Abstract: The NZNO Younger Nurse survey examined the characteristics of younger nurse members of NZNO (aged under 30) in order to identify potential recruitment and retention strategies for these nurses, and provide information on how best to support younger members to become involved in NZNO activities.
The findings indicate that while most younger nurses enjoy their work and find it rewarding, they also face a range of challenges in the workplace due to their age ?including bullying and poor choice of shifts. Many younger nurses do not feel appropriately paid for the work they do and believe there are insufficient nurses to provide safe care. Over 10% of younger nurses are considering leaving the nursing profession. Many younger nurses feel the emotional challenge of nursing was more than they anticipated and that their education did not prepare them well to manage this.
A range of recommendations are made including the need to improve undergraduate curriculum content on managing the emotional challenges of nursing, the need to implement clinical supervision for all nurses but particularly for those under 30, the need to develop and implement activities to address bullying in the workplace, and the need to improve pay progression scales in employment contracts.
Further research is required to explore why there is a discrepancy between female and male nurses?postgraduate qualifications by age, the particular needs of younger Indian and South East Asian nurses, the discrepancy between younger nurses and older nurses perceptions of insufficient nurses, and what type of emotional stress younger nurses find most challenging.