.. Have you had this experience as a new nurse?

Older nurses, why do your colleagues do this? why is it prevalent in nursing?

As a nursing student about to start full time work this upcoming may (i hope!) I'm a little concerned.

What do you guys think?

~Elaine
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http://miss-elaine-ious.blogspot.com/

I've only worked in two hospitals on 3 units, but I can say I've never seen a case of nursing eating their young.

I think there's high turnover sometimes, and I've seen some experienced nurses get burned out on precepting, because it's difficult and time consuming to train a new nurse. And if you put all that time and effort into someone for 2 months only to have them leave, it's disheartening.

I've seen experienced nurses who were less than enthusiastic about new nurses, but they didn't treat them badly in any way.

I don't think it's prevalent anymore, to be honest. But maybe I've been lucky.

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code blog

My experiences in recent times are similar to Geena's, most experienced nurses I know do their best to give time to new colleagues and to students. What I would say though is that sometimes the younger nurses act as if they know it all and have nothing to learn from the old fogies. This can put people's backs up and then when things don't go well the older nurse may be less than helpful. Be interesting to know what others think.

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Julie
http://www.lifeinthenhs.wordpress.com

The reason I asked this question is that a few of my classmates (who do not seem to fall in the 'i know everything' type) have been barked at or excluded from teaching opportunities.

I have also seen some VERY bitter nurses. They've put up with me as part of their responsibility (they need to supervise, etc) but i'm suprised at their attitude. I dont' think that this is just in my mid-sized teaching hospitals in the area. (by the way I'm in Ontario, Canada, perhaps this makes a difference?)

I was treated very poorly by seasoned nurses when I started my nursing career. People were very cruel back then, and I hope that things are changing. I will never disrespect a new grad because of they way I was treated when I was first starting out in the profession.

See the student posts for more of this.

Australia changed from a hospital trained system to a University trained system (in the '80s I think), and it is amazing the number of bitter nurses out there saying that hospital training is better. GET OVER IT! Nursing moved into the Universities to give it the prestige that it deserves, and good nurses are coming out.

Many of our students have experienced it, but at 6'3" no nurse would dare bite me for no good reason. I appreciate it when nurses correct me, it is how I improve, and by no means do I know it all. I have also shown nurses new techniques, which they appreciated.

But this does happen, and it generally happens as the nurses start to burn out. In most cases if you have a issue with a student nurse, correct them in private not infront of pts or corridors, or tell their instructor/teacher who can work more closely with them.

I'm having plenty of experience with these kinds of nurses as I go through school. I have been very lucky to encounter some wonderful, caring nurses who have taught me a lot. I've also encountered some who were literally cruel to us as students. I've noticed that the quality of their patient care tends to correlate, and it's not surprising.

Of those nurses who 'eat their young' and, as a general rule, are also pretty useless at patient interaction and care; it's all a matter of natural-selection and economical diligence.

1. Young: If you can hack the bullies, ignorants, gossip-mongerers, psychopaths in work then you have the stamina for nursing.

2. Patients: If patients are made to not enjoy their hospital stay they are less likely to become ill and hence save the taxpayer/insurance company millions.

... isn't it?

I have seen cases of older, bitter nurses who see students and bark, "Why in the hell would you want to be a nurse?".

The problem is that they are still allowed to deal with students...

I wrote a post about it several years ago on my blog, and it is still, to this day, the number one search engine string for people finding my blog. I cannot believe a saying that I hate is the number one thing associated with what I have to say....

This topic has been talked about SO much, and I've posted SO much in response. So, I'm going to keep this post super simple. I wanted to let you know that I HAVE had the experience of older nurses "eating their young," including me.

Often people will say that this happens in every workplace. I must say, I've worked in many many different places, and have never had this experience until I worked in nursing. Maybe I was just lucky all along

*shrug*

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Nurse Sean
http://nursesean.com