Locker Room Talk

I am a millennial, entering my 8th year of nursing. When I began, we had paper charting, everything was done by paper and fax. I was even taught in school to stand up when a doctor came to the nurse's station to let them sit down. It's been a big transition over the past few years!

I have a lot of respect for nurses who came before me and I have learned a great deal from them throughout my career. I feel "old school" in some ways because I feel similarly about the job ethics--I think it's kind of funny when my age peers get crabby about working on a holiday or on their birthdays (I was raised in a civil service family, however, so I never had the perspective that one was entitled to getting every special day off.) & I dislike that corporations have made it so that loyalty is an outdated value; I shouldn't have to leave my workplace in order to get a raise commensurate to the cost of living.

I feel respected by most nurses from earlier generations, for the most part, and I hope that you all feel respected by us; of course there are grouches, but in my opinion that is less to do with age and more to do with personality and attitude. I don't like when the bad apples in my peer group cause everyone of my age to get lumped in to that stereotype, so I would not want to do it to others.

I tend to think that a more diverse workplace is a stronger one, because we all bring different viewpoints, beliefs, experiences. We may be faster typers and stuffed chock-full of science, but the wealth of experience and knowledge y'all bring to the table is absolutely invaluable as well, and dismissing it would be pretty short-sighted.

I remember using a yellow highlighter to D/C a Rx med on the med sheets ... writing "Noted" on written orders in a paper chart, and "24 hr chart check" in red ink on the night shift.

A friend 20 years older than I said massages used to be a written order on the 3-11 shift.

I took the last pencil & paper NCLEX, and lived through seeing many hospitals through changing over to computer charting (with doctor tantrums and all).

Speaking of doctor tantrums: I've seen them throw phones, charts and chairs - and saw one slam open a door so hard it left a hole in the wall from the knob as he stormed down the stairwell.

Ahhhh ... good times.

I remember a nurse in 1997 flatly refused to get up and give her chair to a pompous cardiologist, followed by refusing to carry his charts and follow him around while he made his rounds. She told him, "I don't know what you are used to, but I'm NOT doing that". A loud verbal exchange ensued in the middle of the pod. She won.

I remember using a yellow highlighter to D/C a Rx med on the med sheets ... writing "Noted" on written orders in a paper chart, and "24 hr chart check" in red ink on the night shift.

A friend 20 years older than I said massages used to be a written order on the 3-11 shift.

I took the last pencil & paper NCLEX, and lived through seeing many hospitals through changing over to computer charting (with doctor tantrums and all).

Speaking of doctor tantrums: I've seen them throw phones, charts and chairs - and saw one slam open a door so hard it left a hole in the wall from the knob as he stormed down the stairwell.

Ahhhh ... good times.

Wow, I really must be behind the times because I still haven't worked at a facility that doesn't do paper charting. I always work in low income areas. Hopefully, I'll be moving to a hospital who uses a computer system soon.

On the topic though, when I was new nurse 7 years ago, I loved working with the more seasoned nurses because we would have a partnership in educating each other. I would have the new knowledge, just being out of school and they would teach me so much more. I'm so greatful to have had 3 seasoned nurses take me under their wings and become my mentors. Open conversation is key. Of course, I've also had older nurses that treated me like crap just because I was young but I still managed to gain some skills from them as well, by ignoring the attitude and being open to their education whenever I could. I think if people were more open, to both learn and educate each other, we would have a more knowledgeable and supportive nursing team. I really don't care how old or young someone is as long they treat people well.

I can bring a different perspective - I started my ABSN at age 53. Obviously, the vast majority of my classmates were in their 20s and 30s. I never once heard any of them make negative comments regarding a nurse or faculty member's age. They were in awe of good nurses and faculty members. They were also very nice to me and included me in social invitations and I made a close friend who is in her 20s - admittedly, I'm her "big sister." LOL

As far as computers, millenials are great at social media and apps. However, they also struggle with enterprise level software like EHRs, which are very different from the tech the young people commonly use. My previous career was in high tech management (I'm not a technical expert or programmer), so I find EHRs easy to learn and ended up coaching many of the younger students. My internet-based research skills are just as good, or better than, those of most "young" people.

Another interesting experience was that in group work, I was often appointed to give presentations or talk to professors, etc. My younger classmates would say, "You're older so you're better at talking to people." LOL

My nursing school experience gave me great hope for our future - I met so many wonderful, dedicated, intelligent, and caring young people.

I'm 56 and have been in nursing for 14 years. I've seen good and bad in both generations from my perspective. I'm a guy so in a profession that is 95% women so I probably bring a skewed and outside perspective to my opinion. What I'm about to share is based upon my experiences as a nurse and I'm not trying to generalize to the universe at large.

Despite being older I prefer working with the younger generation of nurses. In my experience they treat nursing like a job instead of some calling from god that includes being put last and suffering. They don't think the hospital will cease to function if they call in sick so they do instead of coming in and being miserable while really accomplishing very little except spreading germs & misery. They are less likely to judge that which is none of their business. I've heard nurses judge who should have holidays or weekends of because of family situations or other circumstances that have no place in a workplace conversation. A young single nurse who wants Christmas off should not be judged because some other nurse has six kids who want her at home that day. They are both nurses who have a right to want that day off for their own reasons that have zero to do with work. They are also less likely to believe that some other nurse didn't "pay their dues" when they move on to more education or a better job. After all the same opportunities are / were presented to more seasoned nurses who just didn't grasp the opportunity for whatever reason & I always wondered who were they supposed to be paying dues to? Finally, they seem to be much more self-obsessed. This sounds like a bad thing but in nursing I think its great. Simply put they are too worried about themselves to really care or pry into another nurses personal life. They seem to go to work, do their job & go home. I've never seen a 20 something nurse sticking around after their shift to gossip about other nurses. On the other hand many nurses my age live for that vicarious titillation.

If I'm being honest, us under-30 nurses -us under 30 PEOPLE, even- are sick of being thought of as children. What do we say in the locker room about you???? Seriously?? We aren't in high school anymore! We don't spend time gossiping in the locker room- we're too busy running around trying to meet the increasing demands of our job, worrying about how we're going to afford the $50k+ student loans we owe back, wondering if we're going to be able to pay rent this month, and bracing ourselves against the CONSTANT onslaughts of "well when I was your age..." and "kids these days".

We aren't kids, and we aren't bothered by what nursing was like back in the day. We value your wisdom and knowledge, value your experience- when you're willing to share it instead of complaining about how when you were our age nurses had to wear white all white, had to give up their seats to doctors, patients stayed in the hospital for 10 days after giving birth, and there was paper charting. Times have changed for ALL of us. Yes, we're under 30, but we did not all learn to operate a computer and cell phone in the womb. We had rotary corded phones when we were kids. We didn't have internet until middle school. My first cell phone was given to me before entering high school, and the only features it had were calling- my first internet accessible cell phone came at age 23, AFTER I had been a nurse for a year! We all had to take the same charting classes you did- and we were forced into typing classes as kids so that we could adapt with the times.

As for us young single nurses who want holidays off- no, we may not have children, but we have elderly grandparents or ailing parents who we may want to try and spend their last Christmas or Easter with. Our parents (ie., the older generation of nurses- YOU) did not "beat" an unhealthy and dangerous work ethic into us. I'm not coming to work with a temp of 102 just so I can potentially kill one of my immunosuppressed patients, or cause a delay in my patient getting their lead-less pacer because 3 days later they develop a fever too.

I realize you did not mean for this post to be inflammatory, so I apologize for getting so defensive. But I'm sick of saying something and having someone say "oh, you kids!". I'm not a kid. I've got a masters degree. I am a homeowner and a car owner. I paid off tens of thousands of dollars worth of debt. I'm responsible for peoples' lives 36+ hours a week, and teaching the future generation to do the same one day a week. We aren't teenagers gossiping in the break room about our teachers anymore- we are your colleagues. We treat you as colleagues and I really wish you'd start doing the same.

If you're really that worried that your younger coworkers are talking behind your back or that you are invisible to them- why not invite them out? Go for drinks after work, or brunch one weekend. Talk to them. Become their friend. I think you'll see that while we may be younger, we are still people and probably have a lot in common with you. We don't bite.

I'm 56 and have been in nursing for 14 years. I've seen good and bad in both generations from my perspective. I'm a guy so in a profession that is 95% women so I probably bring a skewed and outside perspective to my opinion. What I'm about to share is based upon my experiences as a nurse and I'm not trying to generalize to the universe at large.

Despite being older I prefer working with the younger generation of nurses. In my experience they treat nursing like a job instead of some calling from god that includes being put last and suffering. They don't think the hospital will cease to function if they call in sick so they do instead of coming in and being miserable while really accomplishing very little except spreading germs & misery. They are less likely to judge that which is none of their business. I've heard nurses judge who should have holidays or weekends of because of family situations or other circumstances that have no place in a workplace conversation. A young single nurse who wants Christmas off should not be judged because some other nurse has six kids who want her at home that day. They are both nurses who have a right to want that day off for their own reasons that have zero to do with work. They are also less likely to believe that some other nurse didn't "pay their dues" when they move on to more education or a better job. After all the same opportunities are / were presented to more seasoned nurses who just didn't grasp the opportunity for whatever reason & I always wondered who were they supposed to be paying dues to? Finally, they seem to be much more self-obsessed. This sounds like a bad thing but in nursing I think its great. Simply put they are too worried about themselves to really care or pry into another nurses personal life. They seem to go to work, do their job & go home. I've never seen a 20 something nurse sticking around after their shift to gossip about other nurses. On the other hand many nurses my age live for that vicarious titillation.

Never paid attention to that until I read this that is very true. It seems to me a lot of drama is older fokes but not always. I'm a millennial (on the butt end of the scale towards the old side) I like going to work and then going home I don't care who's dating who or whatever dumb thing is going around but I am a guy also so maybe that's why lol

Bravo PCnurse!!!