preview

Communication Across Generations Essay

Good Essays

Communication across Generations
Supervising staff and volunteers from ages fourteen to ninety can be a challenging task. These age groups make up the four different generations: Traditionalist, Baby Boomers, Generation X’ers, and Generation Y’ers. Traditionalist, (born 1925-1946) may need a little prodding to communicate their needs and they prefer written communication plans. Baby Boomers, (born 1946-1964) are aware of technology but still prefer to communicate by telephone and they call themselves the age of the memo. Generation X’ers, (born 1965-1982) commonly prefer short concise communication. Generation Y’ers, (born 1983-2000) prefer short, quick e-mails, texting and mobile phone applications to communicate. The hospital …show more content…

Her name kept appearing on a list, indicating she needed to complete this task. I emailed her three times with the step-by-step directions about how to complete the declination form. She never responded to me or completed this task. My director instructed her to complete this task and walked her through the process. As a member of the Traditionalist Generation, she respects authority, not wanting to disappoint my director. I should have paid closer attention to her nonverbal communication and gone to her for task completion. Being a member of this generation, I may fail to listen actively to those Baby Boomer and Traditionalists that I interact with daily.
This incident also raises another issue. POH employees depend on e-mail and the intranet for our as our main sources of communication, but we still have employees who are unsure of their computer literacy. All employees should receive mandatory training on e-mailing and the intranet to be competent in these areas. The ability to provide our patients with a remarkable patient experience is the number-one responsibility of our staff. Each generation has their own communication style, these styles allows them to provide a remarkable patient experience for all our patients. Without communication tools, each generation is unable to communicate to the patient.
I have a patient advocate who reports to me. She is a member of the Baby Boomer Generation. Her communication style

Get Access