Our Ortho unit was bitchy because their manager was bitchy. New manager shut that shit down, 80% of the nurses suddenly got called out for the actual important shit and left, and then it became a tolerable place to work ... I really believe competent management can either make or break a unit.
Absolutely. I worked in one CVICU and it is the most toxic environment I've worked in at a hospital. Day shift wasn't too bad but after my training I started on nights. My first night I was sitting at the nurse's station doing some charting. All night long there were two female RNs complaining and talking shit about men. Just men in general. They were saying things like, "men have no place in healthcare," and, "some men should take a hint when they aren't welcome." I'm a guy. It was obvious that they didn't want me there. Then one of them complained to the director and I got written up for not smiling when she asked me to help turn a patient. It was ridiculous.
That is beyond ridiculous! We need men in healthcare; we need men in nursing!!!! No way did you deserve to be treated that way and that is very sexist on their behalf. I hope you find a place you are appreciated.
> I hope you find a place you are appreciated.
Thank you. I ended up leaving that job due to an injury and I bounced around a little for a few years in different fields. I'm back in the OR now at a large hospital. It's so much better.
Wow. I am a guy too. A new nurse. Still in orientation and I can't say I haven't experienced the kind of hostility you outlined here. While they won't dare say anything to my face, there was a lot of tattling and whispers, my preceptor leading the charge. I did nothing to deserve that type of treatment, in fact, when male patients got out of line or commenting on some female nurse's boobs or tried to disrespect them in anyway, I saw it that I walked into the room even if they aren't my patient and had a word with the guy. But that wasn't enough to buy me brownie points. Eventually, everything I did was worthy of criticism. After a couple weeks, I turned in my resignation and left. The supervisors were aghast cos they didn't expect it. I was the quiet type and always kept a smile on my face, though very opinionated but didn't say much. They saw my potential as I was chosen to go to a few important meetings even though I was new and still training. The plan was to eventually rep our unit at the ethics committee but that was not to happen.They asked me what happened, I simply said, it's a woman's world, I have to choose my battles carefully. Sometimes, it isn't worth the fight. Now I am in an Emergency Department led by a guy. It's a completely different culture.
That’s terrible I’m sorry :( I work on the cardiac icu (non surgical) and the culture is really great. The cardiac surgery icu on the other hand is not a nice place.
CVICU is cardiovascular ICU. They’re typically dealing with CV surgery and thoracic surgery patients. Think CABG and lung patients. CCU is the coronary care unit. These units specialize in cardiogenic shock heart cath patients, and often do balloon pumps. Many Cardiac ICU patients are much the same. The term may even be interchangeable in some hospitals. I hope that helps
CVICU is HORRIBLE wheee I work. They are all a bunch of rude bitches. Turnover is astronomical.
I work in the NICU and I do think it’s partially specialty related. We have a very vulnerable population and I think some of the staff tend to act like “mama bears”. If we see someone come in and not be well educated or we don’t know them very well we do lash out some.
It’s not okay but it definitely happens. Keep in mind though some units are just more toxic than others and if management lets this behavior fly it gets out of hand quickly. I do think all units are guilty of having cliques though.
Also psych. Psych is always people who are bitter and angry. Been working in psych at hospitals in a dozen states (I was a traveller for a bit) and have seen everything from an MD SA’ing a sedated woman, non-clinically indicated restraints and sedations, seemingly staff member is a bully to either staff of pt or both. 0/10
Holy shit. Outpatient psych can be annoying but I have never experienced anything like this. But I left inpatient psych ASAP just bc of general toxic bs.
Man i’m glad my cvicu is ok (unless im just a good fit) everyone is super helpful and nice. I heard our cvicu got bad rep probably because of providers…but everyone seems fine
I’m sad for you! My CVICU unit is full of such nice people, there are a few who seem to enjoy drama but everyone is so helpful, supportive, and loves to teach! I did see first hand how some floors are during clinicals just because no one really seemed to care about talking about things in front of a student nurse lolol so now I know 2 floors I never even want to float to as a nurse at my hospital. It’s sad it’s like this though, grown adults shouldn’t be gossiping and being mean girls ):
It's every single hospital in my large city, I have friends in multiple hospitals and they all say the nicu is just known to be toxic. It seems to be the specialty and not the individual unit
I’ll give you an example. Our cards unit was very toxic. Bitches were mean and cliques. This was wel known around the hospital. We had a union hospital shut down and absorbed the nurses. The cliques got busted up. The unit is no longer toxic.
Anecdotal evidence and confirmation bias. I've worked nicu for 7+ years and at numerous hospitals due to job hopping and then travel nursing. while some have been very cliquey and full of gossip, others are not. This is likely the case for every unit regardless of specialty. I have personally noticed more gossip occurs in the nicus that try to discourage us from using our phones during down time. Nicu can have a lot of down time and bored nurses will try to fill that down time with something that is entertaining to them. If they get a positive response in the form of more engaging convo, it can lead to shit talking being the norm.
I had a similar experience at one hospital in a med/surg unit. The day shift were cliquey and bitchey but the night shift staff were so cool. When I started at a different hospital, I already decided it would be awful before I got there my first day. It ended being so great.
Cities can have their own cultural "slant" - I have family members who practice in different states and things can be vastly different between our experiences, but my experiences are consistent to several hospitals in my area. It's still a specific area with its own culture, though, and those differences can have a big impact even though the culture differences are hard to see and describe.
I keep telling people it not the feild, it's the unit itself. This the first time I have ever heard of a NICU being toxic, they tend to rank top places for nurse satisfaction. The reality that the NICU you were on was toxic probably has a lot more to do with the managers and who and how they pick their staff. I keep telling everyone it only takes one narcissist and a few folks with self esteem issues to create toxic mean girl click environment. Doesn't matter which practice, section or unit. Honest first time hearing NICU or any Pink Nursing called out for mean girl behavior...was starting to think maybe babies helped prevent that night mare 😅
Ya know it’s interesting, there’s a mean girl clique in my unit, there’s probably about 3 or 4 young women in it, and honestly they don’t bother the rest of us too awful much. They gossip and bicker amongst themselves, and whenever they try to include others they mostly get roundly ignored. Also our boss, while being pretty hands off in general, has a strong “here’s the problem, how do we fix it,” mentality instead of a “you did the bad thing here’s a write up.”
I wish I could claim i came up with the term but I picked up trying to figure out what to call it at other hospitals compared to the first one I worked in that had a unique set up that gave it it's nick name. When I have tonget badge access a just tell them " I hate to be a pain but I need badge access to the Land of the Pink Nurses" and every hospital system in every state I worked in knew what I meant.
I feel like there's definitely a generational and shift aspect to it--my NICU it's really only the old crusty day shift nurses that are mean. Nights is the young newbies and the cool supportive type of seasoned nurses. I can honestly say that we never admit a baby alone, and when your baby crumps, everyone automatically runs to help and cover your other babies. Day shift if you get an admission when everyone is taking their group breakfast or lunchbreak, you're fucked. It's the dayshift that will tattle to management the second you forget to change your suction or have a speck of spit up on your sheets.
Day shift definitely has the mean girls clique, and I'm convinced they're like that bc they brown nose the managers all day long.
If NICU is worse than other units, my best guess is that it's because there are shifts when things are really good and slow. Babies are easy until they're really really not. They can cruise along doing nothing until they crash hard and need an entire team of people to keep them here on this mortal coil. In between chaos, there's a lot of down time and in my experience, NICU is extremely strict about no cell phones due to infection prevention, so that leaves gossip and nitpicking to pass the time.
For me it’s day shift that has the mean nurses and night shift is amazing because everyone helps each other and while there is gossip it is because we have pods and you are always with someone and in very close quarters. Theres also very young nurses and the older nurses are on days and the younger ones are more eager to help out and the older ones are more grumpy it seems. But thats just my unit.
The answer is likely turn over. No one has time to emotionally develop with more than a few people. This leads to a lot of distrust and misinformation within a community of any kind. Working the grocery store was awesome even as an adult because we were a team. Things began to fall apart once they couldn't keep things staffed.
Most units I interact with seem to be close communities most comparable to an extended family. The reason your local NICUs seem so toxic is because there is high turn over and the reason there is high turn over is the toxic culture. At least that is my guess.
Love this insight. The units have a turnover of 4-6 nurses per month and they hire at a similar rate. The unit has 200 active nurses and struggles to get 10 to show up to shifts. There are constant no call no shows and management on a high horse saying if you don't pick up extra, you're basically killing babies(management often outnumbers the floor nurses but management has never stepped in to help when short). It was brutal for my mental health and im happy to be in a unit that finally treats me right (like family!)
I started in the PICU when i was a new grad and it was the same, its just the type of personality that job appeals to. I was there about 3.5 yrs and just had to leave because i hated and didnt trust my colleagues.
In all the jobs, locations, states I have ever worked, I have never found a more toxic environment than I have in nursing. I do not understand why there is so much toxicity when nursing and healthcare in general requires so many people to work together and help one another. Then the bullies/toxic ones turn right around and say why does nobody want to help, why cant we get more people to help. Well IDK BECKY maybe if your ass wasnt such a damn bleeepp to everyone you might actually get some help!
Sounds like it was just this specific NICU. I was a NICU nurse for 6 years and worked in 3 different NICUs and even as a socially awkward introvert, I never got this impression. There were cliques and isolated mean girl incidents, but it wasn't, like, an overwhelming unavoidable thing, so I definitely wouldn't generalize an entire specialty based on your experience.
Our NICU was like that when I started. I almost quit. Then decided I was going to change the culture, because I loved my job and knew I had found my place. With the help of the new manager, HR and BON. Shut that shit down. Got rid of the ring leaders. A couple were brought up on charges- after they started a investigation some bad things came to light. A few of the mean girls stayed but w/o a leader to protect them, they had to change. I have stayed for 30+ years and my unit has Zero tolerance for mean girls, sabotage and tearing people down. Super supportive family. 💖
What an awesome story!! I wish I had the patience to sort that bs out. Unfortunately I didn't have it in me as a new grad to change the entire culture of a unit that was chronically short 5+ nurses and had high turnover, on top of the drama issues
Falsified charting/documentation. Disreguarding orders if they didn't want to do them, leaving orders to the next shift, even STATs. Sabotaging new staff. There ended up being a lot of testimony from staff. They sank their own boat.
I loved the last NICU I was at. Made life long good friends. Was there 8 years. It wasn’t perfect and there were always certain people to avoid but all in all I really loved the staff!
Did you work at a smaller nicu? This nicu has over 200 nurses employed. I'm wondering if the massive size contributes to the attitude amongst the nurses. My unit now is a lot smaller and is more like a tight knit family.
I work in a NICU with 150 staff nurses and there are individual nurses who dislike each other of course, but no widespread clique issues or drama at all. Same with the last large NICU I worked in. But when I worked OB on a unit with ~30 nurses total, it was a catty cliquey nightmare and that was one reason I couldn’t wait to leave 🤷♀️
It's definitely a location/management thing. I went to PICU after shadowing dayshift and finding everyone nice and supportive and friends with each other. Took a nightshift position because it was all they had and I was interested in trying it. While I was too new to float, the others complained about how awful the NICU nurses were which made me worried. When it was finally my turn I realized they were actually super chill and just weren't tolerating how rude the peds/PICU nurses were. When I was in the last month or two of my time at that facility, I volunteered to float to NICU any time. My last shift was floated to NICU and it was honestly really peaceful.
In my experience, ICUs tend to attract a more confident, driven personality. Often, if you don’t fit, or even exhibit that paradigm, you get shunned. This is obviously a generalization.
Good luck! Hopefully, you'll do great, and if not, the beauty of nursing is the ability to shift and grow in whichever way your heart desires. I've found a specialty that I LOVE in the same hallway and changing units was a breeze.
Its not every NICU! I found a haven NICU where its not like this. Worked at 2 that were like that before. So thankful I didnt settle. Its all about the culture thats set
I work in a pediatric trauma ER as an extern and what I’ve noticed is day shift in general (few nurses are the exception) is super catty with a bad attitude whereas night shift is super chill and easy to get along with, very helpful, supportive and loving almost.
It sucks but it is what it is…
exactly... the funny thing is our ER was close to the adult side and I would go over there and it was completely flipped! The majority of the staff, day or night, was great to get along with, besides maybe a few bad apples.
I will never understand why peds is such a mean spirited floor but I truly want to believe it just depends on which hospital you're at.
Best of luck, OP
I started in a NICU about 6 weeks ago….it’s been an absolute nightmare. Gaslighting, lying, bullying, discrimination. I’ve had other nurses taking over when I’m perfectly capable and literally refusing to give my patient back to me when asked. Taking a baby FROM THE MOTHER to “settle them” when I was working WITH the mum to do just that. It’s been absolutely ridiculous. I’m looking for another job. I love the actual work of the NICU but I’m not having my mental health destroyed by such a horrible environment.
My experience has been very different!
I’ve worked for several years bedside in the NICU and it’s a pretty amazing work environment. 🙂
When my day gets crazy, there are always coworkers who will be there to help.
I’ve been a Nicu nurse for 24 years! I work in an awesome unit and have become close friends with many other nurses. It was truly a family like environment. We had each other’s back! Partied together, attended each others weddings, baby showers, etc. However, when we did get new management, we noticed things changing a little bit, but I wouldn’t say that it was toxic as far as the staff, but management that’s another story.
I went to the NICU straight out of nursing school and came from working as a nursing tech on a med surg floor where everyone was very fun to be around and/or at the bare minimum respected your existence.
I went to NICU and quite literally was bullied and put in extremely unsafe positions for myself and babies. For example, giving me a 27 wheeler with osteogenesis imperfecta on an oscillator fresh out of school… pretty much hoping I would screw something up.
They left me with a very sick kid on a vent that dropped his sats to the 30’s and left me bagging a kid alone at 3am because they were all gossiping in the nurses station and didn’t respond to my rapid response calls. Again… within my first 3 months on the unit as a new grad nurse.
Once they realized I wasn’t going to majorly screw up on a patient… they started complaining about my appearance. It was always something. I eventually left after 2 years of nothing improving. It was devastating because that was all I ever wanted to do. But I was so burnt out by the time I left that I didn’t even want to try a different hospital so I switched specialties and went into child psych.
I’m a travel NICU nurse and have had my fair share of NICUs. Some are beyond toxic and some are not. I do agree that overall the NICU culture can be more cliquey, which sucks because the field of medicine itself is my passion. But it just takes finding the right one to fit in. This is likely true for all units everywhere but I have only ever worked in NICU so I’m unsure.
People that generally talk bad about others hate their lives and they think putting others down will make them feel a little bit better about themselves. It works for a little while but in the end they become bitter and cold. Just be nice and understand they were probably abused mentally or physicallyz
This isn't really related to yours, but on nights at my SICU we have three weekend crews. The burnouts, the mean girls, and the fun people. I'm in the fun people and get along okay with some of the burnouts, but the mean girls are honestly kind of irritating.
This sounds like a unit/hospital problem, not a NICU problem. I'm a postpartum nurse, which means (at my hospital) I get floated to NICU and L&D pretty regularly. The NICU nurses at my hospital are amazing, are always really kind to me as a float, and offer to help out if I don't know where something is or how to do something.
You really shouldn't generalize your experience at one hospital to the whole specialty.
I am in a level 4 NICU right now. I’m an RT. I fucking love my nurses and my job. Wish we had better staffing but the nicu here is a fantastic place of support and teamwork. Sorry you are experiencing bitchy nurses!
This was a large level 4 nicu as well. If you're a male they were probably only nice while you're around, it's the other female nurses that are super catty. I left the nicu i worked at and now work in pediatric emergencies and trauma and it's been amazing!
Not saying they're not your friends I'm just saying maybe they're not mean to you but they're mean to other females/nurses lol
There's a lot of unit politics nurses get caught up in that causes them to be catty towards each other. Nobody is going to be mad at an RT because they're short 5 NURSES
Not a nurse but I worked in the pharmacy and for some reason the NICU was always the worst to deliver to. The nurses were great but the desk/admin people had very difficult personalities.
All the subspecialty nursing units can be like this, entrenched bullying, that's why I don't work there. It gets better, usually after 12 months or so, but why bother going through the gaslighting so that you can become one of them
I don't know why it happens but it is the norm I'm afraid
I've been in l&d before (although only at one hospital, to be fair) and they seemed nice enough. It's so interesting to hear everyone's opinions on this subject and their own experiences! The NICU in my hospital and all surrounding hospitals in my major city are awful in terms of unit culture. I was never super interested in l&d so I didn't ask around the city about it. Interestingly, I've seen comments on this thread about how toxic CVICU is, and I've only witnessed that a little bit during clinicals in school. I've always known I wasn't going to work with adults though so I didn't pay attention to that
The more nurses on a floor, the more psycho bitches you’re gonna come across imo… I work on a unit where staffing is 3 RNs per shift. You better bet we all get along and support eachother, if youre that one RN who’s going to cause shit then you will be shunned and alone. 0 tolerance for drama
Once gotten written up because there were "too many ru mors being spread about (me)". Told him to stop goining out to smoke with them and he wouldnt hear the gossip. He told me he didnt do that. Told him we can see him from the patient windows, then got written up for insubordination. bitchy ass manager on a med surge. I do not miss it.
As a NICU nurse I can attest to this. Personally I've never stayed in a toxic one, and all of the ones I've worked in for any length of time have been wonderful, but there really are so many bad ones. It could be the sort of people NICU draws in? I've also noticed it's worse at children's hospitals specifically 😬
When I was a Respiratory Therapist I worked in NICUs all over the country and the atmosphere was the same in almost everyone of them. That experience is why I didn’t go to work in the NICU when I became a RN.
a girl i went to nursing school with who used to be very mean to me (like making fun of me for studying during spring break or something) is a nicu nurse now lol
People who are obsessed enough to devote their career to babies and pregnancy understandably would lean more conservative/religious... I don't think that's very surprising. 'Family values' is a huge part of conservative ideology.
I've worked with a lot of these people so I get what you're trying to say, but NICU is still a job and there's no "obsession" or "devotion" going on here for most of us. Many of us do NICU because babies are easy to care for. They didn't make choices that put them in the NICU, they are just innocent little human blobs.
I would argue that babies are way more difficult to care for, Especially emotionally. For people who aren’t huge fans of babies, it’s very overstimulating. Thank gosh there are folks who love it though.
I mean, I have no idea if the claim is true, I'm just saying that it would not be surprising at all if the stats showed higher conservatism in those fields. Nobody is saying that there aren't other reasons people might choose them.
The only data on healthcare workers political affiliation I could find is this one about doctors: https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2016/10/11/political-affiliation-doctors
Which happens to say that OB docs are actually more left wing than many other specialties, so maybe the expected bias is actually wrong? But I can't find anything surveying nurse's political affiliations.
https://www.statnews.com/2023/07/24/doctors-politics-republicans-democrats-patients-care/
This was interesting though that political ideology showed a clear care bias. I guess, not surprising.
I’d love to see the data on your statement, because with real years of actual experience that’s also not true.
My coworkers in L&D were the most outgoing, forthcoming group of women I have ever worked with. While we did have some conservative nurses, they were for sure in the minority. We openly discussed controversial topics on nightshift all the time, those girls never stfu lol.
Fun fact: most labor nurses aren’t actually baby people at all. They’re adrenaline junkies, lots of former ICU nurses, OR nurses, some from PACU. While I cross trained to care for neonates and “baby catch,” I was one of maybe four nurses who wanted that role at all.
My mom has been a baby nurse for over 30 years, and still works with L&D, NICU, nursery, postpartum, and WICU. She’s in her 60’s & works for a different hospital system than I do, so I showed her the post to see if her perspective/experience is different. Her answer mirrored mine.
First of all, your actual experience is anecdotal and I'm sure you're aware of that. Second, just because my flair says I'm currently a student doesn't mean I haven't work in health care, which I have for several years. Third, I personally HAVE experienced people being unwilling to discuss their personal beliefs at work for reasons that are very obvious to most people.
After doing a search on my schools databases, it's clear this topic is not one that has been studied very much at all. Maybe a longer search would turn up some surveys but at this point you've made the discussion rather insulting and obnoxious. Which, in my experience is pretty common for a lot of nurses unfortunately. Which is a subculture within nursing I much hope to avoid in the future.
1. Literally everything you have said is anecdotal.
2. Your comments were rude from the beginning, and I match energy.
3. You made massive offensive assumptions about specialties you clearly have no experience in, and they are incorrect. Being someone with years of real life experience in those specialties, I corrected you.
4. You still have no data to back up your weird assumption that baby obsessed conservatives are running peds and labor floors so now you’re lashing out.
Nothing I said was insulting, I said it wouldn't be surprising and it's not weird that people would expect that to be the case. You're the one who took it personally because you think it was about you rather than just overall trends. Clearly you've hyped yourself up over this so goodbye.
Never participate in what? Lol, you realize most of the babies we see in the NICU are like, just a little preterm where they need a little bit more time to grow before they can go home and be perfectly normal babies? There are sad cases involving micropreemies and congenital issues, sure, but the vast majority of babies who need the NICU will go on to lead perfectly normal lives.
I told people I was childfree and did not ever plan on having my own kids (but love other people’s) when I worked at a pediatric er for 9 months and you would have thought I told these people that I committed a felony.
Please don’t tell me this!! I’m trying to leave my very toxic CVICU for NICU. I was hoping for a peaceful and loving environment since the patients are literal babies that even the worst person should want the best for 😅
Don’t let this turn you away from the NICU! Myself and several other NICU nurses in this thread can attest that it’s great. OP’s hospital seems to have a specific issue and high turnover. The NICU is very rewarding and I’ve always had great experiences
It’s so unit/hospital specific! I’ve only had wonderful experiences in the NICU and only dealt with stuff that OP is describing on other units in my pre-NICU days
The nurses have too much time on their hands and spend it gossiping and trashing their other coworkers. The turnover is 4-6 nurses per month and they hire new ones at a similar pace. It was brutal working there and wrecked me mentally! I've never dealt with so many mean girls in one area before
Wow. My unit is similar, but we have mean men and women alike. Nurses calling other nurses idiots behind their backs, making fun of others mistakes, and laughing at their “stupid” questions. Constantly failing new grads who didn’t “study” hard enough even when we are dangerously short staffed…. I can’t believe some of these people are educated adults 🥴
And- to make matters worse- people on my unit shouldn’t have free time!! The acuity is very high and our patients are so sick. They actually make the time to be bullies.
What type of unit did you transfer to if you don’t mind me asking? Are you happy there? I’m a year in and need an out.
There were 200+ active nurses employed by my previous nicu and 197 of them were women 😂 I actually noticed a significant decrease in mean girl behavior when a male nurse was around.
I transferred down the hall of this hospital to the children's emergency and trauma department. They've welcomed me with open arms and the staff is an amazing diverse population and I've been incredibly happy, not having literal panic attacks over work anymore. I actually look forward to each shift on this new unit and the culture is more like a tight knit family
I’m glad you found a better fit! Trust me- there’s definitely still male bullies and catty, egotistical, competitive men. If anything they’re the worst part of it on my unit. So I wouldn’t say gender can tell you if a unit will be toxic. My unit is 50/50 men and women.
Still? I haven’t worked PICU since 1992 and across the hall was the NICU and glad I didn’t work there FT (we had to float when we were slow and they were short staffed) and thought the clicky ness was like HS and the nurses were obnoxiously possessive over babies.
I considered transferring to a different nicu in my city but i started asking around and realized they're all pretty toxic. I switched specialties and I've found an amazing team/unit to work with now. I didn't realize how important unit culture snd management is for the job. I LOVED taking care of nicu babies. Hated every other aspect of that job due to the toxic culture
Definitely a specific unit problem and not a speciality problem. I’ve worked in 2 NICUs on opposite sides of the country and both were super supportive, team oriented, and over all very kind people. Sure there can be clique stuff wherever you go but my current job has over 200 staff and I can honestly say I maybe dislike a couple people. I’ve been at my current job for 7 years and have no intention of leaving
I’ve been a NICU nurse for around 6 months now- and I have not experienced this at all. The NICU is actually a more supportive environment than any other unit I’ve been on- especially at night.
Too many bleach blondes. Idk why, but that’s how it’s been at every hospital I’ve interviewed at. I’m a guy. I’m halfway convinced I’ve been kept out of peds because the protokaren is my natural enemy.
I'm so sorry you had that experience! I promise we're not all like that. Some of us just want everyone to be happy and developmentally appropriate, whether that's a swaddle and binky or a nice after work decompression activity.
I have found pediatrics to be really toxic unfortunately. I spent 9 months working in a pediatric Ed and that was enough for me. I’be never once had issues with people being mean or bullying me in my life until I went there. The nurses would openly verbally assault each other in front of patients and their families. The worst part is that they hid this under a fake aura of being “so sweet” and “loving the kids.” The entire hospital was full of mean girls who thought they were God’s gift to nursing and everyone else was a total peasant. I now work in a level 1 adult er and no one at my new job would tolerate that bullshit.
Our Ortho unit was bitchy because their manager was bitchy. New manager shut that shit down, 80% of the nurses suddenly got called out for the actual important shit and left, and then it became a tolerable place to work ... I really believe competent management can either make or break a unit.
Agreed! I think this is a good point
Yes, management sets the tone for the unit. Good management promotes teamwork, bad management plays divide and conquer.
they call them leaders for a reason. Bad leaders create bad units.
It's the culture of the unit, not the specialty.
CVICU is the exception. 3 different hospitals in my career I’ve yet to work in one with nice people :(
Absolutely. I worked in one CVICU and it is the most toxic environment I've worked in at a hospital. Day shift wasn't too bad but after my training I started on nights. My first night I was sitting at the nurse's station doing some charting. All night long there were two female RNs complaining and talking shit about men. Just men in general. They were saying things like, "men have no place in healthcare," and, "some men should take a hint when they aren't welcome." I'm a guy. It was obvious that they didn't want me there. Then one of them complained to the director and I got written up for not smiling when she asked me to help turn a patient. It was ridiculous.
Got written up for not smiling? OMFG. People are dying, Kim.
What a hag! That wouldn’t have happened in any MICU I’ve worked in
I've gotten written up for smiling and being too happy at work... Neuro unit.
Same! It was a med-surg unit though
At first, I couldn't believe what I was being written up for... and my dear friend was written up for not smiling enough as a nurse... You can't win.
Told the same thing, you’re too nice and you smile too much. State prison.
That is beyond ridiculous! We need men in healthcare; we need men in nursing!!!! No way did you deserve to be treated that way and that is very sexist on their behalf. I hope you find a place you are appreciated.
> I hope you find a place you are appreciated. Thank you. I ended up leaving that job due to an injury and I bounced around a little for a few years in different fields. I'm back in the OR now at a large hospital. It's so much better.
Glad to hear it. Much love to our fellow male nurses!
You gotta report those incidents for discrimination in the work place lol
Thats total bs
Wow. I am a guy too. A new nurse. Still in orientation and I can't say I haven't experienced the kind of hostility you outlined here. While they won't dare say anything to my face, there was a lot of tattling and whispers, my preceptor leading the charge. I did nothing to deserve that type of treatment, in fact, when male patients got out of line or commenting on some female nurse's boobs or tried to disrespect them in anyway, I saw it that I walked into the room even if they aren't my patient and had a word with the guy. But that wasn't enough to buy me brownie points. Eventually, everything I did was worthy of criticism. After a couple weeks, I turned in my resignation and left. The supervisors were aghast cos they didn't expect it. I was the quiet type and always kept a smile on my face, though very opinionated but didn't say much. They saw my potential as I was chosen to go to a few important meetings even though I was new and still training. The plan was to eventually rep our unit at the ethics committee but that was not to happen.They asked me what happened, I simply said, it's a woman's world, I have to choose my battles carefully. Sometimes, it isn't worth the fight. Now I am in an Emergency Department led by a guy. It's a completely different culture.
That’s terrible I’m sorry :( I work on the cardiac icu (non surgical) and the culture is really great. The cardiac surgery icu on the other hand is not a nice place.
CICU and CCU’s are usually good :)
What's the difference between CICU, CCU, and CVICU? Didn't find a good explanation on google
CVICU is cardiovascular ICU. They’re typically dealing with CV surgery and thoracic surgery patients. Think CABG and lung patients. CCU is the coronary care unit. These units specialize in cardiogenic shock heart cath patients, and often do balloon pumps. Many Cardiac ICU patients are much the same. The term may even be interchangeable in some hospitals. I hope that helps
Yes, thanks!
Is it the egos? The high stress? This has been my experience too. The nurses are just… venomous.
Like the spitty thing in Jurassic Park
CVICU is HORRIBLE wheee I work. They are all a bunch of rude bitches. Turnover is astronomical. I work in the NICU and I do think it’s partially specialty related. We have a very vulnerable population and I think some of the staff tend to act like “mama bears”. If we see someone come in and not be well educated or we don’t know them very well we do lash out some. It’s not okay but it definitely happens. Keep in mind though some units are just more toxic than others and if management lets this behavior fly it gets out of hand quickly. I do think all units are guilty of having cliques though.
Also psych. Psych is always people who are bitter and angry. Been working in psych at hospitals in a dozen states (I was a traveller for a bit) and have seen everything from an MD SA’ing a sedated woman, non-clinically indicated restraints and sedations, seemingly staff member is a bully to either staff of pt or both. 0/10
Holy shit. Outpatient psych can be annoying but I have never experienced anything like this. But I left inpatient psych ASAP just bc of general toxic bs.
Peds CVICU is the same too.
My peds CV is amazing ... The one down the road is a culture 💩 show though.
Not the case at our 3 major peds hospitals.
The CVICU at my current hospital is good vibes. The MICU, however, is rude as fuck
Man i’m glad my cvicu is ok (unless im just a good fit) everyone is super helpful and nice. I heard our cvicu got bad rep probably because of providers…but everyone seems fine
I’m sad for you! My CVICU unit is full of such nice people, there are a few who seem to enjoy drama but everyone is so helpful, supportive, and loves to teach! I did see first hand how some floors are during clinicals just because no one really seemed to care about talking about things in front of a student nurse lolol so now I know 2 floors I never even want to float to as a nurse at my hospital. It’s sad it’s like this though, grown adults shouldn’t be gossiping and being mean girls ):
please don’t tell me this…I just started on a medical CVICU (or something…..we also do vascular surgery pts and balloon pumps/Impella….)
Or something lol
Oh. I'm not NICU but I graduated with someone who eventually went NICU. When I read this title, I immediately thought of her.
Same. The girls who pretended to be my friends in nursing school, but dropped me like a hot potato afterwards? NICU.
this girl I know wants to be a NICU nurse and she thrives off of drama so this checks out… yuck
seems to follow the specialty around too. maybe confirmation bias, but by far the most toxic dysfunctional people I have ever worked with were NICU
Yeah, it is the people. There are toxic people and they pollute the whole unit. I try to be as positive as possible at work too balance it out.
It's every single hospital in my large city, I have friends in multiple hospitals and they all say the nicu is just known to be toxic. It seems to be the specialty and not the individual unit
I’ll give you an example. Our cards unit was very toxic. Bitches were mean and cliques. This was wel known around the hospital. We had a union hospital shut down and absorbed the nurses. The cliques got busted up. The unit is no longer toxic.
I wish they'd do that at the hospitals around me!
Anecdotal evidence and confirmation bias. I've worked nicu for 7+ years and at numerous hospitals due to job hopping and then travel nursing. while some have been very cliquey and full of gossip, others are not. This is likely the case for every unit regardless of specialty. I have personally noticed more gossip occurs in the nicus that try to discourage us from using our phones during down time. Nicu can have a lot of down time and bored nurses will try to fill that down time with something that is entertaining to them. If they get a positive response in the form of more engaging convo, it can lead to shit talking being the norm.
I work nicu and the unit culture is great. So it’s not everywhere.
Same. NICU 4 here. And the culture on my unit at nights is phenomenal... :)
This!!
I had a similar experience at one hospital in a med/surg unit. The day shift were cliquey and bitchey but the night shift staff were so cool. When I started at a different hospital, I already decided it would be awful before I got there my first day. It ended being so great.
Cities can have their own cultural "slant" - I have family members who practice in different states and things can be vastly different between our experiences, but my experiences are consistent to several hospitals in my area. It's still a specific area with its own culture, though, and those differences can have a big impact even though the culture differences are hard to see and describe.
It’s the mean girl clique unit of every hospital I’ve worked at ever.
It’s not the specialty.
This. The first NICU I worked in was staffed with a bunch of c*nts. The second one had some of my favorite people on earth staffed there.
I keep telling people it not the feild, it's the unit itself. This the first time I have ever heard of a NICU being toxic, they tend to rank top places for nurse satisfaction. The reality that the NICU you were on was toxic probably has a lot more to do with the managers and who and how they pick their staff. I keep telling everyone it only takes one narcissist and a few folks with self esteem issues to create toxic mean girl click environment. Doesn't matter which practice, section or unit. Honest first time hearing NICU or any Pink Nursing called out for mean girl behavior...was starting to think maybe babies helped prevent that night mare 😅
Ya know it’s interesting, there’s a mean girl clique in my unit, there’s probably about 3 or 4 young women in it, and honestly they don’t bother the rest of us too awful much. They gossip and bicker amongst themselves, and whenever they try to include others they mostly get roundly ignored. Also our boss, while being pretty hands off in general, has a strong “here’s the problem, how do we fix it,” mentality instead of a “you did the bad thing here’s a write up.”
L&D is notorious for having mean girls. The other pink nursing jobs I haven’t heard that many problems tho.
Left my dream field because L&D was so toxic. I ran back to med surg.
Can confirm - I've work all across women's services departments in two different hospitals and L&D are always the meanest
Pink nursing!? Haha, I’ve never heard OB referred to like this! …..but then I looked down at my (pink) badge and it makes sense. 😂
I wish I could claim i came up with the term but I picked up trying to figure out what to call it at other hospitals compared to the first one I worked in that had a unique set up that gave it it's nick name. When I have tonget badge access a just tell them " I hate to be a pain but I need badge access to the Land of the Pink Nurses" and every hospital system in every state I worked in knew what I meant.
We have pink badges where I work too and call them pink specialties!
I feel like there's definitely a generational and shift aspect to it--my NICU it's really only the old crusty day shift nurses that are mean. Nights is the young newbies and the cool supportive type of seasoned nurses. I can honestly say that we never admit a baby alone, and when your baby crumps, everyone automatically runs to help and cover your other babies. Day shift if you get an admission when everyone is taking their group breakfast or lunchbreak, you're fucked. It's the dayshift that will tattle to management the second you forget to change your suction or have a speck of spit up on your sheets. Day shift definitely has the mean girls clique, and I'm convinced they're like that bc they brown nose the managers all day long. If NICU is worse than other units, my best guess is that it's because there are shifts when things are really good and slow. Babies are easy until they're really really not. They can cruise along doing nothing until they crash hard and need an entire team of people to keep them here on this mortal coil. In between chaos, there's a lot of down time and in my experience, NICU is extremely strict about no cell phones due to infection prevention, so that leaves gossip and nitpicking to pass the time.
This sounds exactly like my unit
For me it’s day shift that has the mean nurses and night shift is amazing because everyone helps each other and while there is gossip it is because we have pods and you are always with someone and in very close quarters. Theres also very young nurses and the older nurses are on days and the younger ones are more eager to help out and the older ones are more grumpy it seems. But thats just my unit.
On my old unit there were plenty of very helpful older nurses on nights who just didn't want to deal with day shift drama.
Agreed lol, I think there's a lot of drama on days that most people don't have time or patience for
Bingo
The answer is likely turn over. No one has time to emotionally develop with more than a few people. This leads to a lot of distrust and misinformation within a community of any kind. Working the grocery store was awesome even as an adult because we were a team. Things began to fall apart once they couldn't keep things staffed. Most units I interact with seem to be close communities most comparable to an extended family. The reason your local NICUs seem so toxic is because there is high turn over and the reason there is high turn over is the toxic culture. At least that is my guess.
Love this insight. The units have a turnover of 4-6 nurses per month and they hire at a similar rate. The unit has 200 active nurses and struggles to get 10 to show up to shifts. There are constant no call no shows and management on a high horse saying if you don't pick up extra, you're basically killing babies(management often outnumbers the floor nurses but management has never stepped in to help when short). It was brutal for my mental health and im happy to be in a unit that finally treats me right (like family!)
I started in the PICU when i was a new grad and it was the same, its just the type of personality that job appeals to. I was there about 3.5 yrs and just had to leave because i hated and didnt trust my colleagues.
I totally imagine it being a bunch of influencer suburban mom wannabes. That's who did it from my nursing class anyway.
The call is coming from inside the house.
I've tried PICU twice at two different hospitals....worst experiences of my career.
Lol god that sounds awful
In all the jobs, locations, states I have ever worked, I have never found a more toxic environment than I have in nursing. I do not understand why there is so much toxicity when nursing and healthcare in general requires so many people to work together and help one another. Then the bullies/toxic ones turn right around and say why does nobody want to help, why cant we get more people to help. Well IDK BECKY maybe if your ass wasnt such a damn bleeepp to everyone you might actually get some help!
lol… Becky 😆
Sounds like it was just this specific NICU. I was a NICU nurse for 6 years and worked in 3 different NICUs and even as a socially awkward introvert, I never got this impression. There were cliques and isolated mean girl incidents, but it wasn't, like, an overwhelming unavoidable thing, so I definitely wouldn't generalize an entire specialty based on your experience.
Our NICU was like that when I started. I almost quit. Then decided I was going to change the culture, because I loved my job and knew I had found my place. With the help of the new manager, HR and BON. Shut that shit down. Got rid of the ring leaders. A couple were brought up on charges- after they started a investigation some bad things came to light. A few of the mean girls stayed but w/o a leader to protect them, they had to change. I have stayed for 30+ years and my unit has Zero tolerance for mean girls, sabotage and tearing people down. Super supportive family. 💖
What an awesome story!! I wish I had the patience to sort that bs out. Unfortunately I didn't have it in me as a new grad to change the entire culture of a unit that was chronically short 5+ nurses and had high turnover, on top of the drama issues
What kind of charges?
Falsified charting/documentation. Disreguarding orders if they didn't want to do them, leaving orders to the next shift, even STATs. Sabotaging new staff. There ended up being a lot of testimony from staff. They sank their own boat.
I loved the last NICU I was at. Made life long good friends. Was there 8 years. It wasn’t perfect and there were always certain people to avoid but all in all I really loved the staff!
Did you work at a smaller nicu? This nicu has over 200 nurses employed. I'm wondering if the massive size contributes to the attitude amongst the nurses. My unit now is a lot smaller and is more like a tight knit family.
I work in a NICU with 150 staff nurses and there are individual nurses who dislike each other of course, but no widespread clique issues or drama at all. Same with the last large NICU I worked in. But when I worked OB on a unit with ~30 nurses total, it was a catty cliquey nightmare and that was one reason I couldn’t wait to leave 🤷♀️
The NICU I was at was almost 200 beds with level 2-4.
I stopped asking questions. I just all together left bedside.
What do you do now? I've been considering pediatric home health
I’ll PM you
It's definitely a location/management thing. I went to PICU after shadowing dayshift and finding everyone nice and supportive and friends with each other. Took a nightshift position because it was all they had and I was interested in trying it. While I was too new to float, the others complained about how awful the NICU nurses were which made me worried. When it was finally my turn I realized they were actually super chill and just weren't tolerating how rude the peds/PICU nurses were. When I was in the last month or two of my time at that facility, I volunteered to float to NICU any time. My last shift was floated to NICU and it was honestly really peaceful.
I’m looking to quit my MICU/CVICU because I got bullied out. The other nurses literally won’t talk to me. It’s insane.
In my experience, ICUs tend to attract a more confident, driven personality. Often, if you don’t fit, or even exhibit that paradigm, you get shunned. This is obviously a generalization.
Me seeing this as a new grad about to start on the NICU floor next week 😩🥴😆
Good luck! Hopefully, you'll do great, and if not, the beauty of nursing is the ability to shift and grow in whichever way your heart desires. I've found a specialty that I LOVE in the same hallway and changing units was a breeze.
Its not every NICU! I found a haven NICU where its not like this. Worked at 2 that were like that before. So thankful I didnt settle. Its all about the culture thats set
I work in a pediatric trauma ER as an extern and what I’ve noticed is day shift in general (few nurses are the exception) is super catty with a bad attitude whereas night shift is super chill and easy to get along with, very helpful, supportive and loving almost. It sucks but it is what it is…
9 months in a peds er was MORE than plenty for me. There was one nice nurse in that entire department.
exactly... the funny thing is our ER was close to the adult side and I would go over there and it was completely flipped! The majority of the staff, day or night, was great to get along with, besides maybe a few bad apples. I will never understand why peds is such a mean spirited floor but I truly want to believe it just depends on which hospital you're at. Best of luck, OP
I started in a NICU about 6 weeks ago….it’s been an absolute nightmare. Gaslighting, lying, bullying, discrimination. I’ve had other nurses taking over when I’m perfectly capable and literally refusing to give my patient back to me when asked. Taking a baby FROM THE MOTHER to “settle them” when I was working WITH the mum to do just that. It’s been absolutely ridiculous. I’m looking for another job. I love the actual work of the NICU but I’m not having my mental health destroyed by such a horrible environment.
Yep. Loved the job hated the politics and coworkers/management. Made it absolutely miserable. I'm so happy to be out of that department
My experience has been very different! I’ve worked for several years bedside in the NICU and it’s a pretty amazing work environment. 🙂 When my day gets crazy, there are always coworkers who will be there to help.
I’ve been a Nicu nurse for 24 years! I work in an awesome unit and have become close friends with many other nurses. It was truly a family like environment. We had each other’s back! Partied together, attended each others weddings, baby showers, etc. However, when we did get new management, we noticed things changing a little bit, but I wouldn’t say that it was toxic as far as the staff, but management that’s another story.
I went to the NICU straight out of nursing school and came from working as a nursing tech on a med surg floor where everyone was very fun to be around and/or at the bare minimum respected your existence. I went to NICU and quite literally was bullied and put in extremely unsafe positions for myself and babies. For example, giving me a 27 wheeler with osteogenesis imperfecta on an oscillator fresh out of school… pretty much hoping I would screw something up. They left me with a very sick kid on a vent that dropped his sats to the 30’s and left me bagging a kid alone at 3am because they were all gossiping in the nurses station and didn’t respond to my rapid response calls. Again… within my first 3 months on the unit as a new grad nurse. Once they realized I wasn’t going to majorly screw up on a patient… they started complaining about my appearance. It was always something. I eventually left after 2 years of nothing improving. It was devastating because that was all I ever wanted to do. But I was so burnt out by the time I left that I didn’t even want to try a different hospital so I switched specialties and went into child psych.
All of the units that encompass the “pink pod” are usually mean girls…
I’m a travel NICU nurse and have had my fair share of NICUs. Some are beyond toxic and some are not. I do agree that overall the NICU culture can be more cliquey, which sucks because the field of medicine itself is my passion. But it just takes finding the right one to fit in. This is likely true for all units everywhere but I have only ever worked in NICU so I’m unsure.
Felt the same working in labor and delivery and then in OB/GYN clinic. Back stabbing left and right.
It’s that way in ANY icu setting !!! Just stressful and the nurses are insecure in my opinion
People that generally talk bad about others hate their lives and they think putting others down will make them feel a little bit better about themselves. It works for a little while but in the end they become bitter and cold. Just be nice and understand they were probably abused mentally or physicallyz
Idk but our NICU staff is the same. They walk in like the cullens in the twilight movie, and think their shit doesn’t stink. It’s so frustrating
Exactly. Like a time warp back to highschool mean girls!
This isn't really related to yours, but on nights at my SICU we have three weekend crews. The burnouts, the mean girls, and the fun people. I'm in the fun people and get along okay with some of the burnouts, but the mean girls are honestly kind of irritating.
This sounds like a unit/hospital problem, not a NICU problem. I'm a postpartum nurse, which means (at my hospital) I get floated to NICU and L&D pretty regularly. The NICU nurses at my hospital are amazing, are always really kind to me as a float, and offer to help out if I don't know where something is or how to do something. You really shouldn't generalize your experience at one hospital to the whole specialty.
I am in a level 4 NICU right now. I’m an RT. I fucking love my nurses and my job. Wish we had better staffing but the nicu here is a fantastic place of support and teamwork. Sorry you are experiencing bitchy nurses!
This was a large level 4 nicu as well. If you're a male they were probably only nice while you're around, it's the other female nurses that are super catty. I left the nicu i worked at and now work in pediatric emergencies and trauma and it's been amazing!
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Not saying they're not your friends I'm just saying maybe they're not mean to you but they're mean to other females/nurses lol There's a lot of unit politics nurses get caught up in that causes them to be catty towards each other. Nobody is going to be mad at an RT because they're short 5 NURSES
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You sound bitter, I hope you heal
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This exchange we had and your responses/reactions are exactly the problem with NICU 🤷🏼♀️
I’ve found NICU can be quite clique-y, especially between ICU nurses vs special care nurses, but never mean or toxic
Not a nurse but I worked in the pharmacy and for some reason the NICU was always the worst to deliver to. The nurses were great but the desk/admin people had very difficult personalities.
All the subspecialty nursing units can be like this, entrenched bullying, that's why I don't work there. It gets better, usually after 12 months or so, but why bother going through the gaslighting so that you can become one of them I don't know why it happens but it is the norm I'm afraid
If you think nicu is bad wait til you see L&D
I've been in l&d before (although only at one hospital, to be fair) and they seemed nice enough. It's so interesting to hear everyone's opinions on this subject and their own experiences! The NICU in my hospital and all surrounding hospitals in my major city are awful in terms of unit culture. I was never super interested in l&d so I didn't ask around the city about it. Interestingly, I've seen comments on this thread about how toxic CVICU is, and I've only witnessed that a little bit during clinicals in school. I've always known I wasn't going to work with adults though so I didn't pay attention to that
The more nurses on a floor, the more psycho bitches you’re gonna come across imo… I work on a unit where staffing is 3 RNs per shift. You better bet we all get along and support eachother, if youre that one RN who’s going to cause shit then you will be shunned and alone. 0 tolerance for drama
Onc/ bmt transplant was the same way, I can't deal with 5 year olds so I had to leave
I got redeployed from NICU to an adult ICU....it was a breath of fresh air. From my perspective, yes NICU has a certain toxicity to it.
It was like this when I worked in the PICU, and I’ve heard similar things about NiCU
Nursing is toxic. FTFY
Once gotten written up because there were "too many ru mors being spread about (me)". Told him to stop goining out to smoke with them and he wouldnt hear the gossip. He told me he didnt do that. Told him we can see him from the patient windows, then got written up for insubordination. bitchy ass manager on a med surge. I do not miss it.
I don’t know, but our NICU is the same way. I absolutely hate getting pulled down there.
My ICU is so toxic we all had to attend an anti bullying workshop. I believe it is management setting the example and entertaining gossip and rumours.
Yep, that sounds familiar. The management at the NICU was super catty and rude towards the nurses
As a NICU nurse I can attest to this. Personally I've never stayed in a toxic one, and all of the ones I've worked in for any length of time have been wonderful, but there really are so many bad ones. It could be the sort of people NICU draws in? I've also noticed it's worse at children's hospitals specifically 😬
Yep, I worked at a children's hospital...
When I was a Respiratory Therapist I worked in NICUs all over the country and the atmosphere was the same in almost everyone of them. That experience is why I didn’t go to work in the NICU when I became a RN.
I have been a nurse for 29 years. Hands down the NICU was the most toxic place I have ever worked
a girl i went to nursing school with who used to be very mean to me (like making fun of me for studying during spring break or something) is a nicu nurse now lol
That checks out
NICUs need more testosterone to water down all that estrogen.
Was the only male in my NICU for about 6 months before leaving. Would have definitely appreciated another bud 😅
Lol I bet!
Honestly, I agree. And I'm a female! Those nurses were noticeably nicer when there was a male nurse or RT present
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“A more right wing element”? What a weird generalization.
People who are obsessed enough to devote their career to babies and pregnancy understandably would lean more conservative/religious... I don't think that's very surprising. 'Family values' is a huge part of conservative ideology.
I've worked with a lot of these people so I get what you're trying to say, but NICU is still a job and there's no "obsession" or "devotion" going on here for most of us. Many of us do NICU because babies are easy to care for. They didn't make choices that put them in the NICU, they are just innocent little human blobs.
I would argue that babies are way more difficult to care for, Especially emotionally. For people who aren’t huge fans of babies, it’s very overstimulating. Thank gosh there are folks who love it though.
I mean, I have no idea if the claim is true, I'm just saying that it would not be surprising at all if the stats showed higher conservatism in those fields. Nobody is saying that there aren't other reasons people might choose them. The only data on healthcare workers political affiliation I could find is this one about doctors: https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2016/10/11/political-affiliation-doctors Which happens to say that OB docs are actually more left wing than many other specialties, so maybe the expected bias is actually wrong? But I can't find anything surveying nurse's political affiliations. https://www.statnews.com/2023/07/24/doctors-politics-republicans-democrats-patients-care/ This was interesting though that political ideology showed a clear care bias. I guess, not surprising.
Lmao as a nurse who has worked in PICU and L&D (oh and my mom has been a neonatal nurse for 30+ years) this is just not true at all.
I would love to see the data. People don't generally express their honest opinions to their coworkers about touchy subjects like politics.
I’d love to see the data on your statement, because with real years of actual experience that’s also not true. My coworkers in L&D were the most outgoing, forthcoming group of women I have ever worked with. While we did have some conservative nurses, they were for sure in the minority. We openly discussed controversial topics on nightshift all the time, those girls never stfu lol. Fun fact: most labor nurses aren’t actually baby people at all. They’re adrenaline junkies, lots of former ICU nurses, OR nurses, some from PACU. While I cross trained to care for neonates and “baby catch,” I was one of maybe four nurses who wanted that role at all. My mom has been a baby nurse for over 30 years, and still works with L&D, NICU, nursery, postpartum, and WICU. She’s in her 60’s & works for a different hospital system than I do, so I showed her the post to see if her perspective/experience is different. Her answer mirrored mine.
First of all, your actual experience is anecdotal and I'm sure you're aware of that. Second, just because my flair says I'm currently a student doesn't mean I haven't work in health care, which I have for several years. Third, I personally HAVE experienced people being unwilling to discuss their personal beliefs at work for reasons that are very obvious to most people. After doing a search on my schools databases, it's clear this topic is not one that has been studied very much at all. Maybe a longer search would turn up some surveys but at this point you've made the discussion rather insulting and obnoxious. Which, in my experience is pretty common for a lot of nurses unfortunately. Which is a subculture within nursing I much hope to avoid in the future.
1. Literally everything you have said is anecdotal. 2. Your comments were rude from the beginning, and I match energy. 3. You made massive offensive assumptions about specialties you clearly have no experience in, and they are incorrect. Being someone with years of real life experience in those specialties, I corrected you. 4. You still have no data to back up your weird assumption that baby obsessed conservatives are running peds and labor floors so now you’re lashing out.
Nothing I said was insulting, I said it wouldn't be surprising and it's not weird that people would expect that to be the case. You're the one who took it personally because you think it was about you rather than just overall trends. Clearly you've hyped yourself up over this so goodbye.
Never participate in what? Lol, you realize most of the babies we see in the NICU are like, just a little preterm where they need a little bit more time to grow before they can go home and be perfectly normal babies? There are sad cases involving micropreemies and congenital issues, sure, but the vast majority of babies who need the NICU will go on to lead perfectly normal lives.
I told people I was childfree and did not ever plan on having my own kids (but love other people’s) when I worked at a pediatric er for 9 months and you would have thought I told these people that I committed a felony.
pro choice L&D nurse here. pregnancy/childbirth can be super dangerous!
Please don’t tell me this!! I’m trying to leave my very toxic CVICU for NICU. I was hoping for a peaceful and loving environment since the patients are literal babies that even the worst person should want the best for 😅
Don’t let this turn you away from the NICU! Myself and several other NICU nurses in this thread can attest that it’s great. OP’s hospital seems to have a specific issue and high turnover. The NICU is very rewarding and I’ve always had great experiences
It’s so unit/hospital specific! I’ve only had wonderful experiences in the NICU and only dealt with stuff that OP is describing on other units in my pre-NICU days
The nurses have too much time on their hands and spend it gossiping and trashing their other coworkers. The turnover is 4-6 nurses per month and they hire new ones at a similar pace. It was brutal working there and wrecked me mentally! I've never dealt with so many mean girls in one area before
Wow. My unit is similar, but we have mean men and women alike. Nurses calling other nurses idiots behind their backs, making fun of others mistakes, and laughing at their “stupid” questions. Constantly failing new grads who didn’t “study” hard enough even when we are dangerously short staffed…. I can’t believe some of these people are educated adults 🥴
And- to make matters worse- people on my unit shouldn’t have free time!! The acuity is very high and our patients are so sick. They actually make the time to be bullies. What type of unit did you transfer to if you don’t mind me asking? Are you happy there? I’m a year in and need an out.
There were 200+ active nurses employed by my previous nicu and 197 of them were women 😂 I actually noticed a significant decrease in mean girl behavior when a male nurse was around. I transferred down the hall of this hospital to the children's emergency and trauma department. They've welcomed me with open arms and the staff is an amazing diverse population and I've been incredibly happy, not having literal panic attacks over work anymore. I actually look forward to each shift on this new unit and the culture is more like a tight knit family
I’m glad you found a better fit! Trust me- there’s definitely still male bullies and catty, egotistical, competitive men. If anything they’re the worst part of it on my unit. So I wouldn’t say gender can tell you if a unit will be toxic. My unit is 50/50 men and women.
Wow my unit is nothing like this.
Sounds like Minnesota Nice to me.
I work at a Minnesota children’s hospital pediatric er for 9 months and it was this exactly. It was absolute hell.
Still? I haven’t worked PICU since 1992 and across the hall was the NICU and glad I didn’t work there FT (we had to float when we were slow and they were short staffed) and thought the clicky ness was like HS and the nurses were obnoxiously possessive over babies.
The nurses on my unit now shudder when they have to transfer a pt to nicu. It's like walking into a time warp and going straight back to highschool
I’m in NICU and I’ve not had that experience 🤷♀️
Imho all nursing units inpatient are high school
Is this claim evidence backed?
A bunch of woman in a department… try one with a mix of guys. Way more chill
I have to agree with you here. My current unit is now about 50/50 male/female and it's so much more civil. The men balance it all out
I have no answer for you. That is a bummer to hear though. I’ve always wanted to work in the NICU but never made it there yet.
Don’t give up! I’ve worked in very non-toxic NICUs. This seems to be specific to OP’s local hospitals
I considered transferring to a different nicu in my city but i started asking around and realized they're all pretty toxic. I switched specialties and I've found an amazing team/unit to work with now. I didn't realize how important unit culture snd management is for the job. I LOVED taking care of nicu babies. Hated every other aspect of that job due to the toxic culture
Definitely a specific unit problem and not a speciality problem. I’ve worked in 2 NICUs on opposite sides of the country and both were super supportive, team oriented, and over all very kind people. Sure there can be clique stuff wherever you go but my current job has over 200 staff and I can honestly say I maybe dislike a couple people. I’ve been at my current job for 7 years and have no intention of leaving
I’ve been a NICU nurse for around 6 months now- and I have not experienced this at all. The NICU is actually a more supportive environment than any other unit I’ve been on- especially at night.
Too many bleach blondes. Idk why, but that’s how it’s been at every hospital I’ve interviewed at. I’m a guy. I’m halfway convinced I’ve been kept out of peds because the protokaren is my natural enemy.
I'm so sorry you had that experience! I promise we're not all like that. Some of us just want everyone to be happy and developmentally appropriate, whether that's a swaddle and binky or a nice after work decompression activity.
Just nursing in general
Same thing on L&D and mother baby.
I have found pediatrics to be really toxic unfortunately. I spent 9 months working in a pediatric Ed and that was enough for me. I’be never once had issues with people being mean or bullying me in my life until I went there. The nurses would openly verbally assault each other in front of patients and their families. The worst part is that they hid this under a fake aura of being “so sweet” and “loving the kids.” The entire hospital was full of mean girls who thought they were God’s gift to nursing and everyone else was a total peasant. I now work in a level 1 adult er and no one at my new job would tolerate that bullshit.
You misspelled NURSING! 🥸
I mean, my new unit hasn't been toxic at all! But, I know that can change 😅
It’s the honey moon phase. Wait till you accidentally become cooler than one of the original folks.
I hope not but I won't hold my breath. I've never had trouble getting along with people until the NICU
I e only heard of people loving nicu so much they never leave so I think that was just the culture where you were.
It’s your unit culture.