You need a team.
If you’re a nurse, you need a good team. There is no way to survive on any unit without team work.
When you interview for a position, ask about the team work. How well do the nurses work together? How is bullying handled?
You’ll want to know these things. A unit that isn’t a team is a unit headed to hell in a hand basket. It can’t function effectively. Trust me, I’ve worked on units where it was every nurse for themselves. It was horrible. There were nurses that wouldn’t help with the new admission. It took an act of congress to get someone to help clean up a patient. Gossip spread like wild fire. Nurses ate their young for fun. It was two years of nursing that I never want to experience again. From that point on I decided I would not waste time on units like that.
That’s why finding about the team mentality is so important. You want to work somewhere with nurses that work together. You want to work in an environment that is not toxic. Regardless of how the shift is going, you want to know your coworkers have your back.
Nursing isn’t a solo job. We aren’t super heroes that can handle everything on our own. We have to depend on each other to get through the day. When the shift is nuts, you want someone you can vent to. When you aren’t able to save the patient, you want someone that understands the pain. You’ll want someone you can ask questions to that won’t make you feel like you’re stupid. You’ll want a team.
Do yourself a favor, find a good place to work.
Barely Sane Nurse 
And yep ! I’ve realized the ‘every man for himself mentality’ means I’ve got to move on!’
So, I’m gonna share…
Had a small window of time in our pre op area where my patients were ready. I picked up a pone call and heard my coworker had her second arrival.
This co worker was still working on her first patient. I checked the Interview notes done a week earlier ( a phone call to this surgery patient.) She reported a bad experience at her last visit to our hospital.
I’m like, ‘ dang, let’s try to change this…she’s waiting out front to come back…needs to use the rest room , and…we need urine for a pregnancy test ( she’s only 43).
I tell my coworker my thoughts, say ” hey, I’ll get your lady in a surgery gown, settled in bed, monitors on”. She says “O.K”
I do these things, even start the I.V, then say, ” going to go get some charting done.”
An hour later is when this patient went to the OR.
The OR calls and says to my coworker ” she didn’t have her SCD’s on her legs”
This coworker comes to me and says ” Hey, thanks for helping me and stuff but you forgot to put her SCD’s on.”
My response ” Listen carefully to the beginning of that sentence.”
Her last words ” Don’t want to fight, you just forgot something”.
33 years as a nurse – helped others so much that I’ve sometimes gotten behind on my own work – where I’m at now, I’m noticing the inbalance.
Your timely post struck a nerve.
And oh, wonderful question you suggest people ask at an interview !:
How is the bullying handled?
Thank you so much for this post!
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She really had a lot of nerve! You did so much to help but the only thing she noticed is what you missed. People like that are toxic and never realize it. I worked with a nurse like that at a prior job (that was hell). I learned to be helpful without letting myself be a doormat. The bullying question came from the same hell of a workplace where bullying was just glossed over. I promised myself I’m not going anywhere near a unit that tolerates bullying. Nurses go through enough as it is!
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so true!!! i’ve also worked on units where it felt isolating and lonely, and instead of being helpful, co-nurses were judgemental and gossiped instead. how do you suggest nurses ask about it on an interview… how would you phrase that to a potential manager?
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I think I asked something like, “how would you describe the team dynamic on your unit?” It made them have to explain to me how well their unit works together.
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