If you’re a young nurse, I’m sure you rely on older, more experienced nurses for help. Not only is their expertise valuable, but older nurses make up so much of the nursing workforce that hospitals need them. The nursing shortage is certainly looming, making it more important than ever to ensure that older nurses who wish to stay working beyond retirement age can do so, reports Rebecca Hendren for HealthLeaders Media in her latest column.
The Health Resources and Services Administration Bureau of Health Professions found in 2004 that the average RN was 46.8 years old, but many nurses consider what they do a passion and stay working past retirement age. Hospital and nurse leadership can help older nurses thrive in their work environment, which ultimately helps the entire nursing department by preventing a shortage of nurses and allowing older nurses to help mentor new nurses.
Hendren explores the different areas that can be altered to help older nurses, such as allowing more flexibility in the timing and the length of shifts. Hospitals can also offer ways to help older nurses care for elderly parents by providing programs such as adult daycare. And lastly, hospitals can help keep older nurses on longer by implementing a gradual reduction in work hours until retirement.
Does your hospital do any of this? Are there other ways your hospital helps create a friendly environment for older nurses? Share your thoughts below.
September 26th, 2010 at 12:56 am
I just came across this website. Your article caught my attention as I am an older nurse 53 yrs old and have been a hospital bedside nurse for 30 yrs. Since 2008 I have saddly experienced that hospitals do not want us. I found my self unemployed in Jan 2008-a position I loved, and I asked to be terminated after I witnessed a bullying episode and spoke out against it to the nursing assistants who were bullying another RN and I had reported it to my nursing manager who did not believe me.
To make a long story short, I searched for 7 months to find another hospital fulltime position(med/surg/tele) and could only get a per deim position- low census, low hrs to work. Signed on to agency and the same senerio. I had been taking temporary positions- includinga temporary, 6 month, grant funded position with my state dept of health and trying to share the care of my mother who is 83yr w/ alzheimers, w/ my sister. I continued to keep the hospital per deim position which began to have an issue with both my temp DOH position and caring for my mother. I was terminated. The real issue for them was my careing for my mother(3 hr/ night monday - friday) and not being acessiable to them SHOULD they call for me to come in PER DEIM(this was not an on-call position)The nursing manager of my unit @ Deborah Heart and LUNG Center in NJ began to call me @ my temporary position @ the DOH(M-F 8A-4:30P) and ask me to stop by the hosptial on my way home to discuss charting and computer issues. Sent me to the nurse educator who the first words out of her mouth was the labeling me “the sandwich generation”. I would sign up to work my required perdeim hrs(24 hrs/ 6 weeks)for 7A-7P on the weekends. I had before this temp position been responding to and going in @ their “per deim” call @5:30A during the week for 7A-7P- and then mostly getting cancelled @ 3P on the days I went in. This hospital began to call me to come in for 11-7 during the week days knowing that for 6 months I could not do those hrs. I went in one night @7P only to work 4 hrs and was cancelled for the last 8 hrs. I sent an e-mail to my manager telling her about the temp position and the hours and that I am a single partent and needed the full time hrs. This hospital had just got rid of all their senior nurses when I first started there- the nurses were handed early retirement packages and told if they did not accept the package they were going to be terminated and would loose their retirement.
No, these hospitals do not want us- that message is very clear over many of the nursing blog sites also, and my working temp positions and sometimes agency I come across alot of us older nurses in the same boat- not being able to find permenant positions and forced to work temp, or agency, no health insurance, barely making ends meet. I have kept in touch with many of my past colleages my age who are hanging on by a thread to their fulltime position in the place they have been at for 30 years- the nurse manager is making their life a living hell- by telling them to come in 6:30A one morning , 8A another morning and this is on the unit schedule this way, giving poor performance evaluations- saying the only positive thing about them is “beautiful handwritting”. We are treated with complete disrespect, disreguard and down right rudeness and insults to our faces, some of us endure nurse managers’ harassment and threats while on other jobs. We are treated like garbage. Some I know have been denied time off for chemotherapy treatments and Dr. appointments, f/u visits from having Cardiac Catheterizations. The treatment of us older nurses is disgusting(to the point of physically dangerous to our medical safety) and by Nursing Management with their BSN’s and MSN’s(some even going for their Doctorate’s)This is a very sad time for nursing. Gone are the nursing managers that used to value the older, senior nurses on their staff. I do remember those days. There is no excuse for the behavior being exhibited now a days. It is cruel and abusive. I am sorry for these new grads-I know they need a seasoned resource nurse, but I am not going to seek any more employment in any hospital again and am trying to get out of nursing altogether. This is one time, nursing is not going to blame the patients or the doctors.
April 15th, 2011 at 9:24 pm
after having a very extended LOA d/t a health problem that was unexpected, I hve been searching the avenues outside the hospital where i was terminated. I hve been a nurse since 1992,excellent record with no suspensions in my career…i hve been turned down by home health centers, med express jobs, any job i hve applied for, i hve not received any offers of a job. I am 57 yrs. young and trully do believe that is the major factor in my getting a job..,don’t know how to fight this,,they can always find some other reason not to hire me, was released by dr. to return 2 work 11-6-2010 and have been looking for work since
October 23rd, 2011 at 4:21 am
Yes, I believe that you two are right…there does seem to be a trend of
disrespect and rejection of the skills of the older nurse today. It doesn’t really make any sense, since experienced nurses are really needed in the
hospital environment. The technology and type of patients that we are caring for require someone who knows what they’re doing. A lot of newer nurses really don’t seem to stay that long, there is a lot of turnover. I’m seeing that most of all the nurses around me at work are younger than me. It wasn’t too long ago when they were mostly my age. I’ve been in this over 20 years, so I think that most of them that were my age have gotten out for some reason. The main thing that bothers me though, is the lack of respect. They see that your face is older looking and I guess that they just surmise that you aren’t that competent. Rudeness though is rampant and actually, it’s being directed at all ages. Very sad. You’d think that we’d have people who CARE about one another, but nursing is attracting a lot of people who just want to get in it for the money.