[Sharon]

Have you ever seen a nursing colleague be disrespectful to another nursing colleague or have you even had it happen to you? Post your experience and identify what did you do if anything and or what could you have done?

[Marion Catherine]

Assignment 3
I have had the benefit of very supportive RNs on the team who seem to have taken me under their wing and trained, groomed and encouraged me.

[Marilyn]

Hi Marion,

I would love to hear more as your experience highlights exactly why professional mentorship is the backbone of great nursing. When experienced nurse take the time to guide, train, and encourage you, it does more than just teach you clinical skills. It builds your clinical judgment, protects your mental well-being, and gives you the psychological safety to ask questions and grow without fear. True mentors do not just teach you how to do the job; they show you how to survive and thrive in the profession, transforming nervous beginners into confident, highly capable clinicians.

[Alexandra]

When I was a new grad working at the hospital in the town I currently live in I was turning a patient and asked the nurse I was on shift with if she could help be turn my patient and reposition her on the bed better. The nurse said to me that if I could not lift/turn a patient on my own then I should rethink my nursing career. It was quite upsetting and the same nurse also would make rude comments and look over everything I did to try to find a mistake to report me it was very uncomfortable. I decided that I did not want to work like that and applied to other facilities in my town and ended up going to the local family doctors office and have been there for 16 years and very much enjoy it. It is unfortunate that one individual can make you feel the need to seek work elsewhere and at the age of 19 it was the fact that I did not want to deal with that person long term. They had the saying “nurses eat their young” and it was true for me but now that I am one of the senior nurses at the current workplace I make sure to never make any staff member feel the way that person made me feel.

[Marilyn]

Hi Alexandra,

Your resilience is truly inspiring, as you had the self-awareness to reject a toxic culture and redirect your career toward a fulfilling journey in primary care settings. While it is unfortunate that a bully forced you to seek work elsewhere, you successfully turned that adversity into leadership by actively breaking the “nurses eat their young” cycle. Today, as an established nurse, your commitment to protecting and supporting new staff ensures a safer, kinder environment for the next generation of healthcare professionals.

[Sadie]

Hi Alexandra,

That sounds like a really difficult experience, especially as a new graduate. Asking for help to safely reposition a patient is exactly what nurses should be doing, and it is unfortunate that your colleague responded that way.

What stood out to me most was your comment about making sure new staff do not feel the way you felt. Throughout this course, there has been a lot of discussion about teamwork and supportive practice environments. It also made me think about how often we talk about nursing shortages as being caused by factors outside of our control, but experiences like this likely contribute as well. When people feel unsupported, judged, or unwelcome, it can have a real impact on whether they stay in a role or even in the profession.

I was fortunate that I did not experience much of the “nurses eat their young” culture once I became a nurse, but I certainly saw it at times as a student. It is great that you have used your experience to create a more supportive environment for others.

[Marion Catherine]

Hi Alexandra, I can relate (a bit) to your experience. However, my strife was with a PSW who controlled the behaviours of other PSWs on the unit. Being new I had to learn the hard way that keeping the PSWs happy meant that my day would go better. Sadly though I reported unsafe practices the PSW carried out and this got me into the bad books which ultimately made me realize two things. The first is that growing with a team cannot happen if there is control and dominance from someone who is not registered (because they are not bound to CNO standards and requirements to continue growing). The second realization is that how subtle messages are relayed through miscommunications & mishaps. Mishaps that could have resulted in my accountability being questioned. I left that job .

[Author]

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