Work-Life Balance: What Generation Y Nurses Want

During 2009/2010, a nationwide online survey was undertaken with 358 Generation Y (Gen Y) New Zealand registered nurses to elicit their views about nursing, work, and career.1 The 358 nurses were mostly female (94%), New Zealand European (74.2%), with a mean age of 25 years. The majority (54%) had worked as a registered nurse for less than 1 year, whereas others (36%) had worked between 1 and 4 years. A minority (10%) had worked between 5 and 8 years. This article reports on a small section of the survey related to the Gen Y nurses' views about the notion of a work-life balance. Gen Ys were defined as those born between 1980 and 1994.2