WHY are nurses so catty??

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I swear sometimes i don't know WHY i'm in this profession. My mom works at a job as a RN and was limping one day. Her knee bothers her from time to time, etc...she's overweight (and working on it) but it gives her trouble at times. Instead of someone ASKING her what was wrong, one of the nurses ran to the manager and told her that my mom couldn't "keep up" and didn't seem to be quick enough for the job cuz she seemed disabled. This is a NEW job for my mom, so she's still on orientation technically. The manager called her in and made her take off today to go to Occ health and have it tested so she could be cleared to work. WTF?? She told her "we'll figure out what to do pending what the doc says." so she didn't work today and lost that time worked. Of course she went to occ health, the Doc tested her etc...and cleared her no problem. She told him she was excercising, walking and taking meds for it. Forgot to wrap it that day, but was not having any trouble SINCE that day. I have 2 problems with this. 1 is that NOBODY asked her what was up with her knee that day. NOBODY. 2 is that the manager just jumped on it because of what this other nurse SAID. WHY do nurses feel like they have to police each other's performance? UGH i'm just disgusted.

Specializes in Rodeo Nursing (Neuro).

I would also like to reiterate that the term "catty" is grossly unfair to Feline-Americans, whose approach to settling differences makes your average dogfight look positively circumspect.

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Specializes in Rodeo Nursing (Neuro).

I love my job. I like and admire the men and women I work with. But I'm off until Friday, and I'm just giddy.

(This might be a little off-topic.)

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It seems to me that with the increasining feminization of our society, men are deprived of such healthy outlets for their frustrations as swearing at each other and punching each other in the nose. Without these and similarly benign means to settle differences, anger and resentment build to the point that the resort to firearms is necessary and inevitable. Some would argue that the suppression of mildly violent impulses is a hallmark of a civilized society.

Exactly! Just look at the history of the American west, where men were all happy and well-adjusted and only shot those who deserved it, until Grace Kelly came along and made Gary Cooper get all civilized.

Awwww what a nice mental picture of nurses duking it out in the hall ways lmao :chuckle

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Specializes in Rodeo Nursing (Neuro).
Awwww what a nice mental picture of nurses duking it out in the hall ways lmao :chuckle

You gotta think pts would think twice before hitting the call light!

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Specializes in ICU,ER.
Awwww what a nice mental picture of nurses duking it out in the hall ways lmao :chuckle

yeah, i'm getting that mental image also......too funny!:chuckle

bet i would never have another pt ask me for "something to knock me out".

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Specializes in ICU,ER.

OMGosh, nursemike......i love your quote. i am a farside fan!

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Specializes in PACU.
Female nurses are catty because they are women, and frankly, many women are catty. Male nurses expect anyone who takes a job to be physically able to perform. It's not personal. In fact, the NM is doing her job by sending the newly hired RN to get eval'd. If the new RN can't physically do the job, now is the time to find out. Again, it's not personal, it's business.

Not to get into stereotypes, but this is only an issue because most nurses are women. Women look at this problem and see an injustice to the individual. Men look at it and see an injustice to the team.

Meow.

Pete Fitzpatrick

RN, CCRN, CFRN, EMT-P

Although I agree with this one one level, male nurses can be catty as well --- I work with one who is worse than any female nurse!!!

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Although I agree with this one one level, male nurses can be catty as well --- I work with one who is worse than any female nurse!!!

I work with a male nurse who also is "catty" at times.

He is also a "know it all" and has a chip on his shoulder.

I'm just thankful he works days and I work evenings.

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I think we can assume that it isn't just nurses who are catty, people are catty.

Kind of insulting to cats, when you think about it.

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.
And men are just so physically violent.

And republicans are just so heartless..

And democrats don't really work for a living and are atheist, antilife monsters.

And welfare mothers just sit on their rears all day long.

And whites are just so stuck up and full of themselves.

And arabs are all terrorists...and their women are wimps.

And MDs are all full of themselves and only in it for the money.

And Jews are cheap and Christians are just hypocrites

And blacks are....

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It will be nice when we all grow up and cease to stereotype.

Please don't presume to speak for all of us.

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I could place a bet on how many posts that it would take to make one incident into a stereotyping a whole group as having the same bad behavior...less than 6 posts.

Anyone want to ante up for the pot?

THIS BEARS REPEATING!!!

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Specializes in Rodeo Nursing (Neuro).

It seems to me that there are at least three sorts of "catty" behavior in nursing. First, there's simple dislike for someone personally, either by an individual or a clique, and usually without any sort of provocation.

Then there are those who seem scared to death that they might be having a harder shift than someone else, who routinely count the patients on the assignment board and throw a fit if they have five while someone else has four, or if they have a trach and an iso, or whatever.

I see very little of the former on my unit, and not very much of the latter. What I see more often is a third sort, a sort of righteous indignation when someone's practice isn't what someone else thinks it ought to be. Sometimes the criticism may be warranted, but other times there are simply two ways of doing things (or more) either of which is effective, but one of which isn't how someone was taught to do it. I think this may be fairly typical of nursing, where most of us truly believe that what we are doing is important, and that doing it right matters. This is not unique to nursing--I've known of carpenters coming to blows over similar conflicts--but I think it is the source of a great deal of friction in the profession. I think it may also be the hardest to avoid. At least, I think I'm fairly scrupulous about avoiding the first two, but mellow as I am, I have to be vigilant to avoid wandering into that third pitfall.

For example, the other night, I got an admit from the ED, a stroke patient. Now, the ED can get pretty strident about clearing beds, and even though you may still be admitting the last one they sent, they'll hound you to hurry up and listen to report (recorded) on the next, or they'll send them anyway after 15 minutes, and while I have no doubt it's that hectic, at times, at other times I do believe they all just need a little Ativan. But I digress...

So I listen to report on my stroke admit and get that he's lethargic, 4 sets of vitals (last three pretty much normal) his IV access, and what meds he's been given, except there's no way to copy that list of meds that quickly.

Now, I've noticed on transfers from other units, and from floating to other floors, that the whole blessed world of nursing seems to be doing shoulder-to-toe assessments, these days. And I'm just dying to call the ED nurse and ask, "Hey, did you happen to notice, does he even have pupils? Has he spoken at all? Move any extremities?" And, I have to admit, I felt pretty peeved and vented to my peers a little, until finally I just decided that the first thing I was going to be doing was a full assessment of my own, no matter what they told me, so getting all bent about their assessment was dumb, and maybe they really didn't have time to do a complete one, and what I really needed from them was just the stuff I couldn't readily see for myself, like what meds they's been given, and how their vitals were trending, and, well...maybe I was over-reacting just a little tad...

To be honest, I'm still digesting this, but I think where I'm headed with it is that the nursing profession needs us to learn to have some confidence in each other, and a willingness to believe that others are just as earnest about their work as I am about mine, and even when mistakes are made, they usually aren't made out of negligence, but simply because we're all human, and even when we are doing our best, even the best of us have limitations.

Which isn't to say there aren't some among us in severe need of some procto-cranial traction. But I do hereby vow to try to take a moment to make sure I'm not the one with my head up my butt.

Edit: "they's been given?" Sheesh--maybe I'm really not perfect. And I thought I was just being humbvle.

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Very well put nurse Mike. Being a veteran of a busy E.R. your points are well presented and indeed,are thought provoking and deserve some "soul" searching by at least some of us.

Greg06

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