Reconsidering PA because of horizontal violence on my floor.

[bnooney]

I want to become a PA and am currently a nurse technician in a hospital to get my hours. I am experiencing major passive aggressiveness between nurses and myself, so much so that I want to quit my job and am considering whether being a PA is right for me. What is your experience with passive aggressiveness in the workplace? I know it is expected in healthcare but really how much is there within the PA field. I want to work in the emergency room and I have worked in the ED before. I found everyone to be pleasant, not passive aggressive, and over all I loved the environment. I absolutely HATE the floor I am on though. 12 hour shifts of everyone stressed out and mad. I'm not sure if it's just with the nursing field or what. Just coming to work is stressful because I literally hate my floor. Everyone is just so stressed out. 

[EMEDPA]

this is really facility dependent. I left a former job when the ER nurses refused to accept ANY pa order without md cosig. They were trying to get all the slots transitioned to NPs to build themselves job prospects. it worked. we all quit and they could only hire nps. 5 yrs later a new hospital chief of staff fired all the nps and hired PAs back and said any nurse refusing legitimate pa orders would be fired. I heard it is a good place to work now but have not been back.

[bnooney]

Thank you for your response! This makes me feel better. The hospital I am working at has a known reputation of hiring health care professionals with some sort of...idk how to put it but the thought that they deserve "the gold spoon," so to speak. My mother worked in the same organization and left after only 2 months of working because of the passive aggressiveness within the company. Now I know one organization I do not want to be apart of. This response makes me have hope. All I want to be is a PA and treat patients in the ED and it's sad that this floor and hospital is making me feel like this. 

[DiggySRNA]

Do not let this deter you from your end goal. If and when it comes to that point you can no longer put up with it, leave. Find a different hospital. How I view work life is that, if I cannot enjoy my coworkers' presence and my job slowly becomes a chore, it's time for me to go. 

[delco714]

this is really facility dependent. I left a former job when the ER nurses refused to accept ANY pa order without md cosig. They were trying to get all the slots transitioned to NPs to build themselves job prospects. it worked. we all quit and they could only hire nps. 5 yrs later a new hospital chief of staff fired all the nps and hired PAs back and said any nurse refusing legitimate pa orders would be fired. I heard it is a good place to work now but have not been back.

Ditto. I hardly ever have issues with any nurse.. In fact I like most I come across in my hospital, and I get deserved (perhaps more) respect. Could be as much as FLOOR dependent, but unfortunately the union usually sets the tone for the nursing in general

[MT2PA]

This also happens in MANY if not all fields of work, not just healthcare and not just nurses. Learn to do your best and not let others dictate your work ethic and quality.

[Glorious_Ignoramus]

It is critical that you learn to work with people who don't like you, and with those whom you do not like.  This is a simple matter of professionalism, i.e., putting your bad blood in a vial before you show up at work.  There are those I work with who disgust me both in their personal lives and at work, however, all co-workers get the same courteous treatment.  In order to facilitate professional relationships and thus stay on task, I treat everyone as equal.  I wasn't always like this, the Marines beat it into me, but I can tell you it has served me very, very well.

[Nonlegit]

This also happens in MANY if not all fields of work, not just healthcare and not just nurses. Learn to do your best and not let others dictate your work ethic and quality.

 

Took the words out of my mouth. To expand, you must remember that a floor on a hospital has all kinds of hierarchies. This is no different than anywhere else. Any random day you could have execs (true bigwigs) walking the floor, attending physicians and "tenured" nurses, floor and medical leadership (a watered down combo of the first two), students, and with many ancillary services as varied as construction contractors to bio researchers. You all have to get along.

 

You are likely working for a fairly large corporation, if not one of the largest employers in the geographical area. You will have hazing, unfairness, management BS, horizontal aggression, impropriety (hopefully just a little - or less), and probably all kinds of other crap I'm forgetting.

 

The standard advice here is to learn how to thrive in the working world. Everything everyone said above is good. However, I will say that there is no shame in keeping your head low. My father is a corporate exec and he always stressed this before anything else. Figure out a way to go about your day not interacting much with those that get you down, and make sure that others opinion of you is positive, or indifferent. Learn how to play the game. Office politics is real, and realistically its better to play along (nicely) as opposed to bullheadedly fighting it, or worse, giving up.

[fyrelight74]

I've seen it occur among the MAs in my office but I am mostly separated from it as the PA.  My SP and I are separated from all the drama, thank God.  I hate drama.  I just want my staff doing what they need to be doing, working well together and not arguing about it.  I think that's part of the benefit of being a provider in a small office.  The staff automatically separate themselves and their drama from you, although many of them may come to you to complain about each other.  I generally direct them to our manager so I can stay out of it.

[PAGuy55]

Like everyone has said, this happens everywhere. At every job. Happened at the Dollar Tree I worked at when I was 16 to the ER I work in now. Avoid the drama, smile, do your job.