What is the environment like at your workplace? Do you like your co-workers?

Neither of these extremes, or any in between, are unique to nursing.

I love my coworkers. They all have fur, four feet, retractable claws, and tails (see my profile for the newest hires)-- I'm a one-human office. :)

Well, personally, I LOVE my co-workers. They're like my second family. And, I work nights, so I don't have management or anyone for that matter breathing down my neck.

I love my coworkers, but some of the charge nurses I could do without. I also work night shift. NIght shift is a good bunch we all try to work together. The day shift on my floor eats their young and runs off any new employees. So they are always short, always tired and crabby, thus reinforcing the cycle. If you run off all new employees (including experienced nurses) then you will have to stay short staffed. There is a mean girl clique like you remember from seventh grade. They have also broken down a few new night shifters during report by being nasty, but we try to prep the newbies for them because we know it is coming.

I love my coworkers! I work on a really busy and chaotic skilled floor, and we're all usually very stressed out but it kind of brings us together. I'd say there's a lot of sarcasm and even singing to try and get through the day. It may be a good thing that our floor is so busy, we spend most of our time focusing on the patients that we don't really have time to fight with each other :)

I have to echo loriangel14 and hopefulwhoop :)

I put it like this. The reason why your cousin can't stand her co-workers is because she's new and most nurses hate new nurses....Hence: Nurses eat their young.. Some of the most ignorant people in the hospital, you would think are the patients, but it's not, are the nurses. Some nurses are just down right angry people walking the earth. I always use to question why they ever became nurses in the first place. They know who they are. Aren't nurses suppose to be kind, understanding and loving toward their fellow man/woman? That's a joke. Another reason why some nurses are angry toward new grads/nurses is because someone was mean to them when they first started and they forgot how horrible it felt, so they continue the chain of abuse. I never let it bother me because I knew one day I would get them back and I did.

Now, as for your Aunt who was a nurse for 20 years. She's probably has been at the same health care facility for a long time, along with her co-workers and they are all friends, or they just learned to tolerate each other and to get along. Ask your aunt the next time you see her if she is/was one of those nurses who bullied new grads.

I can proudly state I have never bullied a new grad/nurse, or even an experienced nurse who was new to our facility. As a matter of fact, I stopped several nurses from bullying an agency nurse who came to our facility to help us out with wound care. How stupid can some people get to bully someone who came to help them?

I love five of my co-workers. Number six? Meh...She's kind of hard to warm up to lol!

I get along fine with my co-workers. My secret? I keep my expectations of coworkers realistic.

I don't expect everyone to be my friend, but to maintain warm but professional relationships.

Realistic means accepting that people are going to have bad days too.

Do your job, help out and avoid the gossip mill.