-nursing major. The floor nurses were so rude to me and the patients, it was incredible. There were always 2 or more patients in restraints, when I was on shift. When a patient had a question for me and I passed it on to the nurses, they said to never mind.
They were also in charge of any complaints for the lab, and would write anyone up. if they needed. it would eventually affect their pay increase, as it would go into the record.
My point really is, I decided that I did not want to work on the floor, that the ER dept. was for me, after I seen how unhappy they were. The ER nurses were the happiest and most helpful.
I remember the first thing one of my instructors taught was "nurses eat their young" and how true that is. Maybe hospital nursing in an environment like that is not for you. There are so many others aspects of nursing. Consider homecare or hospice care where you work independently and not in a "shop" environment. You will be o.k. Sometimes you just have to shake it off.
with all due respect, you are very new in the field, this is a difficult profession to be in and I get tired of "new" nurses coming in to complain about nurses who have been in the field for a while. I have been a nurse since 1971, it is no picnic!
I'm really amazed to find so many grouchy nurses on the floor I'm a "student" on. These aren't long time nurses, but fairly new nurses with only one and two years of experience. I can only imagine if they can be so bitchy at only 23-25 years old, what will they be like in the future?! Nearly half of the nurses are this way; the others are either nice or at least reasonable. Our instructor told us today they are like that because they are overworked and underpaid!! Is that really our problem? After all, we're not making a dime, are paying them to be there, and are very nice to all of them!! The treatment is so bad I don't know even one student who wants to work in this hospital. A couple nurses report every tiny mistake to our instructor. I realize some thing should be reported, but not to the extent it is being done. It makes for a troubling environment and doesn't help others to learn. I'd love to say they are great nurses regardless of this, but one overdosed my 80 year old patient on pain meds the other day. It was crazy what she did. All you hear about is the nursing shortage and how those working as nurses are often very unhappy. Isn't it time, we treat others with respect and work as a team?? Maybe if we could be good to one another we'd be happier. Shame on those who want to be in a field in which you help others, yet treat those you work with so terribly. For those who deal with students/ coworkers, they appreciate your treating them fairly. I'm so blown away people can be so cruel who are being so nice to them!!! WOW!!
with all due respect, you are "new" to the field and profession, nursing is hard! I have been a nurse since 1974, yes, it is inappropriate to complain all the time and some people never do anything to make changes or to help make it better. But cut them some slack, the profession has gone downhill over the years and the staff nurse has little power to make changes, over worked, mandated overtime, there is little time for family, vacation, socializing, etc. You, too, will start to complain, just wait and see.
with all due respect, you are "new" to the field and profession, nursing is hard! I have been a nurse since 1974, yes, it is inappropriate to complain all the time and some people never do anything to make changes or to help make it better. But cut them some slack, the profession has gone downhill over the years and the staff nurse has little power to make changes, over worked, mandated overtime, there is little time for family, vacation, socializing, etc. You, too, will start to complain, just wait and see.
I disagree to some extent. Yes, I'm new to nursing, but I've been working for fifteen years, and there are cranky people in every profession, and some people are going to complain all the time, regardless of their job environment. yes, people have the right to be frustrated, but nobody has the right to be flat-out abusive to coworkers...you hear the same sort of thing in the corporate world from people making six figures who have minions at their beck and call to do all of their grunt-work. When someone has taken steps to try to improve the situation and are continually thwarted, yes, I can understand having a negative attitude- that's happened to me in previous careers. but being abusive only makes the work environment worse. I don't think every nurse is automatically destined to eventually become burned out and complain all the time- and entering any profession with that assumption will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I have been a nurse for 35 years. I have gone full circle in almost every aspect of nursing except ob-gyn except as a nursing student. I have known nurses through out
my career that are chronic complainers, write up other nurses to make them feel supeior in reporting everything. I was reported for not wearing panties!!!! I had worn the same color of panties
as my support hose. She even asked me if I was wearing them. In order to
make her eat crow, I showed her my panties color and my color of my support hose. This nurse will go out of her way to try and make herself
look good and try to win over the families and relatives by putting down
other nurses down on any shift. Crabby and more so. There is a bad apple in every aspect of
nursing. Yes in this day and age Nurses need to help ou r younger nurses because they are the ones that will be taking care of use if going in Geriontoloy Nursing.
Remember this, sometimes it is not a bitchy nurse, just a downright bitchy person who shouldn't be in the profession.
Here, Here!!! This is only too true. As a "newer" nurse working with "older" nurses, I also run into this. Just the other dayh one of these older nurse snotted off to me after a polite request for help. I didn't understand her response then and I still dont. Unfortunately, she is NOT going to change who she is, so all I can do is log it and move on. Do your best to be the kind of nurse that you want taking care of you and you will do fine. Keep a good attitude and you will do well.
Happy nursing!
Butterflynurse
ktwlpn, LPN
3,844 Posts
There are "crabby" people EVERYWHERE-not just in nursing.You had better learn to stand up for yourself or ignore it and not let their negative energy effect you or you else leave....You will ALWAYS find chronically un-happy people everywhere you go. Nursing is highly stressful and physically exhausting...but any job can be those things to the person that strives to do their best at it....I do see a schism between the new guard and the old guard and it is widening....Often the newer younger staff do not have the same work ethic that our generation was taught.I mean that I learned to speak to everyone with RESPECT,I am proud of my promptness and good attendance and my ability to treat ALL as though they are an important member of our care team because they are-no matter what job they do...I also believe that when I walk in the door I put on my "game face" and treat everyone courteously...sadly many people have NOT taught their children these life lessons.Many of these young people are selfish and self-centered and completely incapable of looking beyond themselves at the bigger picture-and many have absolutely no manners-no class and no couth............I will pull my sons ears OFF if I ever hear of him behaving in the manner that I have seen many young people behave...I am speaking of nurses,aides,house keepers,students and Walmart cashiers .....The last student that shadowed me on "leadership" day was hugely pregnant and miserable-totally incapable of even pretending to show any interest or enthusiasm...Spent most of the day looking for a place to sit or lean-I was so tired of listening to her sigh and looking at her sour pickle face that by 10:00 she was sitting at the nurse's station with the policy and procedure books....