nursing eating young

I have been doing a lot of research on nursing and one of the things that caught my eye was the saying "nurses eating there young" is there any rns,lpns, or cna that could explain this?? Last edit by shermainenevels on Dec 17, '14 : Reason: misread
Nurses don't really eat their young, here, there, or anywhere. This snappy phrase was first published about thirty-five years ago and ever since, and increasingly in the last 15+ years, it's been seized upon as justification by some mostly new nurses who are experiencing the shock of going from school to a work environment where they will be rated, criticized, and tested by more experienced practitioners, and no longer be in the everybody-is-wonderful-and-gets-a-star class. If one of them can say, "They were mean to me, nurses eat their young," that gives many of them cover for not accepting responsibility. In my opinion, it also bespeaks a lack of understanding of nursing as a whole. Nobody knows better how hard nursing is, how smart and effective a nurse has to be, and how soon s/he will be in that bed as a patient more than an older nurse. Nobody knows more about how hard it is to work a floor of sick people with an inexperienced coworker who is more worried about being liked and validated than seeing the bigger picture and his/her comparatively small part of it. Older, more experienced nurses have the perspective to know there isn't time to waste in bringing them up to speed; the patients are waiting. If a more experienced nurse asks a newer one, "Why did you make that (suboptimal) choice?" to determine whether it was a knowledge deficit, a judgment deficit, poor time management skills, or (as the Brits say) simple bloody-mindedness, that more experienced nurse needs to know what it was so it can be corrected. This is not young-eating, but it's seen that way.Ahh, this thread has already gone on too long and I'm the first respondent. Do us all a favor and go to the Search icon up above (the little magnifying glass) and type in "NETY" and see what has gone on before. You'll be reading for days and days and days.

Nurses in general do not eat their young, SOME nurses do, but that is more an individual personality trait vs a nursing trait.

I am a new graduate LPN and it has been my experience that some nurses eat their young and some nurture their young. I have been in the field approximately 3 months and I work in long-term care. My full-time job stinks because they eat their young. The person that trained me started 2 weeks before me (she has 22 years experience) and most of what she taught me was wrong. They leave me things to do with the fullest of intentions to see me fail so that they can gripe. Except for a couple of the older nurses, no one will help me with anything. The CNAs won't even listen to me. The DON won't address the issue and the administrator? Not sure what her stand is on anything. On the other hand, my prn job. They are awesome! I love that place but they pay less. The nurses are more seasoned and kind. They take the time to explain everything. They are awesome. The difference (I think) is in the field of nursing, you need your team. It is hard if not impossible to accomplish anything without a team. At the same time you are responsible for everything that happens under your care so no one is willing to take a chance and help anyone else because they are busy covering their own behind. That's why they eat their young.

It's a sad reality in nursing, but not unique to nursing. It's people being disrespectful to each other, period.You'll have people making perfect sense on both 'sides' of the issue of 'does it even exist' and 'what really IS NEYT?'To the new inexperienced nurse, the whole world of nursing appears intimidating. A comment made in haste will sound harsh, but it's more that the inexperienced nurse is hypercritical of her/himself.There are individuals EVERYWHERE who enjoy exploiting the lack of confidence in a new coworker. People in general struggle and compete even when it is not necessary to do so. I don't understand the mindset myself, when I am with a new nurse I feel the impulse to support or nurture. Over my many years as a nurse, I've thought about this subject a lot and because I've spent the most time in psych, I've wondered why people do what they do.To minimize or deny the existence of this, or blame it entirely on the new nurse is like blaming the victim of domestic abuse for 'causing' their partner to abuse them. The relative few who come into nursing with massive chips on their shoulders and cry 'abuse' get a lot of attention, as if this were the REAL reason anyone calls 'abuse'. For some reason blaming the victim is common across the board. I think as a society we are beginning to take a long look at ourselves. Bullying in school, the increased awareness of domestic violence and what it looks and acts like -- fifty years ago no one thought about this and in general blamed the wife for her husband's beatings, and blamed the newbie for 'causing' her preceptor to be impatient and angry.Impatience and anger are not the automatic response to a newbie's mistake or inexperience. I've felt concern and once in a while DREAD! but getting angry and yelling, snatching something out of their hand . . . I don't know. But I've seen it happen, early on it happened to me. I think there is still a lot of rationalization going where some individuals give themselves and each other permission to act out; they're often the first to say it doesn't exist. To be that vehement that NEYT does not exist or is always the fault of the new nurse is just a bit too precious in my opinion.

I see you are totally against that saying, but I wonder if you are one of the nurse that do eat the young. I will be more them happy to look up the word nety.

I would rather have constructive criticism. Then a nurse barking at me, know I'm fresh meat.

Glad to hear that you are more of a nurturing nurse and informing pre nurses that " nursing eating young" does happen.

I know what to expect once I get done in two years. As a new lpn

Quote from shermainenevelsI know what to expect once I get done in two years. As a new lpn

Despite everything I've research, I'm still excited about entering the nursing field.

Shermaine,Yes it is true that some nurses are not nice people. They are not nice people to their long time coworkers and so when a new coworker comes on, they will treat them just the same. Yes, it does happen sometimes. People like this usually have esteem issues and an unhealthy need for control. They exist in all professions. The new people are "easy" targets because they haven't yet built relationships with the other staff. So if I like Sally and Sally is friends with Mary, I won't start up with Mary even if I don't like her. But if Suzy comes along and knows nobody, why would I care if I get my self esteem fix off putting the "newbie" down. High school never ends. Just so happens to be that a lot of new nurses are younger and they are also naturally self conscious because of their situation so it seems that "nurses eat their young."Unfortunately, many new nurses take "nurses eat their young" as euphemism for any behavior that challenges them as a new nurse. Being a new nurse is challenging. Having a preceptor ask you why the heck you are doing what you are doing (wrong) is challenging. Nursing is serious business. It is VERY VERY easy to kill someone and even easier to neglect them. Challenge by a preceptor (who may be older and is usually wiser) is not being eaten. It is called teaching. It may not be the style of Miss Honey in Matilda, but it's effective if you listen and don't argue, especially when you have no clue what you are talking about. And if you do argue, you must be respectful and ask it like a question vs "but I learned X, Y, and Z in nursing school!"Disclaimer: There are some people who are just not meant to be preceptors, especially to new grads. They may be "great" nurses, but they are not good teachers and usually have personal issues at home that they bring to work.

Nurses eat their young when they put them in situations that are not successful and then rake them over the coals because of their inexperience. When I was a new nurse, I asked a lot of questions and I still do when I am not sure about something. I have been in my current position for 2 months and even though I am not a new nurse, I still feel that I will be having to "prove myself". I do not get excited about some situations because I have already been exposed to them, I may not seem as aggressive as other nurses, I rationalize things out and think about them before I act. I also believe in prevention. I was recently asked by one of the younger nurses why I am making rounds with a flashlight(night shift). Well,"that is to make sure my patients are OK and their chests are moving up and down". The younger nurse then said, "well, wouldn't you see that on the monitor?" At which point I told her,"you can see it sooner by looking at your patients, and pts can go into respiratory arrest before cardiac arrest". It is a generational shift, and you will most likely find the more mature nurses making routine rounds on their patients. Doesn't it make sense to try to see if your patients are sleeping, are they climbing out of bed, do they need something, are their chests moving??? To me, that is part of normal nursing, to the younger nurse, it is not normal, and she would see changes on the telemetry readings. There is more to nursing than monitoring by a machine. Because the more mature nurse has the varied experience, and was trained differently, it is very hard to compare both nurses. Does the more mature nurse eat the younger nurse? Not necessarily, it could be the more mature nurse is providing the younger nurse with learning experiences, however, the mature nurse may not be comfortable with the way the younger nurse handles these experiences. The mature nurse almost "throws" the younger nurse into situations that are challenging to get the younger nurse to "mature." Is that considered "eating their young??" We all learn differently, the younger nurse, although hesitant, needs to be thrown into uncomfortable situations in order to learn a variety of skills, priorities, etc. I don't feel nurses eat their young to make them feel uncomfortable, but to make them learn, perhaps in a way that may not be readily accepted, but will result in a maturing nurse who will be able to grow.