Conflict between baby boomers & Gen X'rs?

I agree with you about the boomers fighting, but I think voting with my feet along with other nurses (boomers and genXXers alike) will force standards to be raised. I sometimes think the only way things are ever going to get better here is if people realize that nurses are leaving for greener pastures all the time. And I have to say GenXers are involved in demanding change as well. I didn't just sit on my butt during the last contract negotiations listening to MTV or something .

<I have to say GenXers are involved in demanding change as well. I didn't just sit on my butt during the last contract>


Thats one of the things I didnt like about this article. It makes the new nurses sound as though they dont care about any of that & just flit from job to job. Its not a fair portrayal. Another thing, the way these authors sound, we should all be quiet about whats going on our facilities - dont let anyone hear about the realities - dont inform the public because that will turn students off to nursing. I cant even believe they actually said that if we didnt talk about it, there would be more recruits coming in. So we should keep it our dirty little secret & lead the lambs to the slaughter? Maybe if the employers did what they have to do, there would be more recruits coming in, no?

I agree one hundred percent jt! It makes the boomers sound like a bunch of has beens and the genXers like a group with the attention span of a gnat. And I HATE the idea that we should lure new recruits in by painting an unrealistic portrait of the nursing profession. How long do people think they'll stay if we do that?

say what, jt?? "not so rough" is NOT what I keep hearing on this bb. Is it just rough for the boomers now, not the Xers? <confused>


I guess I'm an early Xer (1967), although I've never thought of myself as a boomer or an Xer. I also don't see the roles of nursing as this article describes. Is it just different where I work? On my shift, we have two boomers, the rest xers. One boomer is the Lead Nurse and a constant issue of late is her lack of concern over staffing. She is the ONLY nurse who could care less what about ratio's. Her opinion, "I've done my time." Hello? Aren't you STILL employed and being paid just like everyone else, just more?? The other boomer is old to the profession, new to pediatrics. I won't go into my opinion on her.

Now, I'm constantly seeing blame of the shape of nursing placed on nurses. "Nurses will not stand up for themselves, etc." Now, people are agreeing with this article? Nowhere, in nursing school or when I accepted a job as a nurse, did I sign an agreement that I would assume responsibility for management flaws. Why on earth should I accept the responsibility for working OT, when management doesn't care about MY needs? IF staffing needs were met by management; IF management would see that nurses have what they deserve, then there would be NO staffing issues. There are plenty of people out there who want to help the sick; there's just a shortage of those who want to sacrifice themselves in the process. I didn't marry my job, I married my husband. I didn't set out to form a family with my job... I have no intentions of spending more time at my job than I do with my family. Are the CEO's and nursing directors coming in on THEIR day off to help with staffing shortages?

Perhaps gen X is just what nursing needs. Hopefully the lackadaisical attitude we are described of having is JUST what nursing needs to FORCE the hands of the decision makers. The alternative for damn sure hasn't worked.

yep, I am an xer..and proud of it.

"This personal sense of devaluation is poisonous to a workforce that must remain strong. "
According to Webster: Devaluation-to lay waste; ravage; destroy. To overwhelm.
Now which is a PERSONAL sense of devaluation?? To be forced by management to work on your day off, or to stand firm and do what YOU choose by FORCING management to become active?

I just don't see it...

Pensions aren't reliable anyways. Just because a company offers it now doesn't mean that it will be available when your time is up. Parents of Boomers know this quite well, I'm sure.

Also, I guess, and maybe this can be attritubed to the nursing problem, but I don't feel the need or desire to take any more active role than I do. I work, provide for myself and my husband, and stay current in nursing news as best I can. But, as Tracy said, it is not my job to tackle management issues. Staffing and no retention incentives are management problems that management has to deal with. Lack of loyality to any organization is something management should deal with. They KNOW what will retain nurses, but they just try to let it run for as long as they possibly can....hell, one could argue that the Boomers who consistently accept this environment by working overtime and days off are part of the apathetic management philosophy....

I think that blaming job-hopping for the lack of nursing pensions is putting the cart before the horse. In any case, I believe the traditional pension, as well as the traditional long-term employment relationship is dead, in all but a few highly unionized sectors of the economy. The switch from defined benefit, or traditional pensions, to defined contribution (401k/403b accounts) that place the risk of not accumulating adequate savings for retirement on employees rather than employers, has its roots in the 1970's when many for-profit companies in all sectors of the economy were being pounded by high inflation, increased foreign competition, etc. Job-hopping can actually be seen, in economic terms , as a rational response by employees to a changed employment environment. I doubt that we can revive the traditional pension. For-profit companies that institute them will see their stock prices plunge. And, ultimately, that's what it's all about for these companies. Even nonprofits cannot afford to implement them, considering the demographic wave of retiring baby boomers that they would assume responsibility for.

What I am trying to say is that I believe that perceived changes in values (ie job-hopping, me-first behavior) are actually due to demographic changes. We can, ironically, blame GenX values on the very existence of the baby boomers, and their parents, the WW II generation. The social costs we as a society are currently absorbing for the WWII generation- ie Medicare,Social Security- and will somehow have to assume for the huge number of boomers is putting the squeeze on the X'er's. This can also be seen in the fact that since Social Security was established, the number of elderly living below the poverty line has plunged, while the number of children living below the poverty line has jumped dramatically.

I was born on the tail end of the baby boom. Personally, I think the X'ers are smart to accumulate as much money as possible before the full social costs of the aging boomer generation hit and increase taxes. (Assuming they are saving and investing a substantial portion of this money). I think we all need to see ourselves as employees and investors now. Changes that hurt us as employees such as the absence of traditional pensions, benefit us as investors.

I've enjoyed this discussion!

First of all, I'm an Xer and proud of it! I look at my mother and my grandmother, and I can see the difference in how we all view the world based on the time era we were raised. My grandmother is subservient to everyone, has worked like a dog, and can't think for herself. My mother even balances her checkbook and pays her bills because she can't manage to do that for herself. My mother obeys her husband and sacrificed (not compromised) most of her life. Now she is depressed and miserable. I think the boomer women were sold a line of bull that they need to be superwomen and have a juggle careers and families. Does my generation have a Me-first attitude? Maybe because we watched our elders put off Life so they could work like dogs.

This is not to say Xer's are selfish. Many are involved in community soup kitchens, church activities, pro-union activities to improve the work environment, etc. We can be active in our communities since we set boundries between personal and professional life. I don't want to have it all. I am a nurse to support my family, but my family comes first.

I would walk if I was mandated overtime (except in a natural disaster) because I have a greater loyalty and responsibility to my family than my employer. Since I only work 1-2 days a week, I do not have the energy or desire to become an activist to improve working conditions that other nurses put up with "for the good of the unit". If I don't like the situation, and it doesn't work for me, I won't accept the job. These problems are MANAGEMENT'S problems.

People use words like "loyalty" and "good work ethic", but they really mean self-sacrifice. Are the older nurses angry because they sacrificed and we are not willing to do so? Don't get me wrong, my favorite mentors are boomers; they also do not allow themselves to be doormats. Let us not let them pit us against each other. So what was the issue again?

>say what, jt?? "not so rough" is NOT what I keep hearing on this bb. Is it just rough for the boomers now, not the Xers? <confused><

I wasnt the one who said new nurses dont have it so hard. I think they have it different - it is hard but in a different way. I was repeating what another poster had said. She said the "new nurses dont have it so rough" & I think she meant comparatively speaking - compared to what nurses had to do in the past. Yes it is hard today but I remember being a new nurse, with no orientation to speak of, thrown into a ward full of 16 indigent & prisoner males with just me, my med cart, chart rack & a mop. No safety precautions for me. No help. When I expressed my concern about this, the DON told me to consider it "Baptism by Fire". Whatever that means - to this day I dont know. There was one chair for me in there & when an MD came in to see the pt, he got the chair.... and didnt say a word to me about our pts. We didnt get experience pay, education pay, time or pay to attend seminars, nor did we get tuition reimbursement & we only had 2 weeks vacation. We have those things better now because Boomer nurses did not accept it. They stayed where they were & fought to make those things available. I dont htink its fair to say Boomer nurses to make us sound like we are just a bunch of co-dependent enablers who stay in one place & "just accept" the unacceptable. It is obvious both that old & new nurses have peers who think they are obligated to give their lives to their employer and demand nothing in return.

<I would walk if I was mandated overtime (except in a natural disaster) because I have a greater loyalty and responsibility to my family than my employer. Since I only work 1-2 days a week, I do not have the energy or desire to become an activist to improve working conditions that other nurses put up with "for the good of the unit". If I don't like the situation, and it doesn't work for me, I won't accept the job. These problems are MANAGEMENT'S problems.......Are the older nurses angry because they sacrificed and we are not willing to do so? Don't get me wrong, my favorite mentors are boomers; they also do not allow themselves to be doormats. Let us not let them pit us against each other. So what was the issue again? >


The thing that I fail to see (maybe because my 44 y/o eyes dont work so well anymore) is what happens when you walk away from that one? If one employer is mandating overtime, the next employer is doing the same thing. And so is the next one & all of them in your area. So what are you walking away TO??? We're already seeing what happens when we do that. Nurses leave nursing. And a couple of UAPs are hired to take their place. Nobody stops forcing nurses to do overtime because nurses left. Thats not managements problem - thats OUR problem. Job hopping doesnt solve it. Its self-deafeating to not be an activist & improve your own working conditions & just keep looking for that perfect employer. Nothing changes, no improvements are made. People who think that just because a facility is losing nurses it will suddenly make its working conditions wonderful havent been reading the news. That is not what happens, in case anyone hasnt noticed. So we can go from facility to facility & will just find the same abuses until we stop running, become pro-active, & start fighting back. It has nothing to dowith loyalty to anyone but oneself. Older nurses are not angry because they may have "sacrificed" - I certainly didnt sacrifice anything. I have not seen the majority of nurses of my generation being doormats either (although there are some nurses who are of all ages in this "helping" profession.) Older nurses are angry because they see new nurses coming in saying the same thing you just did: I do not have the energy or desire to become an activist to improve working conditions.
That doesnt bode well for the profession and certainly could be the death of all that we Boomers have already achieved for nurses.

The issue was that an article inferred that older nurses are burnt out, codependent, enablers who complain too much and its all our fault that young people arent coming into the nursing profession.

Am I the only one that STILL doesn't have all these things? Jt, the argument here has become that IF we leave for better conditions, nothing improves. I, nor do I think the majority of nurses, get education pay, time OR pay to attend seminars..and most STILL only have 2 weeks vacation. I do get tuition reimbursement that will pay for about 50% of a years worth of education. I think your argument should be what you and the nurses in your are has managed to gain by being activist; not what boomers did for nursing as a whole. I'm not saying boomers didn't do anything positive for nursing, I'm just saying these things you're crediting boomers for still cease to exsist in much of nursing.

I don't think the argument here should be boomer vs xer. I think it should be management vs nurse. But of course, this article was written by and for management and as long as you can keep the tribe fighting amongst itself, the chief doesn't have to fear being exposed for his shortcomings.