“Nurses Eat Their Young” is an unfortunate phrase understood and used by nurses around the world. Dishearteningly, the idiom refers to the high levels of mistreatment and intimidation new nurses experience at the hands of their more experienced (seasoned) coworkers. It may be commonplace, but that doesn’t make it okay. And it feels even worse in an industry that is dedicated to helping others and providing compassionate care.
Nursing is a profession that is consistently rated as one of the most trustworthy fields by patients. This dedication to the wellbeing of their patients makes it even more shocking to hear that almost every nurse has witnessed or experienced some form of bullying. Bullying is clearly a well-known and ongoing issue being faced in the nursing profession. It utterly and completely shatters my heart into a million pieces whenever I have a student nurse tell me at the end of the day, "Thank you for being nice to me." To be thanked for a behavior so simple and customary is literally the worst thing of all time.
The consequences of bullying includes nurses reporting poorer mental health, decreased collaboration with team members, ineffective communication, reduced work productivity, and poor job commitment. These consequences ultimately affect the care nurses deliver to their patients including decreased quality of care, poor patient satisfaction, higher medication errors, and increased patient deaths. Bullying among nurses previously garnered such national recognition that The Joint Commission issued a Sentinel Event Alert requiring all accredited hospitals to develop a code of conduct and implement processes to manage bullying. This alert has not eradicated the problem—bullying still persists and is more paramount than ever.
Research shows that nurse bullying is the result of ineffective communication and coping skills in a high stakes environment. It is no secret that nursing school is challenging for students, and those challenges will only continue in a job where people’s actual lives are on the line. It takes practice to retain composure, and if students don’t learn how to cope with that stress in school, they are setting themselves up for failure once they enter the workplace.
In nursing school, interventions are taught to prepare students how to prevent and mitigate the bullying they will experience in their nursing practice. This includes education about bullying, fostering positive interprofessional relationships, and using cognitive rehearsal to learn how to professionally defend oneself.
Imagine being a student nurse on your first day at a new clinical site. You may be anxious about treating a complex patient or accurately completing all of your medical records in a timely fashion. The last thing you would want or SHOULD be thinking about is whether your nurse preceptor is going to give you a hard time. Unfortunately, bullying in the nursing profession happens a lot more than most people realize, and students and new nurses are the ones most vulnerable and susceptible to these behaviors.
The good news is that nurses are starting to stand up against this unacceptable behavior and are speaking out with solutions to end it. Even by reading this post, you are taking the first step in preventing nurse bullying from becoming an issue for you or your peers.
As new nurses enter the workforce and continue to bring a voice to the issue of bullying, they are securing a bright future for one of the nation’s most respected careers. Their continual drive to make their profession better is just one of the many inspiring qualities of the novice nurse.
As they say, knowledge is power. I am here to help you and to teach you everything you need to know to be an amazing nurse. I was in your shoes three years ago. There are going to be some tough things that you will have to deal with as a nurse and part of your education should and does include preparation for that.
No one knows what you are going through as a nurse more than myself, a fellow nurse. It is my duty to dedicate myself to nurturing and empowering others to flourish and thrive. I have learned from my experience that people who attack others' confidence and self-esteem have the most insecurities themselves. We should aspire to inspire others. We should build others up for success instead of breaking them down. We should be mentors and motivators.
If you are passionate about changing the culture of “nurses eat their young” to a culture where nurses SUPPORT their young, join me in signing this pledge to stop workplace bullying: https://nurse.org/articles/stop-nurse-workplace-bullying/