Another stress that is perhaps even more difficult to deal with is co-worker related. This can be very hurtful and evokes other feelings such as anger that one has to deal with. This is, also, something that is hard to understand.
Nurses are very competitive. Instead of working together in a difficult situation or a crisis with a patient, nurses sometimes work against each other. Each one was the credit for solving the problem. Each one wants the recognition. Nurses need to work together and to a degree they do, but that competitiveness still comes through.
Another issue that is related to this is even more daunting. If there is a problem nurses are among the first to blame another nurse. If a nurse is blamed for something and disclipined most of the other nurses are just glad that it wasn’t them rather than come to the nurses’s side and support her either by going to administration in her defense of at least giving her emotional support. This I really don’t understand. Why are nurses so out to get each other. Why don’t they support each other; not blame each other.
Nursing is tough job. Why don’t nurses help each other? Why don’t nurses support each other? Are we so insecure about ourselves or so beaten down that we can’t support each other? Where do nurses go to get this support? What alternatives do nurses have?