In Retrospect
Posted by anjasmith on September 14, 2009
Writing my first proper post-africa blog has proven to be more of a challenge than I initially expected. Numerous attempts proved futile and my frustration had been exerted in the form of work and studies, and more work.
So having deposited myself a handsome sum into my savings account, the nagging feeling that I had neglected somthing kept nagging at me, and when I happened to turn to my blog one fine saturday afternoon I noticed the conspicously boring looking post that I had previously left to amuse whatever tiny audience I had managed to gather over these past years.
The truth is, I have been searching for a proper catharsis for quite some time now, though I hardly think that writing a blog post could be termed as proper catharsis. The first time catharsis came up after my Zambia episode was when a friend and I were tryting to figure out the mechanisms of culture shock. The thing is, My trip to Zambia failed to induce symptoms of true culture shock because being native to South Africa, Zambia is sort of closer to home than say…Finland. But Zambia is not quite the same. So in a sense I had a sort of reverse shock, which people usually experience when they return home from a lengthy stay abroad. And yet it was not a true reverse shock because my time ‘back home’ was a determined time period and I knew I would be returning to my new settlement, back abroad. And the question I have been trying to face these days is what kin dof a shock am I going through now that I’m back in Finland?
Forgive the over-analysing and over-thinking, but I seem to have a special talent in that.
So this will then have to serve as my first proper post-Zambia post, and I hope that my passion for scribbling down my amusing thoughts here on this tiny blog will not completely dry up.
Health Tip: Accusing nurses of gossiping may prove to be very dangerous.
DOMINO said
“Accusing nurses of gossiping may prove to be very dangerous.”
Yes. Particularly if it’s true.
anjasmith said
It is true. speaking from experience here. The ‘g’-word amongst the nurses is like Macbeth in the theatres. They know they do but admitting to it is a sacriledge.
DOMINO said
I once read an article about bullying in nursing culture that was called “Why Do Nurses Eat Their Own Young?”.
It was talking about the tendency to compete destructively rather than mentor productively.
DOMINO said
Oh, here it is…
http://www.amazon.com/Ending-Nurse-Nurse-Hostility-Nurses/dp/1578397618
DOMINO said
And that phrase garners hundreds of hits on Google. Obviously, it’s a very prevalent problem — and it is unfortunate that there is such an unwillingness to acknowledge and deal with it head-on.
anjasmith said
Oh my goodness! sounds like its really bad, or at least over there in america. I don’t know if the problem is abundant here in Finland, but I do know that nursing students, and nurses who come from non-finnish backgrounds to suffer alienation and mistreatment by their finnish colleagues, and the problem is currently being adressed by the unions, as far as I know.
I guess, the environment is a tricky one because of the honogenous concentration of female staff. Too much estrogen can cook a nasty brew. Girls are known to be masters in the ability of inflicting psychological oppression, and in a group of females, you need only one alpha female to create a pack of lionesses faithful to their leader. I have seen this on some wards were women follow and worship every opinion held by one member of the staff who happens to have a very strong personality. However, other wards are very pleasant and open. Women can be viscious, especially toward each other. Oh the vanity!
DOMINO said
Well, yes — but in spite of women’s foibles, this seems to be more of a systemic problem. The inefficiencies of the bureaucratic structure create a pressure cooker environment wherein the worst characteristics of people tend to manifest.
Certainly, women do have their own methods of bullying, but men do it too, in similar contexts.
This article explains the phenomenon under the heading “Why Organisational Institutional Bullying occurs even though individuals within these places are mostly innocent.”
http://ezinearticles.com/?Exposed-at-Last—Organisational-and-Institutional-Bullying&id=2005612
gema said
How interesting. As I was searching articles for our assignment in Leadership, I came across a study on this very topic. The researchers conducted an international survey on bullying in the workplace and that aforementioned phrase was used.
The article was; Johnston, M. Phanhtharath, P. & Jackson, B. (2009) The Bullying Aspect of
Workplace Violence in Nursing, Critical Care Nursing Quarterly, 32:4. 287 – 295