Eating Our Young - Nursing Voices Forum – Meet other nurses, share your nursing knowledge and experiences

Mother Jones, RN · #1 07-09-2007, 07:47 PM

I’ve always heard that nurses eat their young, and over the years, I have seen some real cannibals at the nurses station. Personally, I want to support the new nurses coming up the ranks because they are going to be the ones who take care of me during my golden years. Do you have any ideas as to why some nurses devour new RNs?

geenaRN · #2 07-10-2007, 12:38 AM

Honestly? I think some nurses feel so beaten down and low-on-the-totem pole that they somewhat enjoy knowing more and being superior (experience-wise) than newer nurses. Which, of course, is very counterproductive.

Then again, there have been some doozies come through... the ones where you wonder how on earth they passed the NCLEX. It takes SO much time and so much effort to train a new nurse, doesn't it? Even after the official training period is over, if they're brand new, it unofficially can go on for months and months!

I think you can only assist in the training of new people so many times before it gets really old. And I don't mean as a preceptor - every nurse working on a floor is a preceptor as far as I'm concerned. Just because you aren't the primary one doesn't mean you won't get asked a zillion questions. Once you've done it a few dozen times and see your hard work go down the tubes when someone decides that they don't like it or can't cut it after a few months, one might get to a point where they'd prefer a new nurse "prove" themselves before investing so much time.

That all sounds callous and cold hearted. Nothing I've described above should condone nurses being actively mean and rude to new nurses.

As for those that do that... well... see my first explanation.

MyOwnWoman · #3 07-10-2007, 10:01 AM

Oh, I have so many opinions on this attitude that I'm not sure this forum can contain them.

1. A new nurse comes into a department eager to learn. She's like a sponge sucking up every bit of information you can give her. In return, she gives you all the new information that she has learned. If the older nurse is receptive, everybody learns. If the older nurse is less than receptive, the learning on both sides stops right there.

2. Some new nurses come in to a department knowing "everything." In fact I had to chuckle (silently of course) when one of our male nurses asked this pretty little nurse where she went to nursing school. She proudly answered the name of her nursing school and his reply was, "Damn, I wish I would have gone there, then I'd know everything right out of nursing school too." Of course the background to the scenario was that this nurse knew EVERYTHING making her very dangerous.

If the new nurses would arrive on the floor knowing that they have very little experience and ask for help when they need it and learn from it. Most would not be lunch for nurses.

BUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT.......if the older nurses don't realize that things have changed in medicine and we could actually LEARN from then; we wouldn't want to eat them.

POPT · #4 07-13-2007, 12:42 AM

Another thing to think about: sometimes new nurses tend to be slower than the more experienced nurses. It may take them longer to think through a situation or longer to react. They haven't had time to develop what some nurses call "instinct". What seems perfectly obvious to a more experienced nurse can be a complete mystery to the new one.

Now take a pressured, harried, too-busy experienced nurse and pair her with a slower new one. Too many times the duties of preceptoring the new nurse is added to the full workload the experienced nurse already has to carry. Management has not made allowances for the extra time and attention the new nurse needs. All too often the experienced nurse gets impatient and short-tempered and takes it out on the new one. It's not right and it's not fair but it happens.

kate loving shenk · #5 07-13-2007, 07:27 AM

hello all--

i like to think of myself as a mentor to the new people coming in which has as much to do with kindness as with my nursing skill.

much of my practice is based on gut instinct, and this is difficult to teach.

the tendency for new nurses to think the worst of patient situations and miss the opportunity to heal and calm the patient and her situation, is challenging for me--eliciting more kindness from me--i hope.

nurses eating their young is called nurse to nurse hostility--anyone here ever read the book by Kathleen Bartholomew?

maybe we can read it and discuss it here at the forum, because this is a very important topic.

thanks MJ for introducing it!!

KimRN · #6 07-13-2007, 09:20 AM

>>>Do you have any ideas as to why some nurses devour new RNs?<<<

They're hungry? Sorry, couldn't resist.

KimRN · #7 07-13-2007, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MyOwnWoman

Oh, I have so many opinions on this attitude that I'm not sure this forum can contain them.

1. A new nurse comes into a department eager to learn. She's like a sponge sucking up every bit of information you can give her. In return, she gives you all the new information that she has learned. If the older nurse is receptive, everybody learns. If the older nurse is less than receptive, the learning on both sides stops right there.

2. Some new nurses come in to a department knowing "everything." In fact I had to chuckle (silently of course) when one of our male nurses asked this pretty little nurse where she went to nursing school. She proudly answered the name of her nursing school and his reply was, "Damn, I wish I would have gone there, then I'd know everything right out of nursing school too." Of course the background to the scenario was that this nurse knew EVERYTHING making her very dangerous.

If the new nurses would arrive on the floor knowing that they have very little experience and ask for help when they need it and learn from it. Most would not be lunch for nurses.

BUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT.......if the older nurses don't realize that things have changed in medicine and we could actually LEARN from then; we wouldn't want to eat them.

What a great response!!!
I wish I'd written it!

KimRN · #8 07-13-2007, 09:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by geenaRN

Honestly? I think some nurses feel so beaten down and low-on-the-totem pole that they somewhat enjoy knowing more and being superior (experience-wise) than newer nurses. Which, of course, is very counterproductive.

Then again, there have been some doozies come through... the ones where you wonder how on earth they passed the NCLEX. It takes SO much time and so much effort to train a new nurse, doesn't it? Even after the official training period is over, if they're brand new, it unofficially can go on for months and months!

I think you can only assist in the training of new people so many times before it gets really old. And I don't mean as a preceptor - every nurse working on a floor is a preceptor as far as I'm concerned. Just because you aren't the primary one doesn't mean you won't get asked a zillion questions. Once you've done it a few dozen times and see your hard work go down the tubes when someone decides that they don't like it or can't cut it after a few months, one might get to a point where they'd prefer a new nurse "prove" themselves before investing so much time.

That all sounds callous and cold hearted. Nothing I've described above should condone nurses being actively mean and rude to new nurses.

As for those that do that... well... see my first explanation.

You do have a point - it takes energy to precept/be a resource person for a new nurse. The only cure for inexperience is time.
As a new RN, it was a full year before I even felt worthy of the title. I was in a very supportive environment, though, so I stuck it out and I'm glad I did. But I knew so little when I first started.

Oooo...Geena, two post ideas just came from reading your comment!
I'm gonna have to give you a co-author credit on Emergiblog!

geenaRN · #9 07-13-2007, 10:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KimRN

You do have a point - it takes energy to precept/be a resource person for a new nurse. The only cure for inexperience is time.
As a new RN, it was a full year before I even felt worthy of the title. I was in a very supportive environment, though, so I stuck it out and I'm glad I did. But I knew so little when I first started.

Oooo...Geena, two post ideas just came from reading your comment!
I'm gonna have to give you a co-author credit on Emergiblog!

TWO ideas? Where are they, I don't see them in that post? :-) LOL

I often think about how little I knew starting out. And how patient my preceptors were with me. Now I know how hard it is (to precept) and it makes me appreciate them even more.

KimRN · #10 07-13-2007, 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by geenaRN

TWO ideas? Where are they, I don't see them in that post? :-) LOL

I often think about how little I knew starting out. And how patient my preceptors were with me. Now I know how hard it is (to precept) and it makes me appreciate them even more.

Okay, here's how my mind works: (1) A post on my first experience as an RN - very supportive, almost unreal and would not happen today (2) A post on the diametric opposites of the new nurse continuum: shy and scared vs. know-it-all and how that has affected me over the years

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