Millennial Nurses Have Issues

[Nurse Yoni]

Millennial nurses have the following problems that might be true

There have been so many complaints across the globe about millennial nurses and their attitudes towards their jobs. Millennials are individuals who were born between 1981 and 1996-which means they are between ages, 23 to 38, in 2019. 1982 In this write-up, I will talk about some of these concerns and give you my take.

Millennial nurses are lazy

Millennial nurses (MN) are not so happy when the older generation of nurses’ label them as lazy, and always on their phones at work. Could this be further from the truth? We now live in a world of technology where people spend more time on their phones than with the people that matter in their lives. The average individual spends about 30-6 hours a day on their phone every day. The older generation nurses report that MNs love to sit at the desk and only see their patients during medication administration. Such nurses have been dubbed “Desktop Nurses.” We’re all aware that a lot of people spend more time on their phones, but there have not been any findings that show a decline in productivity of MNs in clinical areas. While I do not advocate that nurses use their phones on the unit, I do think that millennials are getting a bad rep for having been born in a generation that is highly influenced by technology.

MNs are always looking for new jobs and they’re not interested in growing in their careers.

True or false? MNs are the most adventurous in the workplace. They are always looking for more. They don’t seem to be satisfied with what they have. According to a 2017 survey on MNs, more than 36% MNs stated their intentions to move into leadership roles. Maybe the scarcity of MNs in leadership positions might be because these positions have already been occupied by baby boomers or their employers are not encouraging them to take on leadership responsibilities. MNs should be given the chance to grow in their careers. They should be given the green light that there are possibilities for growth in their respective settings. This, to me, would increase the retention rates of MNs, especially in clinical nursing.

Most millennials are not interested in furthering their careers; they might be switching careers any time soon.

MNs do not seem to be focused on getting more education. A lot of them just want to get into careers that would allow them to travel places and do less work. They are not interested in pursuing a master’s degree or even a doctorate or Phd. A 2017 survey of nurses showed that 39% of millennials stated that they intend to go for a Master of Science in Nursing degree and 11% stated that they might pursue a PhD in nursing. Baby boomers are less likely to switch careers, unlike millennials. The advent of technology has opened so many opportunities and career options for everyone. MNs are just responding to the current world we live in-a place of greater opportunities for everyone.

Resource

https://www.amnhealthcare.com/uploadedFiles/MainSite/Content/Campaigns/Millennial-Nurse-Survey-2017.pdf

[tiddles]

Truth be told, if I'd had a fancy pocket computer way back when I was a young'un, I probably would have been on it constantly..although my walkman was pretty rad!

[labordude, BSN, RN]

I've been getting my popcorn ready when this author posts. They are new to AN, but have a mild Facebook and Instagram presence with the nursideas hashtag and their previous post linked to their Facebook page. If the point of this is to drive traffic to your other profiles, well ?‍♂️.

Like others reading this I'm not sure what you're getting at. Judging by your replies to your previous post, you aren't interested in interaction, just traffic and that will not get you very far here.

[Cowboyardee]

Millenials are individuals like everyone else. Generalizations about millions of people based on a 15 year birth window will invariably wind up being so inaccurate as to be completely pointless.

Sure, if you work at the fed and are trying to set monetary policy for millions of people based on macro-economic trends, generalize away. But if you're a nurse or manager and trying to figure out how to increase hiring or interact with Mike, Viv, and Malik who just hired on, maybe drop the silly generalizions and go do the harder work of researching your local job market and/or actually getting to know Mike, Viv, and Malik.

[ComeTogether, LPN]

I wish they would edit the birth years. I'm not a millenial, damnit!

[jessieCCRN]

Hi, I am one of the millennials born in 1980s. I agree to some of what's written here but I also have a different background. I worked as a nurse in a third world country where we get 12 patients as our ratio. So I am used to "hard work". So coming here in US and get 4 patients are really a huge improvement and I felt that it's way better. I say this because it still depends on what kind of job you used to do before, not just your age or what generation you're in. So I am a millennial but I can do hard work too. I love my senior nurses because they teach you (although not all of them ? ), at the same time we can help them too with technology charting or taking care of their heavy patients.

But, I agree that the younger millennials are more educated. Too much to the point some of them feel that they don't deserve to do " bedside nursing" anymore, so they study and leave the bedside and be NP etc after just one year of nursing experience.

About the phone usage, I believe yes it affects our job but I noticed it too with the senior nurses.

Also, with job switching, there are senior nurses who also go different hospitals after few years. I believe the core is how a nurse understood work ethic and the acceptance of drama in every hospital workplace.

There's no perfect workplace.

[OncologyCat, BSN, RN]

I stop reading at Millennials are lazy because my charge recently put me in a higher acuity and tasky assignment cause I’m the youngest of the bunch so I could handle the stress ?

[Ruixi13, BSN, RN]

14 hours ago, 819Nurse said:

^^^THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CANNOT PREACH THIS ENOUGH TO PEOPLE!!! and some people still don't understand. At least I know I am not alone in thinking or feeling this way!!!

THIS!

[Ilargia99, LVN, RN]

On 11/15/2019 at 7:31 PM, chloeluvsutoo said:

I think you are trying to "prove" these misconceptions wrong, and if you aren't you should be, but it should be written a bit clearer.

There are no longer incentives to stay at one job for long and often times we need to move jobs to get raises and grow our career. Plus I would say most millennial nurses have plans for higher education, we just don't have money for it.

^^This. I’d love to go for higher education, I just can’t afford it and don’t have the time!

[0.5GPA, ADN, CNA]

As a Millennial I feel that most people in my age and younger don’t stay at a job forever because there is no reason too. Largely the idea of a person starting at a company young and then staying there until retirement is very outdated.

that is rare most places as most will walk all over their employees and people know it.

as far as the “ok boomer” meme give that politician about 30 years and she’ll be the one the receiving end Being mocked . Age happens and it only gets fast as you get older. We all age in one direction ?

[KalipsoRed21, BSN, RN]

This piece is a bit vague on what it intends to accomplish. I am technically a Millennial, on the cusp of being a Gen X. My husband is Boomer. The work ethic between is is not very different, but the expectations of the work environment are.
A reason I do not feel we are to far apart on what we want out of work is the fact that he works in a union. He is well compensated for his time with reasonable benefits, time off, has a strictly enforced job description. This is nothing more than what I wished out of my own employer, but have found that this ‘bare minimum’ expectation is rarely met by employers. I am not union, I have often been asked to do more than what I agreed to do when I hired on. For reasons ranging from short staffing to ‘restructuring’, I have often been required to take on more work than is reasonable, missed promised brakes, had my on call day abused as a mandatory over time that I am frequently not entirely compensated for appropriately due to the law requiring compensation to only be provided after I hit the 40+ hour mark. I am used at the discretion of the company by them being able to low census me and therefore cut my pay. Even at my current job, which has been the fairest place I have ever worked, they are constantly screwing with my time. Example: We use to have a call day once a month. We are on call to our patients for questions but also if a patient with very time specific needs was coming out of the hospital we would also have to admit. An admit is easily a quarter or half a day of work...and this would be in addition to the fact that we would have already worked our 8 hour day. But we would get time and a half pay for this and we really only did these admissions if it was absolutely necessary, as our employer had incentive to NOT want us to do an after hour admit due to having to pay us time and a half. I am suppose to work 8am-4:30pm. Anything done on call after 4:30 was time and a half. Now, under the guise of lessening our work load, we only work half a day when we are on call. But instead of our day starting at 8am we are suppose to start at 12pm and thus we get paid regular pay until 8:30pm. So now we are getting less compensation and being required to work evenings (which was not the agreement I signed on for) and the employer has less incentive to make sure that these after hour admits have timed after hours needs that REQUIRE a nurse to see them in the evening. Now management feels because they “gave us” only half a day of work we should be willing to admit any patient coming home no matter if it is truly needed to be done in the evening or not.

What does my employer get out of this new arrangement? They don’t have to pay me overtime and get to admit more patients to increase their bottom line because they no longer have incentive to be concerned if the person coming out of the hospital has time specific needs or not. I will be available for the admit because I “only” had half a day scheduled. What do I get? Less compensation and an increased guarantee that I will be working very late into the evening at least once a month because my employer no longer has incentive to ensure that admits that could wait to regular operating hours are done during regular operating hours. I have no recourse as I do not work for a union. I only have a choice to leave or be agreeable to getting screwed. This is the biggest difference to me between Boomers and Millennials. Boomers had such a competitive workforce that they were willing to bend over to every employer need, and they had to if they wanted to support their family. Unions decreased and the power of the employee dwindled and Boomers still needed to bring home a paycheck no matter how bad they got screwed, and they got screwed. Most of them have no retirement, were let go a few years shy of their full retirement benefits, and were basically used up and spat out for the benefit of the top earners in the company.

So thank you Boomers for supporting us as children even though you got utterly screwed. But what Millinnals know is that the workforce is smaller. We have more power than you did, and our time is just as precious as yours was back in your prime, but we have the leverage to get what we want (what you wanted back in the day) and we will get it or we will leave.

Businesses have abused/enslaved the workforce long enough. I, just as much as a Boomer did 20 years ago, deserve to have a decent paying job with benefits and employers who do not abuse my time, the only difference between Boomers and Millinnials is that the workforce is shrinking and thus we have more power to get what we deserve than Boomers did. If I were a Boomer that would kind of irritate me too, but get over it and come over to outside. You will get paid better and have more time to be with your family if you do.

[SmilingBluEyes]

Ok well I am not biting. I have worked with people who are pre-boomer (one lady still is working part time), and others who are Gen Y. I am GenZ-boomer myself. (we don't exist much as a demographic). Yep---Right there in the middle. I admire a great many of my Gen Y coworkers. They appear to know what they want and are not afraid to go for it. Their loyalty is very hard-won.

They don't tend to collect useless material goods, but would rather live experiences than have "stuff". I know many who won't want mom/dad's old furniture, knick-knacks, and china. It's useless to them, except to sell and travel to other places and meet new people. Awesome. Life is too short for cheapening it with working too hard to please others and not simply have phenomenal life experiences.

I wish I had been more like that when I was younger. It took a long time to understand my worth and to place boundaries on unhealthy behaviors toward me. And I finally understand life is to be lived, not to be forced to live up to others' desires for them.

The Gen Y people I work with are not lazy, no. But they won't kill themselves for corporate masters who would use them up and discard them quickly when their value is perceived as less than expected.

This younger generation understands these things better, sooner. I raised my own kids to be this way. I love new, fresh ideas and hearing how they think. They way they grew up, the way they experience the world, is so different than what I know. Try LISTENING and UNDERSTANDING people with whom you have not much in common. It's fascinating.

[ArmyRntoMD, BSN, RN]

Eh younger nurses/ college students have issues. I can attest to this. BUT older nurses have their issues too. Some are very uneducated and stuck in wrong ways. Every generation has strengths and weaknesses.