Vault: Are Younger Nurses Worse Than Older Nurses?

Summary

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The Bert Show – Vault: Are Younger Nurses Worse Than Older Nurses?

Episode Date: May 25, 2026

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Main Theme

This episode centers around a provocative question raised by the hosts: Are younger nurses worse than older nurses? Drawing from personal experiences, listener call-ins, and family anecdotes, the cast dives into generational differences in nursing—debating patient care, attitudes, bedside manner, and workplace motivation within the profession. The discussion invites insight from nursing students and those with close ties to healthcare, making for a spirited, personal, and often humorous conversation.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Origin of the Question

• [01:31] The conversation kicks off with the hosts acknowledging their large nurse listenership and relaying a recent anecdote about a family hospitalization.
  • Host shares: A nurse in Nashville suggested that younger nurses "did not care about the patients as much as old nurses did," possibly entering the field just for the job stability or a steady paycheck, not true passion.

2. Generational Attitudes in Nursing

• [02:54] The hosts and callers unpack stereotypes:
  • Assumptions that older nurses might be more jaded or desensitized due to years of experience.
  • Counterpoint: New nurses should theoretically be more energetic and engaged.
  • Quote: "You would think that they would be a little more jaded and callous, like, 'oh, it doesn't hurt that much' if you're older." (Caller 1, [03:10])

3. Motivation: Care or Career?

• [03:16] The anecdotal nurse claims younger nurses are often less interactive and stay at nurses' stations instead of engaging with patients—possibly driven by monetary motivations more than an intrinsic desire to help.

4. Education Levels and Job Roles

• [03:48] Discussion shifts to the importance of education within nursing:
  • Frustration expressed at the blanket term "nurse" covering a wide range of education and responsibilities—from two-year associates to multiple graduate degrees.
  • "But there's no real delineation whether you have a two-year degree in your nursing or whether you have a four-year degree ..." (Caller 1, [04:02])

5. Nursing as a Pathway During Difficult Economies

• [04:34] Hosts wonder if the nursing profession attracts people simply because jobs are available, especially during economic downturns, potentially leading to less passion-driven nurses.

6. Nursing Student Perspective

• [04:58] – [06:35] A current nursing student calls in to rebut the idea that younger nurses care less:
  • Describes how, in her experience, "older nurses are kind of mean" and sometimes lack bedside manner.
  • She entered nursing later in life (39 years old) to "make a difference," aiming to work with disadvantaged populations.
  • Quote: "They're great clinicians, I will say that, because they have the life experience and they know a lot more, and I applaud them for that. But when it comes down to just being able to relate to patients, relate to the families of patients, I tend to disagree with her." (Nursing Student Caller, [06:11])

7. Clinical Skill vs. Bedside Manner

• [06:35] Hosts humorously side with clinical competence:
  • "I'd rather have a nurse that doesn't have a great bedside matter that saves my life. She can be grumpy as long as she knows what she's doing." (Radio Host 1, [06:35])
  • Many nod in agreement that technical competency may matter more than friendliness in high-stakes care.

8. The “Reality of Work” Generation Gap

• [07:02] – [07:41] Another caller shares perspective from a mother (maternity nurse of 40 years):
  • Complaint isn't about lack of care, but rather that younger nurses "are just not very realistic about the amount of work that's required," often shirking less glamorous tasks (changing sheets, fetching items for patients).

9. Universality of Intergenerational Workplace Complaints

• [07:41] – [07:51] Hosts muse if these grievances would be common in any profession, from nursing to flight attendants—highlighting a possible generational divide found across fields.
  • Quote: "I wonder if you, if we picked any profession, if this would be the argument..." (Radio Host 1, [07:41])

10. Patient Generations: Who’s “Whinier?”

• [07:51] – [08:23] Interesting tangent as hosts note that older patients are often more compliant, while 30-50-year-olds are described as "whining" and "don't want to work as hard."
  • Quote: "My mother is 80 and she's up out of the bed the first day... But their 30 and 40 and 50 year old patients are, they say, whining..." (Radio Host 2, [07:51])

11. It’s About the Individual, Not the Age

• [08:23] – [08:38] Closing loop with consensus:
  • "I think it has to do with individuals." (Weight Loss Advertiser, [08:37])
  • Hosts agree: motivation, attitude, and commitment vary across all ages; generational stereotypes don’t always hold.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [03:48] Caller 1: "Their frustration with the whole industry is all of them are called a nurse. But there's different levels of education... and there's no real delineation."
• [06:11] Nursing Student Caller: "If I ever end up like that, somebody please, you know, tell me."
• [06:35] Radio Host 1: "I'd rather have a nurse that doesn't have a great bedside matter that saves my life... Don't use me for target practice. Right?"
• [07:02] Nursing Student Caller: "My mother... said that [younger nurses] are just not very realistic about an amount of work that's required."
• [07:41] Radio Host 1: "I wonder if you, if we picked any profession, if this would be the argument."

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Segment Timestamps

• [01:31] Introduction of topic: Younger vs. older nurses
• [02:54] Discussing expectations and stereotypes of young and old nurses
• [03:48] The wide range of roles and education within "nursing"
• [04:58] Nursing student’s rebuttal: personal experience with both groups
• [06:35] Hosts’ preference for skill over bedside manner
• [07:02] Caller’s perspective: mother’s long career as a maternity nurse
• [07:41] Reflection on universal generational tension in workplaces
• [07:51] Generational differences among patients
• [08:38] Conclusion: it comes down to individual commitment and empathy, not age

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Show Tone & Atmosphere

The episode maintains The Bert Show’s hallmark blend of real talk and humor, mixing heartfelt anecdotes with comedic banter and honest call-in contributions. The tone is lively, conversational, and at times irreverent, making the serious inquiry into the nursing profession accessible and engaging.

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Transcript

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[Radio Host 2]

The Birch show so are younger nurses worse than older nurses?

[Radio Host 1]

We got a lot of nurses listening at this time.

[Radio Host 2]

A lot of nurses listening. And I never thought about this before. I am a transplant recipient. I'm a patient chronic illness. So I deal with nurses a lot and I love them all because to me, the nurses are the ones who are in the trenches. They're the ones that deal with the patients. They're the ones that see more a lot of times than the doctors do. So it's not in my experience that I've seen this, but recently my mother, Millie Pete was in the hospital in Nashville. And this is about, I guess about a month ago at this point. And so I was up there visiting with her. And a lot of times when someone's in the hospital, if nobody's ever been to a hospital or been there for a while, there's shift changes. And so you have nurses during the day and you have nurses overnight. And a lot of times when you're the family members in a hospital with your loved one, there's a lot of downtime. And so when the nurses come in and do their lab work or do whatever, you get in a conversation. So I was in a conversation with one of these nurses in Nashville and. And I don't know how it came up, but somehow we started talking. Maybe it's about the nursing shortage because there's been nursing shortage for a while. And so she was talking about the new nurses that are coming into the hospitals. And she made the comment that she thought that younger nurses were worse than older nurses because she felt that younger nurses did not care about the patients as much as old nurses did.

[Radio Host 1]

Now, I would almost think as common sense, it would be the other way around because nurses that have been around a while have sort of seen it all. And maybe there's a desensitivity there if you're an older nurse, whereas if you're new, everything's new and exciting. Everybody needs to be catered to.

[Caller 1]

You would think that they would be a little more like, jaded and callous, like, oh, it doesn't hurt that much if you're older.

[Radio Host 2]

Yeah.

[Caller 1]

If you've been doing it for a long time.

[Radio Host 2]

But from her perspective, she felt that she got into nursing simply for care, simply for human care, that she's there as an emotional support for her patients as well as physical support. And I think her theory was that so many of these new nurses that are coming in, who are maybe coming in for the nursing shortage or just because they're young, that they're coming in for the paycheck, they're coming in to do their job, they just go do their rounds, and then they end up staying at the nurse's station the majority of the time, rather than actually getting up and interacting and having these long conversations with their patients.

[Caller 1]

Well, my best friend who's like, my sister is a nurse and her husband is a nurse anesthesis. And their complaint, it's called nurse anesthesis. So it's right below the anesthesiologist.

[Radio Host 1]

Oh, okay.

[Caller 1]

But it's a very specialized form of nursing. But their frustration with the whole industry is all of them are called a nurse. But there's different levels of education all the way through the Whole thing. But there's no real delineation whether you have a two year degree in your nursing or whether you have a four year degree in your nursing, whether you have a graduate degree, or whether you go on and on and get multiple graduate degrees. They call everybody a nurse. So that's their frustration with it. So maybe that's. Maybe that ties into it a little bit too. Like whether the level of education has anything to do with it.

[Radio Host 1]

I wonder if there's an element, like it's a recession now also. So people are out of work. And the nursing industry has always needed people to fill those positions. So anybody can be a nurse. You can be a nurse. You can be a nurse. I wouldn't have thought about it years ago, but now I will. Even though their heart's really not into it. You got some construction worker putting a thermometer in your butt. You can save that for Jeff. You're not even drunk. What's going on? Kim?

[Nursing Student Caller]

Well, good morning. First of all, let me say I love the Burt Show. Thank you.

[Radio Host 2]

Thank you.

[Nursing Student Caller]

Second of all, I am a nursing student currently, and I have about six months left, and I've been in just about every hospital in the metropolitan area. And I totally disagree. You know, it's funny because when you walk into a hospital as a nursing student doing your clinicals, you're kind of sizing up that particular hospital to see, you know, is this someplace I could see myself working? And the older nurses, I mean, you know, and I've been on site wards, pediatrics, labor and delivery. The older nurses are kind of mean. Like, they don't. They, for some reason, they just seem to lack that bedside manner, you know, and the whole reason, I mean, I'm a late, you know, I'm 39, going back to school with two kids, you know, and I did this because I wanted to make a difference. And basically, I don't know what I want to do. I'm the only one that doesn't know. I just know that I want to do indigent care and work, you know, with impoverished people. So nine times out of 10, that means Grady and the older nurses are just atrocious. I mean, they're more. They're great clinicians, I will say that, because they have the life experience and they know a lot more, and I applaud them for that. But when it comes down to just being able to relate to patients, relate to the families of patients, I tend to disagree with her. Not all of them. I mean, I don't mean to. I don't want to generalize by any means and say that all of the older nurses are like that. But nine times out of 10, the nurses that I run into where I'm like, good gracious, if I ever end up like that, somebody please, you know,

[Radio Host 1]

tell me, I'd rather have a nurse that doesn't have a great bedside matter that saves my life. She can be grumpy as long as

[Radio Host 2]

she knows she can be as mean

[Radio Host 1]

as you want me as long as you save my life. Do whatever you want. I will take the biggest A hole nurse who can find my vein on the first trial. Absolutely, man. Don't use me for target practice. Right. Hey, Kathy, Good morning. How's your family?

[Radio Host 2]

Poke, poke, poke, poke, poke.

[Nursing Student Caller]

Good morning. I love you guys.

[Radio Host 1]

Hi. Thank you.

[Nursing Student Caller]

My mother has been a maternity nurse for almost 40 years and I have heard her say more than one time about these younger nurses that are coming in. And it's not that they don't care about the patients or care about why they're there. She said that they're just not very realistic about an amount of work that's required. She says that she has younger nurses always saying, hey, room 14 needs a soda. Can you go give them a soda? Room 14 just wet their bed. Can you go change their sheets? They don't want to do that kind of thing. And my mother is very frustrated with the younger nurses in that sense of the, of the whole realm of things.

[Radio Host 1]

I wonder if you, if we, if we picked any, if we picked any profession, if this would be the argument. Like if you got a whole bunch of flight attendants on right now, I wonder if there'd still be that gender sort of bridge between both.

[Radio Host 2]

Because the argument, even with the nurses, when it comes to the patients, the fact that the nurses were complaining about the younger patients as opposed to the older patients. Because mom, my mother is 80 and she's up out of the bed the first day, up and down the hall like she's, she wants out of that hospital. She, she wants to get out. And the nurses are even like, you know, they have all their 60 plus patients usually end up getting out of the hospital within a couple days. But their 30 and 40 and 50 year old patients are, they say, whining and they don't want to work as hard and they don't want to do what the nurses tell them to do. And they end up being in there like three or four extra days.

[Weight Loss Advertiser]

I think it just has to do with the individual. I have a friend who's 27 years old and has been in nursing for a couple of years now and she's a younger nurse and she has to

[Radio Host 2]

do all that work.

[Weight Loss Advertiser]

She takes the responsibility and goes changes and do does the crap work that

[Radio Host 2]

nobody else wants to do.

[Weight Loss Advertiser]

I think it has to do with individuals.

[Radio Host 1]

I would last two seconds in a hospital when I talk to my sister in law and she tells me some of the things she has to do to people.

[Caller 1]

No way.

[Radio Host 1]

I'd be. I'd literally last 36 hours. As soon as they pointed to somebody else, that'd be it.

[Radio Host 2]

God bless them.

[Caller 1]

Because there's no way I could do it either.

[Radio Host 2]

That goes where what Wendy's saying and I think what Bert, you were saying is like if you're going into nursing for the right reasons in care, all of that has to do with the care because you disregard all that because what you're doing is making the patient feel better. Right. But if you're going into it, just focus on the fluid or focus on, you know, whatever's going on and not thinking about that person as an individual who needs to be healed, then you don't need to be into nursing. You know what I mean?

[Radio Host 1]

I'm way too selfish to be a doctor or nurse.

[Radio Host 2]

Yeah, it's tough. It's tough.

[Nursing Student Caller]

I can't handle.

[Radio Host 2]

I can't handle it. I'm too squeamish.

[Radio Host 1]

Yeah, man, that is a tough gig all the way around. Yeah.

[Radio Host 2]

Another nurse would have to clean up my vomit as I'm trying to nurse somebody else. Yes.

[Caller 1]

I mean, Jeff just said the word ooze and it just about made me barf.

[Radio Host 1]

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