There seems to be two categories of nurses "new nurses" and "old nurses" ie younger nurses, and older nurses.
I think the differences between old nurses and new nurses comes about most when we talk about the huge leaps and bounds nursing is taking in the technology department. It is said so often, old nurses don't like the new technology, they don't like to change their ways, so on and so forth. Sometimes old nurses kind of get a bad rap, at least that is from my experience. Old nurses also seem to catch a lot of flack for being hardened, sometimes mean and callused.
As a soon to be "new nurse" I obviously don't have a lot of experience, but we are ALL going to be "old nurses" eventually. Nursing isn't going anywhere, no matter how much technology improves, I don't think a machine can ever do as much as a person can for a sick person. People need people, and they seem to need them even more when they're sick. We will all become weary of change when we just got used to the last change the medical field threw at us. We will all become reluctant to "change our ways" eventually. Nursing is hard, and it's constantly moving and it's taking care of the dying person AND their family down the hall while your own family member may be dying across the country but you can't take time off to go be with them. I think nurses rely on their own way of organizing their day and their own routines because the day can be so unpredictable. I've noticed even in my self a type of neurotic organization and needing to make lists and know what is happening at what time and if possible having to know exactly what to do in a given situation. I don't like venturing into new things in my personal life because my soon to be professional life and school life is filled with SO MUCH new!
And then people talk about how "old nurses" sometimes feel they've put in the time and the hours and the holidays and they deserve more time off or the pick of the holidays and things like that. Working holidays is tough, it's lonely and it's a drag to be quite honest. I love my residents at work but sometimes I just don't want to be there on a holiday. I spend more time with them than I do with my family on my breaks and I spend more of my hours with them than with my family on the holidays. I can see where the older nurses are coming from, how many holiday dinners and family parties and picnics do they have to miss? Everyone knows that as a nurse you sign up for long shifts, and a high patient load and stress and working holidays, but at some point it has to take a toll on you. We are human, and we have families too and we get burnt out too. If someone who sits at a desk from 9-5 and gets weekends and holidays off can get burnt out, imagine how quickly it can happen for somebody on their feet 12+ hours a day, working weekends and holidays.
As a "new nurse" I'm going to try remember that I will be an "old nurse" faster than I think, I will look back on the last 30 years and realize I'm not that young fresh faced, passionate, eager to please and change 21 year old graduate nurse that I used to be. I will be aged, and I will be tired and I will be working my umpteenth holiday, missing another family function or not making it home for dinner with my kids who I haven't seen enough of. I will be reluctant to change my routine, I will be resistant to another new thing that is being brought into the healthcare field, I will be sad that I can't pay enough attention to each of my patients. I will be overworked and underpaid. I will be all of those things just like the "old nurses" are now, I will be one of them. But I'll be proud to be an "old nurse", because it means I've stuck with a career that is demanding, and a career that takes a lot out of you, physically, mentally and emotionally. And as a "new nurse" I'll try to remember how I will feel in those 30 years, I will try to cover a shift when I can, and I will try to not be so quick to judge and so quick to roll my eyes at the nurse who is so "stuck" in her routine or her ways.
I will try to remember that all of the old nurses were once new nurses and all of the new nurses will at some point become old nurses.
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