As a new grad, I think that some nurses are cannibalistic and eat their young. Others are very good and nurturing. And others are somewhere in between.

My observations is that Nurses are so overwhelmed with census and work responsibility they do not welcome having a trainee under their feet as well. I worked hard and stayed right beside them until they began to trust me. Liability weighs like an obnoxious monkey on everyone's back. My inexperienced mistake becomes hers as well.
I don't think they eat their young, they just don't welcome them with open arms. I saw the smirks and eyes rolling and deep desperate sighs when I signed in the first day. They actually said "you take her, Iiiiiiiaaaaammm noooottt taking her, I took the last disaster looking for a place to happen, and you saw how that turned out". Then a nurse finally blurted out "come with me, stay out of my way, don't ask stupid questions and we will get through the straining period". I said "you meant training period"? She pointed at the med cart "don't ever touch this, and I meant straining period". She found out that I was extremly physically strong, a runner, not afraid of psyche patient confrontation, did not take excessive breaks, pulled double shifts, showed up for work on time, told her where I was when I took a break, and brought her an occasional cup of star bucks coffee, tripple latte with whipped cream (hey whatever it takes) and she almost likes me. They all still snap at me from time to time because they know I am resilient and they can, and it's what they like about me the best. It's just another day of patient care, I just wonder who is the patient I am caring for sometimes.

I think theres a difference between being hard on students in order to make them learn, and just being a plain old b****. I am currently a 4th year student, and its seems i've had the cream of the crop. Nurses who sit around with their feet up reading magazines while I run around like crazy taking all their patients vital signs, my personal favorite, "i'm not going to tell you where that supply is on the huge packed full cart/ where the assignment sheet is/ who's the charge nurse/ which doctor you can ask questions to because you've got to learn for yourself" which is more annoying then anything, or "hey, you arn't busy (as i'm charting) , 3 out of my 4 patients need suppositories, go give them while i go get coffee" to my personal favorite, the unit manage/charge nurse who insisted students sit on the floor during report, even if there were chairs left over after the staff nurses sat down. How degrading....

An orientation in any clinical area of nursing means exactly as it states, an orientation. The nurses who eat their young are more common than is reported. This is the main reason for the nursing shortage. Our facility has a wonderful CNO who's motto is "Nice Matters" and in her office a huge plaque reads "Spare me the drama".

A recent experience has given reason to believe that belonging in this profession or in any facility where nurses are allowed to degrade, demoralize, and sabatoge anothers work should be stopped. What will the future bring? One less person who is likely to want to stay in the nursing profession. And one person who would strongly encourage another to go into any other profession other than nursing, if asked. It is with profound sorrow on this report, that nurses cannot make a mistake, learn from it and proceed forward. It seems any learning process in nursing is intermixed with dread, injury to a person's soul, and no forgiveness. This experience can and does happen on a daily basis. The names may change, as do the exact circumstances but any nurse can be certain, and should expect this treatment during their career in nursing.

Yes nurses do eat their young, I speak on this from first hand experience. When i first got out of school and started to work as a nurse I felt I did not have the confidence it took to be a good nurse, I felt that this was my time to learn, but the nurses that I had to train with just did their thing and acted liked I was not even there, if I had not have the sense to asked lots of questions there is no telling what kind of mistakes/errors I would of made. Some nurses feel that they don't have to show or teach a new nurse anything, they don't think about how it was for them, they feel that we should know our stuff when we get out of school. That is not the case for most new nurses, I've learned that what they teach you in school does not necessary jive with what happens in the real world of nursing. In most cases you have to prove yourself to other nurses to get the respect that you deserve. On the other hand you do have nurses who are more nuturing then others and those are the ones I surround myself with so I won't became a nurse who eats the young.

I second that Charlita. But I learned alot.