Mutual Respect: Avoiding Generational Gap Clashes in Healthcare

Mutual Respect: Avoiding Generational Gap Clashes in Healthcare  An interesting opinion piece by Bill Santamour at Hospitals and Health Networks discusses the ever-present generational issues that healthcare professionals face. Today, however, Santamour notes that there is an increased diversity amongst age groups, with coworkers ranging from just-graduated 20-something Millenials to the “Matures” born before 1946.

While the assumption is that this “generation gap” would cause tension in the workplace, Santamour poses questions to his readers: does the generation gap exist? Are there tangible tensions? In his follow up piece, readers take issue with the idea that the generation gap is something new or that it even exists; many comment that healthcare workers should behave professionally and competently no matter what their age.

Click here to read our previous blog post about issues that might arise from generational differences. As a nurse, have you experienced problems related to differences in age? How did you overcome the issue?

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