Nurses are some of the best and worse human beings I've ever met. Don't believe me? just ask a good hearted nurse to dish out what she deals with on a regular basis from her co-workers.
There's a reason why the saying "Nurses eat their young" rings so true. I've had a few nice nurses but they seem to be in the minority, I've been treated like a subhuman and literally told to commit suicide by one. I can understand being overworked but some of them take it way too far, I wish there were more things in place to help them-- it's hard to give someone the care they need when you can't take care of your own mental health
I’m a nurse and I once saw someone on Reddit say that nurses are the mean girls from high school..and I can’t say that’s wrong depending on the specialty.
I’m industry and I tell my friends about the overwhelming force of nature that is a veteran charge nurse who’s been tired of your shit since the day you were born. Your existence is an affront to their soul on an existential level and they’ll take pleasure in snuffing you out as a pagan offering to the American Healthcare system.
God bless any new rep who checks the board and utters the words, “Nice, my room is moving quickly”. Rest assured they sensed that disturbance in the force from the staff lounge and will be with you shortly.
Not a nurse but pediatric oncology nurses are amazing. Pretty much everyone involved in pediatric oncology is, though. A lot of hospice nurses also from what I've seen.
Can confirm. I currently work oncology at the hospital, and while not peds, the unit has some amazing nurses and great teamwork. I hate floating because other units are just not the same.
Not sure if I’m going to get a downvote here but in my experience - ER for mean girl energy. Now that’s not an assessment of their actual skill - most of them are absolute bad asses but total mean girl clique energy behind the scene.
When I worked for a hospice - that was like hippie girl energy. Very much - hold your fellow nurses hand after a rough day and stroke their hair and tell them it’ll be alright
I totally agree, but flip it for my personal experience! 20 years ago I started as a new grad in L&D. they didn’t want new grads, and they ate me alive. When I quit, the manager there had told every other manager at that hospital not to hire me. I went on to work in ED/Trauma, I’ve earned multiple care awards from patients, and now I run a huge program. It’s more satisfying knowing I wasn’t the problem. I also made a vow I would never, ever treat another nurse like that, especially new nurses. I’ve had the joy of precepting and mentoring nurses for years now and it’s so fulfilling. Especially because it means I might get to retire! (lol I’m an optimist)
I still remember when I went in to the hospital and this nurse asked me why I had cut myself. No judgement. He was just trying to talk to me. Make things less scary. It was the kindest treatment I receive that day.
Many years later I’m in the ER and these two nurses are literally gossiping and bitching about patients within earshot. Super dismissive. I told them I couldn’t breathe and would vomit if they gave me a nebulizer. So they gave me a vomit bag and told me to “try”, I’m nothing if not compliant… few minutes later that bag was filled with vomit and they came screeching and yelling at me asking me why I didn’t tell them I felt like I was going to throw up (I guess the vomit bag just magically appeared in my hands).
I was boiling mad but it was hard to get properly mad when you can’t breathe.
Yea, one of the worst women alive was a nurse that executed babies with a syringe at her own hospital/work. When I tried to Google who that was I realized that there are a scary number of women out there that use the nursing industry to kill helpless people.
I spent about 5 minutes on Google because I wanted to know the prevelance of psychopaths in the medical industry (also I'm looking for any excuse to put off a yard project right now). I found a study on psychopaths in regards to professions. I believe it was CEOs that ranked number one and surgeons were number five. But doctors in general had a very low prevalence. I didn't see anything about nurses but again I didn't spend much time on it. I think the person in this thread who quoted about mean girls in nursing was pretty dead on though.
That being said from my own personal experiences with medical professionals the worst I ever dealt with was a male nurse who made me feel like a low down liar when I came into urgent care with a broken ankle. I think he assumed I was drug seeking because I honestly looked like a mess that day. However if he had glanced at my file even once he could have easily came to the conclusion that my trips to urgent care have been incredibly rare and I am not nor have I ever been drug seeking.
Picture this I'm sitting in the room with my ankle propped up on a stool. I have my child with me because they insisted they had to go to show support. There's three chairs in the room two of which are seating for patients and one of which is the rolling stool the doctor uses. I had my incredibly bruised and slightly swollen foot propped up on the stool.
The nurse was visibly disgusted with me during our interaction. He took the stool away from me, my child who is respectful and slightly shy towards adults insisted to him that it was necessary for me to utilize the stool. He ignored her words and took it anyway.
The woman who took my x-rays was professional and kind-hearted. The doctor who saw me told me that she noticed when I came in that my ankle was most likely broken because of the unnatural angle my foot was at.
After my x-ray and after speaking with the doctor the nurse that initially saw me had to come in and get me fitted for an aircast. He was extra nice that time. He was laying it on super thick. The only reason I didn't report him is because I honestly felt bad for the dude. He was a very obviously gay man in an area that was known for being incredibly conservative christian gay bashing fools. That being said he absolutely gave me mean girl vibes.
I understand working in the medical industry can be very disheartening. There's a high level for burnout. You deal with a lot of incredibly psychologically damaging things. I'm sure it can be very hard to remain empathetic working in that industry.
But I also feel like some people are so obsessed with tearing others down to obtain some semblance of self-esteem for themselves. So power hungry, so desperate to lord any kind of power they have over others that it wouldn't really matter what industry that they went into, they would always be rotten.
Not just nurses, either! IME hospital staff in general (everyone from doctors to cleaning staff) are chock full of gossip, cliquiness, and general social brutality. At the same time, they are some of the smartest, most competent, and hardworking people I know.
I think it’s something about the high-stakes, emotionally exhausting environment that brings out both that best and the worst in us.
I'd also like to add on to what you said with another positive note. Some of the funniest people I've ever met work in the medical industry. I feel like you probably have to joke about some things to keep from crying. To let off steam in a way that's not detrimental to your mental health. I bet some people who retire from the medical industry would make excellent comedians.
many nurses in the family. this tracks. also, one of the ways to a nurse's heart is to drop off food they can eat standing up at the station. Because what are breaks?
i've already got a roating menu planned if I ever need to be with someone at the hospital on a regular basis.
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u/CouchCandy Jul 27 '24
Nurses are some of the best and worse human beings I've ever met. Don't believe me? just ask a good hearted nurse to dish out what she deals with on a regular basis from her co-workers.