Undersköterskans tysta revolution
en kvalitativ undersökning av hur två generationer undersköterskor upplever sitt arbete
Enrolled nurseOld-age careThe silent revolutionGenerations born in the 1980sGenerations born in the 1950s.
The Swedish old-age care will in the near future face an extensive need to recruit enrolled nurses by virtues of the demographical development. The generation born in the 1940s will soon retire, and at the same time the rest of the population is growing older. One thing that becomes more important in how to draw more people to the old-age care, is to understand how the ones who allready work there experience their own worksituation.The purpose of this study was to find out how enrolled nurses from two different generations experienced their own occupational role and make similarities and differences between the two generations experiences visible. The topics of interest in our study are the respondents own thoughts about their education, their worksituation today, what they think of the future and how they believe others regard their work. To fulfill the purpose of our study we used qualitative interviews. We have performed interviews with three enrolled nurses between 50 and 57 years of age and four enrolled nurses between 20 and 25 years of age.The result was then analyzed with the help of Ingleharts theory ?The silent revolution? and the concept of generations. The results showed that there were differences between the two generations. We can´t either on the basis of the small selection of respondents in our study draw any general conclusions. But some differences that show is that the older generation in a larger extent identify with their own occupational role. We also experience that the older are more satisfied with their work situation. They see possibilities to develop in their profession, which the younger don´t. The younger make demands on more possibilities and are more restless then the older generation. From the result we can also see that eatch generation is relative homogeneous. When their is differences between the generations their is often similarites within the own generation. One thing that both generations have in common and that shows clear in the interviews are the importens of empathy and good treatment.