What is up with the level of entitlement?

[sofla98]

I’m a seasoned nurse with a lot of years of experience. I work hard to take care of my patients and their basic needs, and then some. But what is up with these newer grads, like in their younger 20’s? The ones who started 2019-2020, bc something is way different. 

We’re all wondering what it is. 

They expect the charge nurses and other nurses to do their tasks/work for them and I’ve seen some actually whine, roll their eyes, etc. when they don’t get their way or they’re a little bit busy. 

It’s really starting to aggravate those of us over the age of 30, especially because if they don’t get their way they go to the manager and say “so and so didn’t help me enough” or “so and so wasn’t available and I couldn’t find them for an hour.”

I think it’s time I leave the hospital, to be honest. They are also incredibly hard to train. They don’t listen, get offended if you try to explain to them why something didn’t go well, or go complain to the manager. 

Our management is tired of it too. Is it the same personalities? Are they really that easily offended? Someone ELI5. Thanx. 

Don’t believe this is an issue? Just wait for the responses! LOL! 

[subee, MSN, CRNA]

The more over-populated we are, the meaner the world gets.  That's just history.

[Davey Do]

17 hours ago, subee said:

The more over-populated we are, the meaner the world gets.  That's just history.

There really is something to that, subee!

As a young adolescent, I raised mice as pets and to make a little money selling them to pet shops. I had, at one time, 108 mice. I built cages for them that were like high-rise apartment buildings with three rooms in each apartment.

I noted this: Eight mice in a one foot square area of living space did well. No fights, babies were born and given care. However, if I over populated the area, fights, sometimes to the death, would break out. The male mice with the biggest testicles were bullies, hoarded food, and the mothers often ate their babies.

I learned how to perform surgeries, removing the male mice testicles, putting them under with my Dad's starting fluid which contained ether!

Even then, I knew I was destined to work in the medical/psychiatric nursing field!

 

[londonflo]

Sometimes when the nurse's station was packed with an oncoming shift plus those finishing their shift I used to see more signs of temper. My comment was (similar to Davey Do's observation) even the zookeepers know that each animal needs a certain amount of space!

[Guest856929]

1 hour ago, Davey Do said:

There really is something to that, subee!

As a young adolescent, I raised mice as pets and to make a little money selling them to pet shops. I had, at one time, 108 mice. I built cages for them that were like high-rise apartment buildings with three rooms in each apartment.

I noted this: Eight mice in a one foot square area of living space did well. No fights, babies were born and given cared. However, if I over populated the area, fights, sometimes to the death, would break out. The male mice with the biggest testicles were bullies, hoarded food, and the mothers often ate their babies.

I learned how to perform surgeries, removing the male mice testicles, putting them under with my Dad's starting fluid which contained ether!

Even then, I knew I was destined to work in the medical/psychiatric nursing field!

 

Very interesting. I read somewhere that the concept of the ghettos were designed by the Nazis using prototypes/blueprints of mice in an enclosed perimeter. Thereafter, they minimized resources by rationing food, water, electricity, warmth etc. Within a short time the mice became so gangster that they were stealing from their neighbors. After further rationing the mice became so diabolical that they would steal food from their own family and eventually resorted to cannibalism. Satisfied with the experiment, the Nazi regime designed ghettos for those who the deemed dissimilar to their standards of complexion/features. What is more interesting is that some powers-that-be from America learned about the experiment and built ghettos/projects for certain disenfranchised people here on the mainland using the same blueprint. It was an iniquitous and insidious undertaking masqueraded as an act of altruism.  

[ActiveRN305, BSN]

In reading alot of these posts,  I really appreciate all of everyone's input. 

Being and older and seasoned nurse  or younger nurse, does not give you the right to complain, feel entitled, or make excuses for bad behavior.

Earlier in my career, unfortunately, I experienced alot of this behavior, especially uncivility and complaints about getting the worst patients, feeling overloaded, etc, and my real first RN job was in skilled care and often I was assigned to the sickest patients, complicated patients, etc, and made it priority to see the most sickest and time consuming patient and only asking for help when I needed it. 

And really not complained that much but kept my head in the grind and if I needed help from charge, or there was a really difficult patient that was time consuming, then I would ask for help.

The interesting thing here is, along my career, I was often commended for being a team player, without complaints and just working hard, however, because I did not speak up about unfair situations, and DID speak up, then that shuffled the cards a little bit. 

But when it comes to patient care, safety is priority, and I learned the hard way from entitled older and younger nurses is that you have to speak up professionally, otherwise, then other nurses will run all over you.

There was a time, whilst working in a busy ER, that there was a supervisor that was constantly berating me in front of patients and other coworkers, and I made an effort to speak to her about the behavior which was not appropriate. The behavior continued, I went to management, then was ignored, then I had to go to HR, which is one thing I did not want to do.

At this particular job, I had been there for almost 6 years, and considered myself a team player, especially when I observed coworkers struggling and went in to help. This supervisor was middle age, like me, but she seemed entitled to treat me like a redheaded step child multiple times on shift.

I guess this made me an easy target, because I had just lost my dad, saw him dead in the morgue, and I was still healing from grief.

The behavior continued, HR did nothing, and I developed a powerlessness that I would not want anyone to endure and resigned from the position to take care of an ill family member overseas.

I never felt entitled to anything other than fair, respectable treatment. And when I did speak up, was not taken seriously.

A personal mission was to learn, be a team player, treat others respectively, and I even wanted to charge a few times, and even when I was able to, under this particular supervisor's watch, the assignment was changed, or not even considered. It was as if my professional growth was being blocked. It was certainly not that I wanted the younger nurse to have to charge, and me shirk my responsibility, it was I was being gaslighted, and manipulated, and no one did nothing. 

It did a number on my professional self esteem because no one did anything  and HR did nothing to this very entitled supervisor.

Sorry if this sounds like a rant, but I want to speak up that all middle age nurses feel entitled. They want to be part of a team, grow, and make a difference not only to the patient's but to their institution.

Stay safe.

 

 

[ActiveRN305, BSN]

I am new here so I definitely wanted to edit the past Paragraph and was not sure how to do it.

I mend to say:

Sorry if this sounds like a rant, but I want to speak up that NOT all middle age nurses feel entitled. They want to be part of the team, grow, make a different not only to the patients, but to the institution.

Thank you, Stay safe.

 

[speedynurse, ADN, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

On 12/30/2020 at 8:41 PM, cynical-RN said:

This is the type of thinking that the company loves. How's that working for you? I am thankful that people have stood up in the past and continue to do so. It is the only way that nurses were able to get safe staffing ratios that we are still fighting for today. If there is a valid reason to complain, one must. If you are in the ICU and have a 1:1 patient on CRRT, balloon pump and an insulin gtt, it is unacceptable for them to give you a trauma admit that needs to be stabilized. In such a scenario, with the line of thought that you are touting, the patients will certainly receive subpar/mediocre care. Unless the provision of care bar is below excellence in your facility, you must speak up.  

I think this is a very valid point. It may be what an organization loves but we are unfortunately in a day and age where an organization would “throw a nurse under the bus” in about 2 seconds if a sentinel event occurred. Trust me - I tried being the compliant employee that took every assignment and while this may sound ideal at first, it also placed me in eventually terrible situations in the ED. Unethical, super unsafe situations to where I had to learn to “find my voice” so to speak so I wouldn’t end up losing my license or with all of my patients dying. I have seen far too many nurses thrown under the bus without an organization blinking an eye....no remorse. I try to stay under the radar, but I have also learned boundaries and setting limits as well. Sometimes in a critical care environment, you HAVE to speak up - it’s part of advocating for yourself and your moral conscience and advocating for your patients.

[Hollyhocks720, MSN, NP]

I’ve seen this behavior in seasoned nurses as well. I think the new nurses are probably more under the microscope in many situations.  In an environment where seniority rules and many people want somebody to manage, that new nurse can be the target of a lot of attacks by all of the staff, including the unlicensed staff. Most of the time these problems come down to poor management or absent management.  In my experience if the team and or charge nurse had been more supportive, it would’ve been better for all involved. And yes, if a new nurse is a career change nurse and has worked in a respectable environment, it is difficult to take the often cold and harsh treatment from existing nurses.  I’ve often thought that they must be very unhappy when they need to make someone feel bad and that person is usually the new one.   I’d like to add that the new nurses usually get the crappiest assignments. This may not be clear to them when they’re looking around and seeing that they are the ones getting the worst time slots etc.  I think every new nurse needs their orientation to include info on some of those dynamics so they don’t come as a shock.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

I'm a charge nurse and I don't notice that they expect me to do their work, but that they do need a lot of support, ask a lot of questions, and haven't developed critical thinking.  This is a new grad thing, not an age thing.  New grads need more help because they are new not because they are "entitled".

Off topic, but as a boomer, I'm dismayed at the entitlement that I see in boomer patients.  They want you there Johnny on the spot, can't handle any pain or discomfort, want you do to everything for them, and want everything free.
 

[Guest856929]

47 minutes ago, Tweety said:

I'm a charge nurse and I don't notice that they expect me to do their work, but that they do need a lot of support, ask a lot of questions, and haven't developed critical thinking.  This is a new grad thing, not an age thing.  New grads need more help because they are new not because they are "entitled".

Off topic, but as a boomer, I'm dismayed at the entitlement that I see in boomer patients.  They want you there Johnny on the spot, can't handle any pain or discomfort, want you do to everything for them, and want everything free.
 

Boomers are the most entitled generation bar none. They were given everything they wanted in abundance and most lack insight outside their immediate perimeter. 

[Daisy4RN]

I think, in general, that the entitlement issue speaks more to ones personality and experiences than age. I have witnessed this across the board in all ages. In my experience though, and speaking as a boomer myself, I have seen it more in the younger generations. LOL, boomers were not the generation that was given everything in abundance, quite the opposite, and it was the younger generations that were slack on getting discipline while at the same time getting a blue ribbon for everything. The fact that we did have discipline taught to us, and also had to work for the blue ribbon made us able to critical think and realize that the world doesnt revolve around us. 

[Daisy4RN]

19 hours ago, Davey Do said:

As a young adolescent, I raised mice as pets and to make a little money selling them to pet shops. I had, at one time, 108 mice. I built cages for them that were like high-rise apartment buildings with three rooms in each apartment.

I noted this: Eight mice in a one foot square area of living space did well. No fights, babies were born and given care. However, if I over populated the area, fights, sometimes to the death, would break out. The male mice with the biggest testicles were bullies, hoarded food, and the mothers often ate their babies.

I learned how to perform surgeries, removing the male mice testicles, putting them under with my Dad's starting fluid which contained ether!

Even then, I knew I was destined to work in the medical/psychiatric nursing field!

Sounds like you kinda had a mad scientist thing goin on there DaveyDo!