Nurses Under 30 Years Old

Nurses General Nursing

Published

A friend of mine is a manager who recently went to a management seminar. It was the same old thing until they asked what peoples' biggest problems are. One person said "employees under 30," and everyone in the room agreed. They find this demographic to be needy and entitled (I'm sure this does not apply to everyone, but is a much bigger trend than in past years).

My department recently hired MANY new nurses, and all but one is under 30. They call in when they are hung over, go home early, and they're lazy at work. The only thing I can depend on them to do is get their coffee break. I'm sure these nurses have many fine qualities, and maybe the rest of us are just martyrs (put in the full 46ish hours a week, mop our own ORs, etc), but it's just a whole different attitude. People in other departments note a similar trend. Radiology techs will refuse to go to certain cases because it will interfere with their lunch.

I'm sure I will get a bunch of posts from 20-somethings about how hard they work, and I'm sure there are some out there who really do work their tails off. But managers (and coworkers) are starting to take note of "generation me."

Love the posts, y'all. At 36, when something offends me, I take a long hard look at myself and my behavior. I have learned that when I "feel" offended it's usually a wake-up...your subconscious letting you know to investigate your actions. It is this realization that comes with years of living. It is so wonderful to gain perspective and insight on life, and it is so nice to appreciate the knowledge and wisdom that life brings.

okay, i'm cheesy too :)

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I'm sorry that you had a bad experience with nurses under 30. I agree with many hear that entitlement has become a way of life for Americans of ALL generations. I have observed nurses in their 40-50s constantly talking/surfing the internet on their iPhones, cranking up music at their stations (without asking the patients if they like classic rock/rap music), going out to cars to charge their cell phone batteries/going to the gift shop for chocolates, or going completely away from their stations to chat it up with the other nurses for 1-2 hours at a time. And some of these nurses were working in intensive care!!!

As a student I am told that I will be expelled if I bring in a cell phone, smoke, or abandon my patient in middle of shift. So I have abided by all those rules for the last 2 years. The nurses who teach me do not.

There may be some lazy youngsters out there, but I also think that people need to get over the "the older-the-wiser" myth. It just ain't true.

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ok, while we are at it, how many under 30s have think it is OK to text while in meeting? Don't get me wrong, I am against those old nurses that 'eat thier young' and in the end that is a bigger problem, but yeah, I am on board with the under thirty whiners, call out, basically un-professional attitude

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I just don't bring my phone in. If there is a true emergency, my family can call the unit secretary and she can take a message. Otherwise, my personal life will wait until I'm done with my shift.

Texting? All ages engage in this. I'm just glad I'm such a Luddite and not sucked into this texting addiction.

Let's not engage in ageism--on either side of the spectrum. You will meet hardworking youngsters and lazy oldsters. You will meet hardworking oldsters and lazy youngsters.

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

Interesting topic. Not sure if anyone has already mentioned this, but there has been a massive shift in mindset regarding work and company loyalty. There used to be a time when you expected to get a job and work there until you retired, at which point you would receive your pension. I know many people who have been "asked to resign" right before they are eligible for their pension. The reason I bring this up is because older nurses may exhibit a loyalty that younger nurses don't have because younger nurses do not have the same expectations. And that may be misinterpreted.

But I don't know for sure because I'm still in NS. What I do know is that, living in Southern California, there is entitlement all around me and it's easy to find young people that don't want to work hard. But not in my class. I am seriously impressed with the drive and determination of the young people in my classes! I am 31 and I know that at 19 I did not have the discipline for NS. Maybe I will be proven wrong, maybe it is just my school, but all I've seen are really hard-working people of ALL ages.

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I haven't read all the comments but I just HAVE to reply! When someone is doing a job just to get to payday they don't do it to the best of their ability. I'm 20 and I see that many people are going into nursing for the money. So shameful!!!! When u love something u put ur all into it. Soooo many people make the mistake of going into the nursing profession with so little knowledge of what a nurse truely is and what a nurse does. These young payday nurse give us young aspiring nurses a bad name. Most of my friends are 19, 20, 21 and are nurses, either LPN's or RN's and they have some of the most ridiculous complaints. While I do know some young nurses who are phenonmenal and genuinely love being a nurse a majority of them are just doing it to get paid. Lack of understanding and maybe maturity is to blame. That's just my opinion

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I would agree that the "generation me" has some issues with feeling entitled; however, I do not see this trend at my hospital. This situation at some places of employment may just be specific to particular units & based on what managers will tolerate. Currently I work in one of the largest Peds ICU's in the country & estimate that at least 60-70% of our nursing staff is under 30. I do not see this as a negative because our manangement does not tolerate laziness, poor behavior at work, etc. If an employee knows what is expected of them, age should not matter. On the flip side, nothing can replace years of experience, which the younger staff just will not have for many years.

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Ok I'm a generation X'er and I thoroughly enjoy pointing out to people that Gen Y'ers and Gen XY'ers did not come out of a vaccuum. If "they" are selfish, txt, call in hungover who raised them to have this attitude? Oh yes thats right Boomers raised X, Y and the Gen XYers have parents that run the gamit from Boomers having change of life babies to Xers having a baby back when they were teenagers. I see selfish, poor work ethics in all generations. We older generations need to take a look at ourselves we are the ones giving "them" that so called sense of entitlement. How many times have we all ranted about a younger nurse that happens to act exactly like our own kid, niece, younger cousin. Better yet how many times have we seen older nurses busting their chops and putting themselves in debt to bail out some self entitled piece of crap that they call their child? Then we roll into work and start nitpicking some younger nurse because we're actually ****** off at our kid and bringing our life problems into work. As AA and NA says "keep the focus on your self", "take your own inventory." Nursing would do well to live by that motto.

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Specializes in Med/surg, Quality & Risk.
Interesting topic. Not sure if anyone has already mentioned this, but there has been a massive shift in mindset regarding work and company loyalty. There used to be a time when you expected to get a job and work there until you retired, at which point you would receive your pension. I know many people who have been "asked to resign" right before they are eligible for their pension. The reason I bring this up is because older nurses may exhibit a loyalty that younger nurses don't have because younger nurses do not have the same expectations. And that may be misinterpreted.

One thing I'd like to add to this is that the shift in mindset regarding work and company loyalty is on both sides. Some of us may feel the lack of loyalty to a company because we know that they'd drop us immediately (without severance of any account) if they needed to without giving us a second thought.

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Wow under 30 is no good and over 40 you get pressured to get out and / or won't be hired. Pretty narrow window.

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Specializes in LTC, Medical, Rehab, Psych.

I feel like I've said it a thousand times at AllNurses: Nursing is a JOB. I'm more than happy to work with nurses under 30. I hope to god their generation will stop letting their employers **** on them to make a buck. For those of you old timers who never stop complaining about the "younger generations"- why don't you retire and let the rest of us deal with it! Because as a nurse in my 30s, I AM SICK AND TIRED OF THE OLDER GENERATION COMPLAINING ABOUT THEIR JOBS AND DOING NOTHING ABOUT IT except to take it out on the rest of us.

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There was a time when I believed that wisdom came with age. Now I know better and believe that wisdom might come with age after CONSTANT and MEANINGFUL reflection. I have seen a pair of 50-year-old nurses on the floor acting spiteful and girley-girley like little 5-year-old infants. Just as a matter of old-fashioned principle, I will automatically show respect to those older than me, but sometimes, they just have not frakking deserved it.

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