Wow, as a 26 year RN holding every position in leadership up to the CNO role, let me say this is a culture issue.
The leaders are allowing this to happen. There is a saying, "We condone what we permit." You can tell a lot about a unit when you interview. Ask the hiring manager what the unit less than 1 year, and 1-3 year RN staff turnover rates are when you interview. If they can't tell you or will not tell you then.....there is you answer sitting in front of you.
I have let Directors and Managers go after my first 90 days based on staff turnover and had the unit report directly to me so change the culture. I have also had to cut some toxic staff that thought they were too important to be shown the door. Until they were walked to their car by HR and security.
General George S. Patton said, " Any man who thinks he is indispensable ain't."
Ok- I just reviewed my message here and it sounds like a manifesto, but I wish I had this to read when I was a young rn- so stick with me.
Don’t give up! I was literally hazed as a new RN 23 yrs ago. I was a young blond female who was inquisitive and wanted to learn.I started in the ICU…… so that explains some things ( if you’ve ever experienced old ICU nurses that have more than 2 cats 😂) ). I got my a** handed to me. I truly was naive and let the nurses Intimidate me to the point of low self esteem and feeling like I chose the wrong profession. And don't be fooled, experiences like that stick with you a LONG time. I still have some of those feelings lingering. If I had any advice: no matter what- remember why you wanted to be a nurse; carry yourself with confidence and be inquisitive and humble without worrying about what other people think… this is the only acceptable time to not know what you’re doing so ask questions regardless; don’t take it personally-every job Will teach you something; and don’t be afraid to try different things or move or travel or find something where you feel good. Some nurses feel their position is threatened by new RN’S, and some are just mean people. Much more so than other professions.
The truth is we are smart caring and amazingly talented individuals that come with a tremendous amount of training amd skill, but ultimately are subordinates in most jobs. This drives nurses to compete and try to be better than, or more special than the next. In my opinion, it’s also a historically female job so we haven’t reached our monitory worth and are expected to not only do our job, but also care and nurture. Just take care of you and realize you’re amazing and things will be ok.
I was a nurse for a long time. And believe it or not I experienced this as an older
nurse transferring to a new unit. So it doesn't only happen to young nurses. I went
to work on a unit with a VERY established staff. And I think this is where this kind of
behavior is most likely to flourish. I was seen as an intruder. Regardless of my years of
experience in several specialties, I was viewed as someone with nothing valuable to offer.
It was very challenging and stressful. The saddest thing was that I liked the job. It could
have been a very nice laid back atmosphere but it was anything but that.
I'm retired now and I swear it has taken me these two years to deal with the ptsd of
the 40 years I worked! Yes, it's an incredibly rewarding profession. But it also takes a
toll.
I would tell new nurses to give it a chance, but as soon as you know for sure a particular
position isn't working for you, find one that does. It's not worth your health and well-being.
No one else is going to truly look out for you, but you.
I think it’s terrible. Even worse are the nurses being so rude to students. I don’t ever want anyone to feel intimidated by me. These new nurses will be caring for us and our children, I want to teach you all I can! Don’t allow anyone to treat you poorly, call them out. Good luck and welcome to this amazing career!
Move units. Move hospitals. Be obnoxiously thankful for their incredible and AMAZING and SUPER HELPFUL expertise (and I mean extremely obnoxious. Be more trouble than your worth to harass). Document like your job depends on it and pretend they will be auditing you. Avoid them when you can. Most of all, never try to earn their respect. They are trying to prove their dominance. You cannot win. Give them what they want and again, be obnoxiously subordinate and make it annoying. Hopefully they will go away eventually. Most of all, never ever ask them for help. Ever. Find people you trust for help. You can't fix them but you might survive them.
First you should evaluate if this is one or two nurses in particular or the culture of the unit. If it is the culture of the unit I recommend leaving the environment and aligning yourself with an environment that it supportive of your knowledge and growth. I would also encourage you to ignore the naysayers that tell you do things the traditional way - the way that worked for them - and follow your gut. Remind yourself that you are quite valuable and your earned your way of being there.
Sadly that's just how it is. I graduated in 2020 and have had 3 jobs already. I worked at one place where the crew was very supportive, but there were still two oddballs that were very mean and demeaning to new nurses. I do not see why it has to be that way. Nurses will complain they are so short staffed and nurse ratios are horrible, yet they run off new hires. It makes no sense. Sadly, I have also seen my fellow nursing school students grow to become their own kind of nurse bullies, because some how it makes them feel more confident being on the other side of the fence. I always tell myself to just be the kind of nurse that I was always impressed with as a new nurse.
I think it’s in atrocious habit that people do.
People feel threatened intimidated by those that are new inquisitive and don’t do things their way. It needs to go away and if you are witnessing it support the one is happening to encourage that person that nurse that it’s not always like this not everyone is mean rude selfish and vindictive and if you can’t get comfortable where you’re at go someplace else find your niche be happy and excel in what you do
Circle of life my friend. For whatever reason, there is this hierarchy in the nursing community. I’ve been doing this for 25 years and nothing has changed. Just focus on yourself and don’t be that person.
I think it’s terrible. As an experienced and well seasoned nurses should mentor our students and new nurses. Teach them with patient and treat them with kindness.
But, sometimes there are new nurses that they think they knew it all.
I hate that nurses are known for that. I believe teaching and encouraging growth would give better outcomes. I also believe tough love is needed at times.
I corrected them towards nursing ethics not to eat when in uniform.
Nurses are notorious for eating their young. I have been a nurse for over 34 years, and it was going on when I started. Luckily, I only took the bullying for a short time. Once I stood my ground, the bullies began to trust and respect me. Eventually, I called out nurses I saw bullying other nurses, reminding them that they too, were new and needed to learn more to be a good nurse and also reminding them that this nurse is a member of your team. Why would you not want them trained correctly? Teaching, training, and guiding the nurses to be all they can be will only make your team stronger. A solid and cohesive unit creates a desirable work environment and job satisfaction. I have worked in jobs where everyone worked for only themselves and in positions where we worked together as a team. I was much happier working as a team than as an only individual.
Report them . Bullying is never the answer . Especially with all the things going on now ? How dare they . Time to hang that up .
I ask Nurses who eating their young first think that they were young how they feel when their elders eating thaem
I also ask young nurses to please repect your elders
I was young once too and I have had to go through the same issues that still happens to this day. I don't think that, that will ever go away. But here's what I did, I humbly asked from those who were kind and helpful to teach me all they got and even from those that treated me that way. In the long run, I gained so much skills and learned to have more confidence because now I can do a lot of things. My gain and their loss. But don't gloat on those gains, give it forward to those that also come after you. Change that culture and be a better version of yourself for others.
Unfortunately, this behavior is still alive and well within the nursing community. Personally I never meet bad behavior with acknowledgment. If you are being treated poorly or be sabotaged in your learning experience, take it to management right away.
After reading these responses, I'm literally disappointed. As nurses, we have all gone through this gauntlet of "hazing". To enable or coddle the new nurse does absolutely nothing. They need to be given "tough love", because, as you know, the Dr. or patient family or code situation/team will not feel bad for ripping into them. Teach them now, so that when it happens, they are prepared
The best advice I could give is to speak up and do not allow anyone talk to you any kind of way. If the person tries to belittle you speak up, because we all worked hard for our degree and should not have to work in a hostile environment. None of us deserve mistreatment!
I feel sorry for them, I mean they should be the one who understand much better because they were once on the same spot…they should serve as an inspiration to new nurses and not the other way around.
I think being cooperative is the best thing Which nurse should have their nursing care
Working as a nurse its not you are eating your youth, but your youth is going to help people, to be the person they trust their health, their emotions.
Managers and floor nurses need to stand up and tell the bullies there is no place for them
Add salt. 😉
Unfortunately, that happens a lot. However, the other side of the coin is that nurses also eat their old. After being a nurse for over 30 yrs I started a new job on a unit with mostly younger nurses and a young nurse manager. Since I had mainly worked mostly with the neonatal population for those 30 yrs, skills like starting adult IVs, adult venous blood collection, inserting Foley catheters, etc were skills I basically had to re- learn. I was made to feel stupid & incompetent by these young nurses and by the nurse manager. The nurse manager only wanted to give me 6 weeks to learn an area I had never worked before, whereas, younger nurses who had also worked somewhere else got 10-12 weeks & new grads got at least 16.
The only thing I can add to the previous responses is how I handled it. I just kept doing the best job I could do and let them watch me do it. When something was presented to me I simply said, "I didn't take this job to make friends necessarily. I took it because this is what I want to do and caring for people is what I love. If I make friends in the process then that's a bonus". They actually respected that and saw my work ethic and we actually all got along great after that and worked as a team. I just didn't let them get to me. Unfortunately there are those types of people in every line of work and pretty much every job out there. Keep you head held high as well as your work ethic and you will soar!!
As a 36 year Critical Care Nurse, PACU and Chief Nursing Officer for a small rural hospital, this is difficult to answer. I loved being a preceptor except for BSN staff with no experience. They have zero clinical skills and often no initiative. No matter what the degree, if they have initiative I am all in. I did not allow my peers that opportunity as a new nurse. However, having to relocate I have witnessed some of the meanest women. Few had good clinical skills. I hung in for 3 years then quit. Even if you have good skills and knowledge starting in a new location is a nightmare.
This is the first time I am hearing such an occurrence! These nurses have
Poor insight and judgmental abililities!
Beware of them, they are depressed and anxious!
They need psychiatric treatment and testing for Covid!
As an Adult Nurse Practitioner, I've had ADN challenge my orders. At that point I had my APNP-C for 15 years, my BSN for 35 years. When I asked her how long she had been in nursing, she told me 5 years. I replied that when she had as much education and experience as I did, she could challenge my orders. She would hardly speak to me after that, which was fine by me. Her nurse manager almost fired her for insubordination
She never apologized.
The young don't care at all about those of us who have been in nursing 25 plus years!!!!!! They think they know EVERYTHING. I've done things and seen things in nursing they will never do or see. This question should be the other way around. These new nurses are so mean and disrespectful to those who have been in nursing for many more years. Until they learn to be nice and respectful to us who have many more years of nursing experience, they deserve what they get. These newbies are all about instant gratification. They need to do the grunt work we had to do.
Report them. Get them written up. Don’t tolerate. I haven’t experienced it in any of the 3 hospitals I’ve worked at.
I’m sassy, skilled, and a damn good advocate for patients as well as myself. Pro tip for newbies…. Do not allow anyone to walk all over you, period! I don’t care how decorated and credentialed you are, if you’re the chief of surgery or a nursing manager, it’s not happening on my watch, not today, no thank you. I call out old school mentality battle axe nurses while doing circles around them with workload. Most frequently I find the most difficult personalities employ bullying and aggressive tactics due to the fact they are quite deficient in skills/experience and feel sometimes inferior/less competent. It’s basically just insecurities.
As with any profession, you have to establish and prove yourself. Nursing is my 3rd career. The same happened in the Marines and when I became a teacher. Nursing is no different. Consider it a right of passage and stop crying about it.
