Do Nurses Eat Their Young?

"Nurses eat their young" is a frequent subject of discussions in nursing chat rooms, and is one of the top discussion threads on allNurses.com. For those unfamiliar with the phrase, it refers to the idea that older or more experienced nurses are unhelpful, unsupportive, critical, and even mean, predatory, and generally destructive in their interactions with new graduate nurses and nursing students.

Apart from the discussions, the first research article reference I could find on the subject in PubMed dated from March 1986, while as recently as June 8, 2007, the South Carolina Nurses Association announced that it was looking for people to participate in a pilot study on the topic. So it seems like a real phenomenon … but is it?

Donna Cardillo, RN, MA, who specializes in career development for nurses, doesn't think so. She says in an article that, "While I occasionally hear about unpleasant experiences with experienced nurses, I mostly hear about how caring, nurturing, and supportive more experienced colleagues are." In Cardillo's opinion, the phrase lives on "Because it's human nature to focus on the negative. Sadly, good works often go unnoticed by many and unreported by those who perform them, and yet we're often quick to note bad behavior." What's more, she writes, the phrase becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, "[New grads and student nurses] accept the statement as gospel and assume their own profession is against them before they even get started. If they encounter a nurse who is less than friendly and caring, rather than realizing it may be that nurse's personality or her stress level that day, they accept it as the norm and assume it's something they have to suffer through. So, they don't attempt to use conflict management and problem solving skills to get along better in the workplace or to find the help and support they need."

Nursing chat rooms demonstrate that there are varied opinions on the subject. Happily, there seem to be fewer nurses with horror stories than there are nurses with stories about how wonderful their experiences were. It's not unusual for someone to write, "Everyone was great except one nurse, who …." Other writers claim that it isn't the staff nurses who eat their young; it's only nurse managers and other senior nurses. Such comments seem to indicate that while it's a real phenomenon, it's not rampant. Nor is it nurse-specific.

As "rn/writer" wrote in a comment posted on allNurses.com on 5-13-07, "I have a theory that this ongoing lament shows up so starkly in nursing because of the job itself. The expectation is that nurses are nurturing and comforting and kindhearted, so it stands out when they are stressed and understaffed and perhaps less than warm and fuzzy. You don't hear about stockbrokers or lawyers eating their young. Okay, you do, but that's what everyone expects. We're pink teddy bears, and they are sharks. When we engage in even a little snarkiness, it gets skywriting and billboards while they get patted on the back and respected as being tough competitors."

So is the phrase, in part, a manifestation of underlying sexism? About 94% of nurses are women (2004 survey), and 70.2% of lawyers are men (May 2006 American Bar Association membership stats). It seems that being tough on an underling is accepted and even expected of a man, and the man is considered strong, assertive, and competent for engaging in such behavior. But if a woman is tough on an underling she is mean, malicious, and aggressive.

Which brings me to the next point, made by "nutmeig" in an August 2007 posting on nursinglink.com: "I think [there's] a difference between being hard on students in order to make them learn, and just being a plain old b**." There are a lot of thoughtless, nasty, mean-spirited, and cruel people in the world. There are many workplace bullies, and there are also tired, stressed, overworked people who, on a better day, are decent. And everyone, whether in nursing or not, has experienced or heard stories of bad behavior by colleagues and/or bosses that can shock and appall.

But even if it's not a problem unique to nurses, it's a problem that does exist. And to help solve the problem, the recommendations from nurses range from extreme ideas (e.g., warn once, then fire nurses who can't be kind to coworkers) to excellent ones that may not work due to liability issues (e.g., have recently retired nurses "who still have their grey matter functioning reasonably well" act as preceptors, to take pressure off the other nurses). Here is a summary of the suggestions from various discussion boards:

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