Five Nursing Generations

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Currently there are four to five generations in today’s workforce, the eldest who are slowly all but retired to the 20-something fresh out of college graduates. This wide range of age and experience can pose challenges as values, work ethic, and expectations differ. This issue not only touches the nursing world but also most industries today. This paper will introduce these generations, explain and identify some of their vast characteristics, list a couple of simple successes in collaborating these generations together as a team, then consider the Industry Competency Model of Building Block Model to show the value of all of these generations. A general breakdown of these generations is as follows: Traditionalists born in 1900-1945, Baby …show more content…
In an article by Rowe (2016) consideration for change of leadership is addressed. As the Boomers begin to retire Gen X and Millennials will begin to have the management positions previously held by the Boomers and Traditionalists. The concern of course is that there are fewer of them which can cause even more shortages in the nursing workforce. As these generational shifts occur Human Resource may need to come up with ways for the Boomer and Traditionalists to groom the younger generations for these positions (Rowe, …show more content…
The different characteristics of the generations in the nursing workforce, if suitably nurtured and managed, and empowered to contribute to their full potential, have a great capacity to enhance nursing and other industries. Harnessing younger generations’ idealism, innovation and creativity, while fully utilizing the older generations’ wisdom, and experience will guide the workforce safely through the demographic challenges and the period of profound political, economic, social and technological change that the world has entered (Abrams & Von Frank, 2014).
Fairness and consistency in how one treats these individuals will make the difference in a team that is successful or team that struggles to keep up with the workload (Hess, 2010). HR Management should always recognize the expertise participants bring with them. Leaders need to recognize all the generations in the room and understand their needs (Abrams & Von Frank, 2014). Regardless of the generation the team members fall in, creating an atmosphere of trust with the staff is of utmost

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