Nurses Eat Their Young

For anyone not in the business of nursing you have no idea of the very tasty treat that is a nursling. Their fear is delicious and their eagerness keeps them coming back for more of your feasting, er, wisdom?  This is as ridiculous as it sounds. Some nurses, sworn caregivers, pick on our newest members.  

I hate to admit this, but I too have picked on a student nurse, a new nurse, and a younger nurse. It’s not like I can take out my crappy day on my patient or a doctor!  Nope. Never.  I am on occasion a Florence NightenFAIL and have made those bright eyed nurslings a little weepy. I’m not proud of myself, well, that one time I sent the most annoying student ever on a hunt for left handed IV catheters still amuses me.

I regret that I wasn't the professional I like to think I am at times. The time I snapped at the new nurse during report when I questioned a blood pressure of 68/43 and she looked at me with innocent doe eyes and asked, “Is that bad?” I wish I would have had a brilliant teaching moment instead of word-vomiting “Yeah, it is bad! We are a critical care floor and that is critical! He could be in there bleeding to death?!?!?” While I stalked down the hallway to the patients room to check on him. 

Or the time I made the day shift nurse stay late to fix all the things she thought she was going to leave for me on the night shift. I could have offered to help her, or at least not complained about her the whole time despite her efforts to get it together.

These two nurslings did learn something from their encounter with me even though I was a total jerkface. The next time a blood pressure was off she proudly told me how she’d handled it. The other nurse actually pulled me into the patient's room to show me how well she’d done with the dressing changes.

I’ve definitely been a bit harsh, a lot impatient, and lacking in grace when dealing with the noobies. Lucky for me, or them really, they have been pretty few and far between and I am overall an advocate for the student and the new nurse. I love students and teaching people, but I’m human.

Now, to the nurslings, we like you, we don’t mean to upset you, terrorize you, make you question your choice of profession, and sanity. Almost all of us anyways, I still have teeth marks from the nurse who feasted on my tender noobie heart.  I know it is hard, I DO, I swear. Try to learn something from our less than caring moments, because you will have patients and their families mistreat you, and doctors will not hesitate to attack. You will need to smile and act like it doesn’t bother you.  

Just know that you won’t be the noobie forever and hopefully you’ll have a little more grace and mercy than the rest of us.