Have you ever heard the saying, "Nurses eat their young." I have, and I've been wondering why this is. There's a certain "pecking order" among the nurses that is unspoken and resented by some.
I can't say I've experienced it a lot... But, there is definately tension between the nursing students and the LPNs... Not so much the RNs. I had a particularly difficult LPN to work with last week. She came up to me in the middle of the hall with people all around - using a loud, accusing voice, we had the following conversation:
LPN: You didn't give 16A his insulin?!
Me: He isn't due till 1700.
LPN: Not his scheduled dose, his sliding scale.
Me: He didn't need it. His one touch was 97.
LPN: oh (shuffling papers) ok
And, all night she was breathing down my neck.....making me feel like she was hoping for me to make a mistake.
I couldn't do anything right... according to her. For example, later in the evening, a patient had a temperature that didn't respond to tylenol. So, I was making cool compresses to apply. She comes in all bull-in-a-china-shop-ish.....
LPN: What are you doing?
Me: Making cool compresses for his forehead.
LPN: Well, what you need to do is put that away, dump the water and go get an ice pack.
Ok, so she would prefer to use an ice pack and I would prefer to use a basin w/ ice for washcloths.... Big deal... It's not wrong... it is just different than she would do......
So, back to the question at hand... Why do nurses act this way? After some thought I think the issue comes down to power. They want it, but feel like they don't have it, so they try to exert it in any way possible.
Nurses are in a serving profession...they answer call bells and stop what they are doing to take orders from doctors and execute them... In unfriendly employment environments they are unappreciated, yelled at and mandated to work double shifts.
It is easy to see why this type of profession can lead to burn out and a feeling of powerlessness. This often results in tired nurses taking out their frustration out on the new, green graduates coming on. At least then they have power over someone. And, misery loves company. If they are miserable, you should be too.
This is, obviously, making HUGE generalizations... But, I feel there is a grain of truth here.... Thankfully this does not happen to all nurses. I have met many more positive and helpful nurses than I have bitter and demeaning ones. But, they are out there.
I wonder if this type of thing happens in other professions as well as nursing.
2 comments:
Get ready gal, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Wait until you hit graduate school!
There is a certain amount of jealousy...in my opinion, and for many different reasons.
BTW, are you following LPN's in your nursing school clinicals because if you are, you shouldn't be. RN's should be precepted by RN's. Just like in graduate school, I can't be precepted by anyone with less than a master's degree and it was that same way in my BSN program, my preceptor had to have her BSN.
I've heard a lot of stories... I've been lucky so far with kind, helpful nurses, mostly that understand the learning process....
No, we don't follow LPNs...but they are on the floor. I get the feeling that some of them are resentful of our presence there... I think this particular one went out of her way to make me feel inept.
I feel bad for them in a way... The LPN in question has YEARS of experience, and though she never completed college, most probably has more real, working knowledge than I do. But, in a matter of weeks, I will be the RN make much more than her and be "over" her.
So, I can see where resentment would grow easily.... Sad, but true.
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