Wicked Nurses

Hi,

I'm a nurse in aged care, and really most of the staff I work with are not bitchy. There are a few that I try not to get into conversations with as they are always bitching, so I steer clear of them if possible, as I'm just not interested. In this way, it doesn't really affect me.

I think women in general can be quite bitchy (a lot of women but not all !), and as nursing is mainly made up of women maybe this is the reason. I don't mean that to sound harsh : )

the only bitchy nurses i have ever encountered all seem to have the same thing in common....they dont keep up to date with their skills or professional development and seem to be horrible to the nurses do, especially the young ones or newly graduated who have this drilled into them at university! I dont know if its because they feel threatened or if its jealously or whatever, but thats just an observation ive made in my circumstance. Also I think different areas of nursing attract certain personalities more then others and these different personalities conflict with each other and its usually everyone else who gets caught up inbetween it! Whenever I encounter a total bitch of a nurse I use the same method....smile and set a good example by being a happy approachable person and usually they will either leave you alone or change their own attitudes!

I'm can't take it any longer, I have to wade into this debate and set the proverbial cat amongst the pigeons.

Nursing is full of bitches because it is full of women who play second fiddle to medicine. If you have a look at the world of nursing and compare it to the world of medicine, you can see the difference straight away. Medicine, which has traditionally been a males domain, is very fraternal in nature. If a doctor makes a mistake at work his colleagues will circle the wagons around him and protect him as much as possible. Only when a doctor commits an offense of Patel like proportions will the medical board start deregistering and prosecuting. In general, doctors look after each other and they know what they are: students of objective science.

Compare that to the world of nursing where you are just one medication error from the Spanish Inquisition, even if you are just an EN working in aged care for Woolworths wages, even if it was the doctors fault. You have a national licensing body which takes more nurses to court than anyone else; you have nurse academics who write text books which seem to be aimed more at the hospitality industry with their diatribe about 'serving the patient'(or 'client' in newspeak) as if we are learning how to pour $400 dollar bottles of Moet for stroppy millionaires. In nursing, from the bottom up, it is every nurse for himself, you are on your own, and nursing as a profession doesn't really know what it is, as is evidenced by all those crazy nursing theories.

One theory explaining the horizontal violence within nursing is the inherent violence of the job what with all the blood, pain and death, especially in the critical care areas. I thought that theory had merit until I considered the armed forces who are both subject and witness to violence. Whilst there is a lot of discipline in the armed services, comradery reigns supreme(after your basic training of course!) and in general each unit is tight knit and cohesive.

As I mentioned earlier, nurses play second fiddle to medicine. It doesn't matter how many years experience you have or how many masters degrees you have, a 25 year old with the letters MBBS after his name will outrank you every time. The same goes for the allied health professions; nursing is subservient to physiotherapy, occupational therapy, pathology, audiology, sonography, dietitions, and the list goes on. I think this frustrates a lot of nurses and as such the only people they can boss around are their peers.,

Any way, that's my two cents.

911insidejob

Jules79

Hits it right on the head,

It is so true in alot of female based / dominated industries that it occurs,

why I am unsure but your right about seeing how 1 person can come in and start breaking the walls or a well set up team and it happens more often than you think, The funny thing is it is usually the person who is starting the issues is the one it heavly impacts once it comes around as people/teams start actually working it out that we never had this problem till "JILL" came along so yes it does happen, however i feel it dose work it's way out in the end, and people like that well i never did mind about the little things.

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