As current times have shown, we're short staffed. Administration wants to make money. So cuts are made to equipment and man power. Who has your back? Who can you rely on? Your fellow nurses? I'm not so sure anymore. Why do we as nurses eat our own when we should be teaching them and guarding them as our own. The fact is as we age our young nurses are going to be taking care of us, but there are those all too eager beavers who will in fact burn you. This is my experience.
This is my own personal experience as to why nurses eat their own? I have been in nursing for 20+ years. I've watched a lot of nurses come and go and some trying to move up that corporate food chain leaving a path of destruction a mile wide in their path. It's a very sad thing to have witnessed nursing go from a caring environment to a volatile, stressful, "me" environment.
I personally have never thrown anyone under the bus but I have been thrown under the bus by a nurse trying to move up. I was shocked, not to be naive but how callus and calculating this nurse had become in such a short period of time. She was a new grad. I took her under my wing, taught her in a specialty area just to be told shortly thereafter that there were going to be cuts in this area, and I was one of the people being cut along with approximately 20 more nurses. I then found out that my underling I had taught was at the helm of helping administration make these cuts based on who had been there longest, made the most per hour and new grads or new hires would be cheaper. So it was done and my underling moved up to an office of ease while the rest of us were dispersed throughout the facility or some even let go destroying lives and careers.
Once moved to another area of the facility I witnessed a male nurse dating several other female nurses turning them against each other and ending up dating a charge nurse that was best friends with the manager of that department, so they were allowed to cuddle up at the nurses' station and pretty much did nothing else other than sneak outside. Yes all of this was reported by others than myself, however administration didn't care, bottom line was man hours not pt care.
I've since left that facility after many years. I am now at a new facility and have already picked up on the "eager" young nurses more than willing to talk behind other nurses' backs. This is disappointing. The nursing school and instructors of old that I had the privilege of going to and being taught by would be appalled and would not have tolerated for one moment. Is loyalty, character and earning your title without harming something taught in nursing schools? Should certain psychiatric characters be red flags for school administrators be implemented to prevent cannibalism within nursing?
I feel as if those great women who pioneered nursing to care for the sick, indigent and wounded would be so saddened by the "General Hospital", "Grays Anatomy"; "high school acting" nurses of today. On that note I don't want to diminish the fact that nurses have to be go-getters, usually type A, hungry for knowledge; however there's a professional line where we should have each other's back.
Nurses go to college to achieve a degree of higher learning along with all the nursing classes. You're professionals, intellectuals. Would you compromise your name, integrity and reputation for a easier schedule, a desk job, an office? All you have to do is help relocate or terminate 20 to 25 fellow nurses?
I am curious to the opinions of others, so please post. BTW this underling was moved back down the food chain and eventually out the door and with no friends or references to rely on now.
Before going down this road ask yourself. Why did I become a nurse? To help others who need it or to eat my young? If you answer or turn into the later, I fear you may be in the wrong profession...
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
I used to believe I wanted to be a nursing school instructor but after seeing what was going on in my kids' schools and with the new generation coming into nursing (some of them , not ALL) and all the butthurt entitlement happening, NO FREAKING WAY. I don't have time for all that. Teaching, in general, is its own special level of hell with helicopter parenting and entitlement overtaking sensibility and responsibility.
Replies like this highlight the ops point....mean spirited and nasty....and reading on through many nasty posts continue....why even bother to reply with a snarky negative post....wait I know.....you are nurses....attempting to make yourselves look like you are all that while trying to minimize the credibility of the OP....Unreal
Some folks are indeed eager to wield their shiny gavels, and the internet will always bring them to the surface.
I used to believe I wanted to be a nursing school instructor but after seeing what was going on in my kids' schools and with the new generation coming into nursing (some of them , not ALL) and all the butthurt entitlement happening, NO FREAKING WAY. I don't have time for all that. Teaching, in general, is its own special level of hell with helicopter parenting and entitlement overtaking sensibility and responsibility.
Hell to the naw.
Hmm. Come visit the SN forum. Threads upon threads of this.
Nurses eat their own because it's how they're acculturated in too many settings. There's tons of sociology literature on behaviors of oppressed groups and how it relates to nursing, so I won't bore you all with that. Except that I will say that the younger nurses everyone loves to complain about are molded by the exact culture nurses also love to complain about that they seem to foster and carry forward. There is this insecurity that exists within nursing that is so sad in that any accomplishment or perception of someone "moving up" is seen in a negative light, like a relatively new nurse being picked for a management role, or a nurse that has graduated with a bachelors degree in an area that is composed of mostly diploma or associates degree nurses.
I've experienced this time and again as a 32 year old nurse that's been a bedside nurse for ten years. When I finished my masters degree, there were snarky comments that I was trying to "move on up" and "leave the rest behind." The comments have grown more fervent since I'm now a PhD candidate in Nursing.
Let's be honest with ourselves for a minute and admit that there's a reason younger nurses want to move into management so soon, or want to become advanced practitioners. It's generally not out of laziness, or thinking they are better than anyone, but really it's just that the culture sucks. Being a bedside nurse isn't the draining part half the time. Dealing with bedside nurses is draining. And, again, I say this as an experienced ICU nurse that's still at the bedside. My main point here is that this discussion continues and seems to go nowhere because of a fundamental reality that nothing will change until the culture changes. If you want to be treated like a professional, then act like one, and support your nursing colleagues in whatever goals they have. Want to know the main difference between Nursing and Medicine as professions? When there's a problem for physicians, they circle the wagons and back each other up. Nurses throw each other out and fend for themselves. That's why Nursing doesn't get ahead, and we continue to have the same discussion about nurses eating their own.
Specializes in Med Surg/ICU/Psych/Emergency/CEN/retired.
ErraticThinkerRN said:
Nurses eat their own because it's how they're acculturated in too many settings. There's tons of sociology literature on behaviors of oppressed groups and how it relates to nursing, so I won't bore you all with that. Except that I will say that the younger nurses everyone loves to complain about are molded by the exact culture nurses also love to complain about that they seem to foster and carry forward. There is this insecurity that exists within nursing that is so sad in that any accomplishment or perception of someone "moving up" is seen in a negative light, like a relatively new nurse being picked for a management role, or a nurse that has graduated with a bachelors degree in an area that is composed of mostly diploma or associates degree nurses.
I've experienced this time and again as a 32 year old nurse that's been a bedside nurse for ten years. When I finished my masters degree, there were snarky comments that I was trying to "move on up" and "leave the rest behind." The comments have grown more fervent since I'm now a PhD candidate in Nursing.
Let's be honest with ourselves for a minute and admit that there's a reason younger nurses want to move into management so soon, or want to become advanced practitioners. It's generally not out of laziness, or thinking they are better than anyone, but really it's just that the culture sucks. Being a bedside nurse isn't the draining part half the time. Dealing with bedside nurses is draining. And, again, I say this as an experienced ICU nurse that's still at the bedside. My main point here is that this discussion continues and seems to go nowhere because of a fundamental reality that nothing will change until the culture changes. If you want to be treated like a professional, then act like one, and support your nursing colleagues in whatever goals they have. Want to know the main difference between Nursing and Medicine as professions? When there's a problem for physicians, they circle the wagons and back each other up. Nurses throw each other out and fend for themselves. That's why Nursing doesn't get ahead, and we continue to have the same discussion about nurses eating their own.
Very interesting and thought provoking commentary. I would agree with most of what ErraticThinker said. The question is how to change the culture. Much is also published on the subject of lateral/horizontal violence. Nursing can be its own worst enemy. I propose having an across the board entry level for nursing being the BSN for starters. Nursing is the only profession that does not require a graduate degree. A BSN, although not an advanced degree, might be a start toward a change moving forward.
I HIGHLY doubt that management hires people simply because they "look good," from a business standpoint. If you have no interest in management, then why do you say that new nurses "step on you" to get above? Again, please explain how all of these young nurses "step on you," shove you down, and climb their way to success. Because, you know, their success depends on your failures, right? This is such an immature and egocentric generalization that I can't believe it's coming from a seasoned nurse.
Maybe they have more drive and passion, maybe they have more qualifications for management than you. Being a floor nurse and working in management have different skill sets.
You seem to have a lot of resentment against young nurses, even though you most likely were one yourself. Which only proves the hypocrisy in your statements.
Oh, and just because I don't have any work experience as a nurse, does not mean I lack common sense. If you're going to use your seniority to save your pride, then you really have gotten yourself into a corner. Because all you need is common sense in this situation, really. Maybe stop blaming other nurses for your shortcomings.
You are fortunate indeed to have lived such a sheltered life thus far that you have never seen this behavior. It is sadly not at all uncommon for an ambitious new employee to run to co-workers, middle management and even upper management with complaints about any number of things, often with the goal of making themselves look better by putting somebody else down. It is a "look Mom, look! See what I found!" that unfortunately too often works.
You are free to brag about your common sense when you have actually been a working nurse long enough to have experienced, well, anything that actually shows you have enough common sense to not participate in this very behavior that you claim to find so rare.
You are fortunate indeed to have lived such a sheltered life thus far that you have never seen this behavior. It is sadly not at all uncommon for an ambitious new employee to run to co-workers, middle management and even upper management with complaints about any number of things, often with the goal of making themselves look better by putting somebody else down. It is a "look Mom, look! See what I found!" that unfortunately too often works.
You are free to brag about your common sense when you have actually been a working nurse long enough to have experienced, well, anything that actually shows you have enough common sense to not participate in this very behavior that you claim to find so rare.
I find it hard to believe a worker can go to management, tattle-tale on everyone, and then management will think, "This is the only good worker on the entire floor, and I know this because they say that everyone else is bad. I better promote her/him for sure."
What would exactly would they tattle about? How do you know that they even tattled? You do know what defamation (slander) is, and that it is illegal? Did a worker actually do something wrong when they tattled? "Experience" does not explain away these questions, and I, personally, do not buy into it.
I was a CNA for 8.5 years in one SNF and got the best character development I could ave asked for. I looked up to great CNA's and LVN's who prided themselves in their work and the good of the patients. They loved their patients. They were their when they died and went to their funerals. A hard working group of mostly women and a few men. No cursing, especially at work. Fast forward to 2014 and 2015. I am now an LVN/LPN. The culture has changed. Everyone uses filthy profanity and nearly prides themselves on it, even in front of pts. No more professionalism. Everyone tattooed. Most management doesn't even have an inkling of team building. They really didn't before, but after 25 years of Steven Covey's 7 habits of Highly Effective People and Pete Lencioni's Three Signs of Misserable Job, i would think someone in nursing and hospital management would have gotten the memo. SNF's continue to be understaffed, CNA's and nurses continue to be overwhelmed and not able to spend enough quality caring time with pts, Medicare pays less and expects more, all these years and the industry continues to put us all into an ethical dilemma. Nurses have less power to discipline CNA's for irresponsible behavior, and even so, I can't fault them for being imperfect with an excessive load of pts.
The majority of nurses I have worked with, I liked, the few that were objectionable had personal problems. One tiny LPN, who was actually very competent at what she did, was a tiger sometimes, and I stood close and watched and tried to learn what I could (dealing with EMT's who were trying to get out of taking one of our SNF pts to the acute hospital). One the other hand, she was suspiscious and could play people against one another. I tried to stay out of those, She was being manipulative like my mother, and I had learned that was a no win situation. Part of me felt sorry for her. But she was nonetheless a time bomb.
Very interesting and thought provoking commentary. I would agree with most of what ErraticThinker said. The question is how to change the culture. Much is also published on the subject of lateral/horizontal violence. Nursing can be its own worst enemy. I propose having an across the board entry level for nursing being the BSN for starters. Nursing is the only profession that does not require a graduate degree. A BSN, although not an advanced degree, might be a start toward a change moving forward.
How would requiring a BSN solve lateral violence issues? I'm not necessarily disagreeing or agreeing with your suggestion. I'm just wondering if you think it will have a direct effect on lateral violence.
How would requiring a BSN solve lateral violence issues? I'm not necessarily disagreeing or agreeing with your suggestion. I'm just wondering if you think it will have a direct effect on lateral violence.
By keeping everyone too busy with school papers to engage in petty behavior! True story
SmilingBluEyes
20,964 Posts
I used to believe I wanted to be a nursing school instructor but after seeing what was going on in my kids' schools and with the new generation coming into nursing (some of them , not ALL) and all the butthurt entitlement happening, NO FREAKING WAY. I don't have time for all that. Teaching, in general, is its own special level of hell with helicopter parenting and entitlement overtaking sensibility and responsibility.
Hell to the naw.