"Nurses eat their young..."

"...I don't know why, but we are terribly mean to each other."

Words of wisdom from my DON.

I'm pretty patient and easy to get along with. (Yes, AT WORK. At home I'm a different creature altogether.) If I am "mean" to you at work, likely it's because you aren't working. And I am willing to pull a lot of your weight before I start to lose my sense of humor. After that, not only am I going to tell you I feel overwhelmed, I'm going to tell my Charge Nurse that you are worthless and I don't want to work with you any more. So, then she's going to start riding your butt and you're going to go home and cry to your family that we're "mean".

I have never had a Charge Nurse be "mean" to me. But I'm a hard worker and I'm nice to my residents. If your residents like you, most of the time your Charge Nurse will, too. Unless she's a complete and utter cow and those are few and far between.

Nurses may eat their young, but maybe its just natural selection at work.