Understanding Millennial Nurses in Clinical Practice

The study examined the attitudes and behaviors of millennial nurses towards their self, work and profession as evaluated by themselves and their heads in Riyadh hospitals. The research design used was sequential-explanatory mixed method research. The population comprised of millennial staff nurses in Riyadh tertiary hospitals. Two hundred nurses were sampled from tertiary hospitals selected in Riyadh Region. Questionnaires and semi-structured questions were used to collect data for the study. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as frequency and percentages, and weighted mean while the hypothesis was tested using pearson’s chi square at 0.05 level of significance. The result showed that the millennial nurses value the privacy with personal, colleague and patient information; they tend to look for regular tenure in the nursing workplace, and believe in the power of education for professional growth. The findings also shown that nurses self-adheres to the standards of the profession for self-development; complete assigned tasks, but often missed other information uncovered while performing the task and have an opportunity to learn from mistakes made without patient consequences. There is a significant difference on the attitudes and behavior of millennial nurses based on the evaluation of respondents. The communication barrier, culture of homogeneity and the knowledge and skills gap were the identified issues and challenges faced by millennial nurses. Based on the findings, it is recommended that the human resource department take in consideration the attitude and behavior of millennial nurses in recruitment, adequacy of the program that focus on clinical competency and conduct training that will develop their generational characteristics towards work.