Horizontal hostility; nurses at their worst

I am tired of the way some nurses treat others.  Much is written about the culture of hostility, especially toward new or young nurses.  Nurses are said to 'eat their young', a reference to the terrible way that older nurses traditionally behave toward younger, and/or less experienced nurses.  It is short-sighted, unproductive, and hurtful.  But a cruel reality, I have found.  

As older nurses retire in droves or reduce hours and work load, the need for well-trained replacements is both obvious and critical.  But, these nurses apparently don't/won't/can't see the sad irony in the old undercutting behavior.  Refuse to train replacements?  Well, there's no one to cover days off and vacation shifts.  Make life miserable for new hires?  Why would anyone stick around?  Act like a cut-throat bitch?  Surprise!  You are the last person anyone wants to help or  relieve.  I mean, this is Professional conduct 101 stuff.  But, alas, many nurses still don't get it.  

I have been a nurse for less than four years, despite being in my fifties.  I came to nursing late, partly out of a delayed lifelong passion, partly out of the economic reality of having a retired husband and three kids in college.  Despite my age, I am a newbie.  And I have felt the pain and inflicted damage of being such.  I have shed so many tears and spent so many sleepless nights, I feel like I should have more to show for the agony, other than the ability to doggedly return to work again the next day.  Why do we nurses do this to one another?

Are we so bitchy, insecure, cruel, dysfunctional, competitive (or whatever) that we are unable to overcome to urge to eviscerate our coworkers?  Are we so sure of our own superiority that we cannot tolerate anything less than perfect performance?  Have we forgotten what is it like to be new to a unit, to want to be accepted, to want to be recognized, to need to be mentored?  Apparently so.  At least, that is what I have experienced time and again as I search for a home unit with good people.

I have found good people in my current unit.  They are my support, my touchstones, my foundation.  I return because of them. But, there is a core of four or five disruptive individuals who repeatedly rely on old tactics to fuel their egos and the rumor mill.  They flare, they judge, they manipulate, they create problems for coworkers.  Everyone acknowledges their inappropriate and destructive behavior.  But, they continue their reign of terror and negativity.  Why?