Hi, I need to vent and maybe ask for advice. I’m a new grad in the ER and have been at my current hospital for a little over 3 months. I LOVE being an ER nurse.
Before graduating, I worked as a nurse extern for almost 2 years in a huge level 1 ER in the city that was also a teaching hospital. I worked closely with the nurses, the overwhelming majority were friendly and eager to teach. In general, I very rarely heard much gossip or super mean-spirited talk about patients or other coworkers. I made a handful of really good friends amongst the nurses there that I still see and talk to regularly.
Currently, I’m at a smaller, level-nothing ER about 45 minutes outside the city in a big suburb. From what I can tell so far, the culture here SUCKS.
A lot of the nurses and other staff take every opportunity to sit around the nurse’s station gossiping- (And it’s a very busy ER, I truly don’t know how they spend that much time just yapping)- about patients, other coworkers, you name it. Just today I overheard one of my fellow new grad’s (we’ll call her S) preceptor talking shit about S to the unit educator and another nurse, so loudly that I overheard the conversation standing at least 7 feet away. It wasn’t constructive feedback either, it was just mean.
This is a professional culture shock to me. My previous hospital was nothing like this. Is my current hospital more the norm and I just had an exceptionally good experience at my previous hospital? Is there anything little new grad me can do to change or influence this in a positive direction, other than just not participate in the gossip and be kind and hope it rubs off on someone? I love working in the ER but I really don’t like where I’m currently working. I won’t look for other opportunities until I’ve got some decent experience under my belt and I need to figure out how to navigate this environment until then.
If you read this far, appreciate ya :)