On Cannibalism in Nursing (from 2017)

Well, it's happened again.  Another well-meaning but seriously misguided nurse has casually thrown into a note to her professor "blah blah blah nurses eat their young blah blah blah...". I want to shake her senseless and I don't even know her.

Nurses eat their young.  I christen it NETY and it is henceforth the phrase that dares not speak its name.  This is the kickoff of a worldwide anti-NETY movement.  I won't stop until victory is declared and we have achieved eradication.

Can I get an AMEN from those of you who would like to see this phrase instantly euthanized?  Within the last two years, I have heard a full professor introduce an academic talk and use this phrase as part of the rationale for why her study was important.  AND SHE WAS SERIOUS.

Let me tell you what invoking this phrase conveys to me.  You dislike yourself and your chosen profession.  Your critical thinking skills are missing in action.   You need to choose another career field.  One where you can hopefully be happier.  But of course, choices like this are not made by those who are getting satisfaction from their own victimization.

The old saw "NETY" should have been outlawed by every nursing organization years ago.  Toxic doesn't begin to describe it.  It's a uniquely perverse combination of self hatred, misogyny, and a huge dose of naivete of the power structures inherent in all career fields.

Bullies exist in every walk of life.  Some bullies get into power, and these are the people who pick on the powerless.  Shame on them.  They should all be shown the door, and sooner rather than later. They are toxic in the workplace.  Are they especially prevalent in nursing?  No one who has experienced the dynamics of hierarchy in other professions would ever claim this.  So stop spreading around nasty, snarky cliches about your own people.

I challenge all nurses and other who would invoke this phrase: seek out the evidence that nursing as a profession is characterized by  more power imbalances and more exploitation of junior members within its ranks than other professions.  Take all the time you need, you won't find it.  That's because it isn't there.  You are saying this for reasons unsupported by evidence.  You are branding yourself "not a deep thinker".  You owe us better than that.

We need a new pledge.  The Nightingale pledge is great as far as it goes, but when do we pledge to respect ourselves and our colleagues?