TY  - JOUR
A1  - Helaß, Madeleine
A1  - Greinacher, Anja
A1  - Götz, Sebastian
A1  - Müller, Andreas
A1  - Gündel, Harald
A1  - Junne, Florian
A1  - Nikendei, Christoph
A1  - Maatouk, Imad
T1  - Age stereotypes towards younger and older colleagues in registered nurses and supervisors in a university hospital: A generic qualitative study
JF  - Journal of Advanced Nursing
N2  - Aim
This study aimed to identify and compare age stereotypes of registered nurses and supervisors in clinical inpatient settings.
Design
Generic qualitative study using half‐standardized interviews.
Method
Nineteen face‐to‐face interviews and five focus groups (N = 50) were conducted with nurses of varying levels at a hospital of maximum medical care in Germany between August and November 2018 and were subjected to structured qualitative content analysis.
Results
Reflecting the ageing process and cooperation in mixed‐age teams, nursing staff and supervisors defined similar age stereotypes towards older and younger nurses reminiscent of common generational labels ‘Baby Boomers’ and Generations X. Their evaluation created an inconsistent and contradictory pattern differing to the respective work context and goals. Age stereotypes were described as both potentially beneficial and detrimental for the individual and the cooperation in the team. If a successfully implemented diversity management focuses age stereotypes, negative assumptions can be reduced and cooperation in mixed‐age teams can be considered beneficial.
Conclusion
Diversity management as measures against age stereotypes and for mutual acceptance and understanding should include staff from various hierarchical levels of the inpatient setting.
KW  - age stereotypes
KW  - nurses
KW  - older employees
KW  - qualitative approaches
KW  - supervisors
KW  - younger employees
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-262751
VL  - 78
IS  - 2
SP  - 471
EP  - 485
ER  -