If you ask the average US citizen to describe the nursing profession, you will likely hear adjectives such as caring, nurturing, empathetic, compassionate, and selfless. However, if you ask a newly graduated nurse in a hospital setting to describe their workplace experience, you will likely hear adjectives such as degrading, mean, aggressive, rude, intimidating, and bully. The phrase “nurses eat their young,” coined in 1986 by Judith Meissner,1  describes how more experienced nurses treat newly graduated nurses or nurses new to the work environment.

How can nursing, one of the most respected professions in the United States, have such conflicting descriptions? According to a 2019 Gallup poll, 85% of Americans rate nurses as having high levels of honesty and ethics.2  In fact, nurses have held the top Gallup poll rating for most trusted profession for the past 18 years. Nonetheless, it is common for...

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