What differences do you notice in younger students vs. older students?

Nursing Students General Students

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I'm curious as to whether or not those of you in school see a trend in the other students in your class. Such as (and these are only examples): do you see younger students not being as serious...out partying a lot? Do you see older students being easily frustrated with the younger ones? I think you get what I mean here....I didn't notice a whole lot of them when I started my pre-req's. For the most part, everyone was respectful of everyone else. I wondered if this is the norm. or maybe my school is so small that it isn't quite as bad or maybe it will get worse (and cliquey according to age) once I start the actual nursing program...........

Specializes in ER.

Honestly, going back to school has renewed my faith in the younger bunch. Sure there are some that are a bit immature. But most of them are great!

For the most part they are kind, funny, compassionate, intelligent, HARD workers (many of the younger ones work full-time or two jobs to pay for their education), take school seriously, and do a great job in clinicals.

My only request at this point is to remove the word "like" from their vocabulary. I may die if I hear one more class presentation, or well thought out question in class, that is made darn near unbearable by the interjection of "like", like, every other word!

We DO, indeed, have some whiners, complainers, and slackers, but that has more to do with personality than age.

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I was wondering about life experience and how it affects the older students vs. the younger ones that don't have as much....I'm glad someone brought it up. I have to wonder if you guys think the prof's take the older students more seriously as well? I'm wondering if maybe some of the younger students that are really trying get a bum rap because they are young, KWIM?

Thanks Ya'll for replying!

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I believe you must surround yourself with the positive people, stay clear of the idiots and negative people, but remember in our line we need to learn how to communicate with, tolerate and not judge others.

I couldn't agree more, Stressgal. In our profession, we will come across every age and situation imaginable, and we need to be open minded and remain professional about all of it. Granted, with age and life's experiences comes wisdom, but we should use that wisdom to sometimes put ourselves in other's shoes and see the situation from their view. My school is a community college and we have all ages in our nursing program. I must say, for the majority, everyone gets along well. Of course there are the inevitable occasional personality clashes, but nothing out of hand. I see most of the younger folks respect and admire the older and more mature students, and the older ones admire the younger ones for their dynamic energy and excitement about their lives ahead of them. I have, however, witnessed a few of the older ones say things like "they have no idea what life is all about" referring to the younger ones, and the younger ones snickering at the older ones saying "they need to go home and wash the grey out of their hair and babysit their grandkids." So just differences like these we have to be aware of, and work on as professionals to correct.

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I guess I shouldn't have moved to the south.

I'm not really sure what this comment is supposed to mean, but I don't think it was a positive one. I surely hope you aren't assuming that all southerners marry young and have lots of babies. :rolleyes:

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I'm not really sure what this comment is supposed to mean, but I don't think it was a positive one. I surely hope you aren't assuming that all southerners marry young and have lots of babies. :rolleyes:

Nope but there sure is a significant difference from Chicago. It might not be the south persay, but the rural environment instead. The high schools out here have a 50% drop out rate...and in my class of 30 people, there was maybe one other girl who had never been married and didn't have kids. So stereotypical perhaps, but it has been my experience that people in certain areas do marry younger and have children at younger ages.

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Nope but there sure is a significant difference from Chicago. It might not be the south persay, but the rural environment instead. The high schools out here have a 50% drop out rate...and in my class of 30 people, there was maybe one other girl who had never been married and didn't have kids. So stereotypical perhaps, but it has been my experience that people in certain areas do marry younger and have children at younger ages.

Sorry if I seemed a little offensive, but I'm a southerner who's quite proud of the fact and absolutely despises typical southern stereotypes.

I wouldn't make broad generalizations about the south based on the one area you have experience with. I live in a small, rural southern town as well, and our drop-out rate isn't nearly that high. I'm venture to guess that drop-out rates are that high in many urban areas as well. In my nursing school class full of 40+ something 20 year-olds, I can count on one hand the number that are married or have children.

Of course, both your and my experience are isolated incidents. It'd be interesting to see if there were any statistics on this kind of data, actually. :)

Sorry to hijack the thread. I'll stop ranting now. :)

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Specializes in ER.
I was wondering about life experience and how it affects the older students vs. the younger ones that don't have as much....I'm glad someone brought it up. I have to wonder if you guys think the prof's take the older students more seriously as well? I'm wondering if maybe some of the younger students that are really trying get a bum rap because they are young, KWIM?

Thanks Ya'll for replying!

My own life experience is a definite perk in nursing school. Having had children first helps one get accustomed to every body fluid imaginiable, and gets a person familiar with providing personal care.

I also think that life experience = increased self-confidence, so I don't tend to get quite as nervous about things as I probably would have at twenty. For example, my first crack at applying an external male catheter (which happened to be on an 18 old kid). When I was younger I probably would have been a basket case for that one! :chuckle

I do not think that age alone makes the instructors take students more seriously. Our instructors base their judgements on performance. If you are a serious student who works hard, they will see it...whether you are 20 or 60!

One drawback of being older, in clinical, is that some of the younger students sometimes figure your age means you know more about nursing. I get a lot of requests for help when I am just as clueless as they are! :uhoh21:

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about age too much. Unless you make it one, it is really not an issue.

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I guess I have seen some differences b/w younger and older students.... but most differences were simply because they have such different perspectives on life and school and family and money............... I know that I am a different person than I was when I was 20 as well. Thank GOD!!!!

Ithink when the perspective changes, the priorities change, the motivations change and the responsibilities change. However, it is not always the younger students that need the adjustments -- I love the post that when the class got out 5 mins early someone complained that they had PAID FOR those 5 minutes!! That would tend to make me think that that older student may need to relax a little!!!:chuckle

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Sorry if I seemed a little offensive, but I'm a southerner who's quite proud of the fact and absolutely despises typical southern stereotypes.

I wouldn't make broad generalizations about the south based on the one area you have experience with. I live in a small, rural southern town as well, and our drop-out rate isn't nearly that high. I'm venture to guess that drop-out rates are that high in many urban areas as well. In my nursing school class full of 40+ something 20 year-olds, I can count on one hand the number that are married or have children.

Of course, both your and my experience are isolated incidents. It'd be interesting to see if there were any statistics on this kind of data, actually. :)

Sorry to hijack the thread. I'll stop ranting now. :)

Well I'm sorry I offended...I'm a small rural town and there is a pretty bad problem with meth here so that could contribute to the high drop out rate and other problem. As for being married and having children, I don't really see a problem with getting married young...I just don't like the fact that all my classmates have done that because its hard to make good friends with people who always have to be home with their husband or kids. Ah my very own selfish motive.

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As an "older" student when I was in nursing school, I was so busy with my young child, husband, house, family, etc. that I didn't hang out with anyone much. I was too busy! But I did notice that the ones that were single and had family out of town needed that social interaction. We all approach things based on where we are in life at that particular time. For me, I'm glad I didn't do it earlier because I KNOW I wouldn't have done as well. If I had any kind of "edge" over the others it was being able to do many different things at once!

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In the classes I have taken, the "older" students are willing to put more effect and time into the class. when I would go to lab to get ready for a test there were one or two younger ones there. When it came time for the test the older ones were ready and waiting while the younger ones were making excusses as to way they were not going to do so well. This was at a community college with no dorms. In the fall, I will attend a College full of younger students who live on campus, running around in their PJs. However there are a lot of older students in my nursing classes. So hopefully there will be a lot of study partners.:)

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Okay, I am going to inject my opinion here! At my school the different age groups mingle well, but sometimes the people with kids gang up on the ones who don't have kids. For example....me. A lot of people in my class constantly say "well, if I didn't have kids I could study all the time and make good grades too." Now, there is no doubt in my mind it is EXTREMELY difficult to go to school & have to take care of your children.....I know that is true....but don't be angry with me because I do well. And, no, I don't sit at home and study everyday...I have a husband & friends & family that I spend time with. It's not like I sit out in the hall and say "ha, ha, I got an "A" and you didn't"!! I actually spend my study time tutoring some of these people....but when it comes down to test day, all I hear is "Well, all you have to do is study, we have other responsibilities!!" URRGHHHH!! Sorry, that was not supposed to be a vent, but it turned into one! LOL!

Lil

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