generation gap among nurses

Nurses General Nursing

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i have noticed that the those who are baby boomers are more timid compared to the gen x. gen x nurses are assertive of their rights while the baby boomers are passive..

have u experienced "generation gap" or differences between the people u work with?:idea:

The longer I've been in nursing the more I live to pi$$ off some doc for being a jerk. I truly enjoy it. I have actually said to a doc on the phone "well gee, I'm sorry you have a patient in the hospital at night, but..." Pay back is b%^&*!

In my area, the new RN's are are leaving in droves. I have friends who work in ICU's that they cannot staff properly. The young ones don't stay. It's only us old fools that put up and do it.

I've been in nursing 33 years and still remember telling docs what I would and would not do during my first year in nursing. I think you're probably correct in that we have more endurance than the young guys, lol!

I tend to not pi$$ people (docs and nurses...well actually everyone!) off so much as provide them an "educational moment" due to what I understand is "dumbness" on their part! This is done from a moment of kindness on my part, otherwise I'd just let them continue on embarASSing themselves.

But then I tend to get warnings from the mods, lol! But it works out in the end. Last week a psychologist took my wife and I out to dinner to discuss what she could do to change people's perceptions of her. Women also take me out shopping to give them a brutually honest opinion of clothes. I just can't get them into Victoria's Secrets...yet!

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Specializes in Emergency.
I've been in nursing 33 years and still remember telling docs what I would and would not do during my first year in nursing. I think you're probably correct in that we have more endurance than the young guys, lol!

I tend to not pi$$ people (docs and nurses...well actually everyone!) off so much as provide them an "educational moment" due to what I understand is "dumbness" on their part! This is done from a moment of kindness on my part, otherwise I'd just let them continue on embarASSing themselves.

But then I tend to get warnings from the mods, lol! But it works out in the end. Last week a psychologist took my wife and I out to dinner to discuss what she could do to change people's perceptions of her. Women also take me out shopping to give them a brutually honest opinion of clothes. I just can't get them into Victoria's Secrets...yet!

"An educational moment." I love it! I will be incorporating that phrase into my practice. :D

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.
I was born in 1958 which makes me a boomer. No one would ever think of me as passive - lol.

I think you need to allow for individual traits.

1959 boomer here. I am definately not passive, but I choose my battles. Sometimes I put up with more than other people, just because things roll off of me easy and I don't sweat the small stuff.

I have no trouble communicating.

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Specializes in Education, Acute, Med/Surg, Tele, etc.

I tend to see assertiveness or passiveness not in age, but in personality and individual experiences in nursing. Also it seems to happen more in certain fields than others as well.

Now I can be seen as a real Patient Advocate and generally assertive some days, but I am funny and keep things real as I get my job done to the best of my ability. Somedays it is a mad house and I can be a really overdone assertive person protecting my patients and myself from harmful workloads (like saying I can't take the admit a charge is about to throw at me when I have two phones to my ears waiting for one doc on one end, talking to one on the other...which happened two nights ago!).

Then some days I am rather tired and laid back and hide my assertiveness unless needed.

I find that can be true of many....

So three factors to me, personality/personal experience, what area of nursing, and the work day itself, seem to determine this as I see it more than an age.

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Hey Wait A Minute! I'm A Baby Boomer And Also Very Assertive. I Worked As An E.r. Nurse But More Importantly, I Was And All Of You Also Are Patient Advocates. If A Nurse Is Looking Out For A Patient's Best Interest, She Absolutely Has To Be Assertive. In My Department There Were Med Students, Interns, Residents And Others All Trying To Get Their 2 Cents In During Tense Moments. Half Of Them Didn't Know A Thing About Procedure Or Hospital Policy So We Constantly Had To Place Restraints(vwerbal).

In Critical Care There Are Too Many Powerful Meds And Stricter Administration Rates. If Hospital Policy Says Something Can Only Be Administered Over 4 Hrs. There Is No Bolus. That Is Where Most Of The Conflict Arose. I And My Co-workers Felt The Medical Staff "underlings" Were Poorly Supervised. Thus More Stress For The Nursing Staff.

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.
i find there are great nurses in all the "generations" i have worked with a lady who was 70 and had returned to work cause she was "bored". she was one of the youngest-at-heart and hard workers i ever knew. i learned much from her.

i also love the younger ones coming in; their enthusiasm is really awesome.

i have found, also, there are jerks all up and down the "age chains". i have learned much from all of them as well. i learned my assertion skills from the ones who pushed me too hard.

now, the new nurses bring usually very excellent observation skills and catch things my jaundiced eye misses.

the older ones have taught me, as much as nursing changes, one thing never does:

the needs of people remain the same across the years. basic and solid nursing skills never change.

i have found, to open the "older" nurses up, is to ask them about how things have changed and how they did things "back in the day". most of them warm up and definately love to share their stories....and then much nicer to me as a result. the so-called true nurse-eaters are not that common as people have us believe. and even these folks can be opened up if you work at it, with respect. respect up and down the chain is the very bridge of understanding for all generations, not just in nursing, but life. come on board with respect, and most will respect you right back.

:yeahthat:

:bow: couldn't say it better.

interesting ojin article: the multigenerational workforce: boomers and xers and nets, oh my!

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Nurses should not be generalized. baby boomers and the younger genaration can both be asertive and passive. Both generations have their ups and downs. I work nurses who are close to retirement and new BSN grads straight from highschool. They each have their strengths.

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young people know more than what old people think they know. ;)

and quite a few young ones know less than they think they know.

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And quite a few young ones know less than they think they know.

Oh, absolutely!:wink2: I always liked being paired up with relatively new nurses, because they were up to date on the book knowledge, and I loved teaching them the techniques and procedures for getting things done. I always enjoyed it when they were receptive to teaching, but not all of them were, and we always knew there would be a day of 'reckoning' when they did some thing or another because they would not listen to the other nurses.

About the generation gap - I think it had a lot to do with when you went to school, and maybe just your general personality. Altho I'm a baby-boomer, I didn't go to nursing school until the mid-80's.

But it's also my personality not to meekly give in to doctors - I always liked and respected most of them. But I wasn't subservient to them.

One time, not too long after I started in post-anesthesia, I was sitting at a table charting - one of the anesthetists came in to chart on one of his patients. Another nurse, younger than I, quietly told me to move so Dr. So&so could sit down and chart - I looked up and told her that he was younger than I was, then I asked him if he wanted my chair, and he said no, of course not.:rolleyes: I'd have sold it to him for $20.

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My experience with the difference in age is actually not understanding the gap in the generations. The younger nurses are more "I can't do this or that without my buddy", when the older nurses are more laid back and are okay with not needing someone else to accompany them to an activity. Also, some of the topics that are discussed during work, me as an older nures view as not important or shouldn't be discussed at this time. So, really understanding the gap in the generations is the key. We as older nurses have to remember that we have been there and done that and be sensitive and a role model to them. This is an issue that I am working to improve.

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Specializes in Community, Renal, OR.

My daughter is in nursing school and I often discuss my day with her.

She asks me for feedback for different assignments and class discussions.

My mother was also a nurse and my daughter will often ask her about what things were like when she was working. She says it is like hearing about what things are like in another country!

This sharing of a profession between my mother, my daughter and myself is something that I treasure.

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Specializes in Community, Renal, OR.
We as older nurses have to remember that we have been there and done that and be sensitive and a role model to them. This is an issue that I am working to improve.

I agree. After 25 years of nursing I am not the person I was when I started out. I was a lot more cocksure of myself as a young grad, now I am not so arrogant to think I know everything. :nurse:

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