Ageism - 61 Yr Old & Need to go Back to Work after 3 Yrs off Taking Care of Wife

Nurses Nurse Beth

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  • Career Columnist / Author
    Specializes in Tele, ICU, Staff Development.

Hi Nurse Beth,

I'm a 61 year old male RN with 25 years of experience in hospitals at Med Surg and some Home Health experience. I haven't worked in 3 years because my wife stroked and I've had her at home, arguing with insurance and disability entities. She's paralyzed. I need to go back to work. With 3 years out of work, I'm very worried about returning and I need a different position, off the floor. Any opinions about choices and possible difficulties would be welcome. I worked over a decade at my last position. I did experience the ageism thing, deeply. The unit was run by cliques and a Manager who fed into them. I would appreciate a frank reply.


Dear 61 years old,

I'm sorry about your wife's stroke.

You should be able to land something with 25 years of experience and an explainable 3 year gap.

Network-you have 25 years of connections. Let everyone know you are job hunting.

Prepare a short elevator speech to be ready when the opportunity presents.

Your choices depend somewhat on if your have your BSN or not. Case management, infection prevention, and several other "off the floor" jobs usually require a BSN. Are you interested in trying Home Health again? How about a dialysis clinic or telephonic nursing? Check out insurance companies and managed care entities to see what they offer- you have a lot of personal experience now due to your situation.

Re: ageism - you are right, it exists. Read Ageism in Nursing

To combat ageism, never put yourself down, refer to yourself as "old" or imply in any way that you are not technologically up to speed. Stay fit and project energy. Get a LinkedIn profile and put it on your resume.

Best to you and your wife,

Nurse Beth

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CrunchRN, ADN, RN

4,530 Posts

Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

Look and apply at any and all outpatient positions. You can sell yourself and get a job. What region are you in?

middleagednurse

554 Posts

Specializes in nurseline,med surg, PD.

Check out insurance companies. I was hired by an ins company at the age of 63.

Axgrinder

256 Posts

Specializes in Adult MICU/SICU.

I have to agree with Nurse Beth - why not look into telephone triage nursing? Some places will even allow you to work from home.

I medically retired in 2004 after working as an ICU RN for ten years. I had become gravely ill with SLE and didn't expect to live: I did.

At the end of 2013 I recovered enough to return to work in the right environment, however I was faced with the daunting task of finding employment after nearly 10 years on SSI medical disability. It was frightening, and my prospects seemed dismal after such a long hiatus. Medical disability wasn't exactly a glowing reference I could use on my resume.

SSI recipients had a work vocational program option available supposedly designed to assist prospective annuitants in re-entry to the work force - I'm am sorry say that was not the case. After expending much energy on that, I discovered it would be of no help at all. I had to do it all on my own.

I was a retired federal employee, but not a veteran. The nurse recruiter of the VA hospital I retired from acidly told me they were under no obligation to assist me with returning to work: she said I held no special privileges any other nonemployee had (I figured that since I also drew federal retirement benefits they would rather pay me to work, rather than pay me not to work. Not the case).

I struck gold with a telephone triage gig. I returned to work full time March 2014, and after 9 months of steady employment I applied to withdraw from collecting SSI. I have been working full time ever since.

I can honestly say it is the best nursing job I ever had, and I work from home. No one ever asked me why I had been out of nursing for 10 years in my interviews. My boss is awesome, and my coworkers are amazing. I love what I do, and I discovered I'm good at it: bonus! The pay is comparable to a floor nursing job.

If you've never considered it I urge you to look into it now. Your age really isn't a deterrent to being hired - your past work experience will speak for itself.

Good luck in your job hunting quest, and I hope your wife's health steadily strengthens.

Axgrinder

256 Posts

Specializes in Adult MICU/SICU.

Did I mention that I also work from home?

After 6 wks of on site orientation IT came out to my house and set me up with all the necessary equipment to do my job. And because high speed internet is essential for me to work, they reimburse me the cost every month.

On my lunch hour (a FULL hour) I can prepare my meals in my own kitchen, sit in my spa - or even take a nap if I want to.

Plus, it is the shortest commute I've ever had. :)

Career Columnist / Author

Nurse Beth, MSN

146 Articles; 3,457 Posts

Specializes in Tele, ICU, Staff Development.
I have to agree with Nurse Beth - why not look into telephone triage nursing? Some places will even allow you to work from home.

I medically retired in 2004 after working as an ICU RN for ten years. I had become gravely ill with SLE and didn't expect to live: I did.

I struck gold with a telephone triage gig. I returned to work full time March 2014, and after 9 months of steady employment I applied to withdraw from collecting SSI. I have been working full time ever since.

I can honestly say it is the best nursing job I ever had, and I work from home. No one ever asked me why I had been out of nursing for 10 years in my interviews. My boss is awesome, and my coworkers are amazing. I love what I do, and I discovered I'm good at it: bonus! The pay is comparable to a floor nursing job.

If you've never considered it I urge you to look into it now. Your age really isn't a deterrent to being hired - your past work experience will speak for itself.

Good luck in your job hunting quest, and I hope your wife's health steadily strengthens.

That is such an inspiring story. Can you tell us more about what the job entails? Is it for an insurance company? Thanks!

Axgrinder

256 Posts

Specializes in Adult MICU/SICU.

The job is telephone triage nursing. It is for an organization that mainly gives primary care to the indigent population of patients in our community. It has grown over the past 40 years to over 10 clinics - big ones - all over town: family practice, internal medicine, communicable diseases, OB/GYN, pediatrics, behavioral health, and dental. There are on site pharmacies and labs at each one.

In telephone triage we take incoming calls that can't just be scheduled by the call reps, and we triage - deciding if they are safe to wait for an appt, refer to ER/UC if necessary, or give home care advice. We do a lot of problem solving too: fixing messed up RX's sent to pharmacies, contacting on call MD's for various reasons, giving out lab results, or tracking down pt's after hours with critical lab results after the clinics close. Many times we need to arrange transportation to and from appts because many pt's don't have private owned vehicles. Many pt's are not English speakers, so we use various telephone interpretation services depending on their insurance in a conference call. Some pt's don't qualify for insurance, and they are on a much reduced sliding scale. We do a lot of behaviaral health crisis intervention. Some stuff is too convoluted to mention - but we do that too.

I never considered this as an option before, but this really is the best nursing job I ever had, and I love it. I may have recovered enough to return to work, but I would never have survived running around floor nursing for 12+ hour shifts ever again. It really is the best of both worlds. And they gave me a chance when I had been out of nursing - or any kind of employment - for 10 years, no questions asked. Everyone I work with is wonderful - plus, I trust every single one of them to watch my back when things go sideways, as they can and often do. I got majorly luckly. If it could happen for me, it can happen for Nurse61 as well (the greatest friend I ever had also works with me - she is 63).

Seasoned nurses are in demand. Go get that job Nurse61! The perfect one is just waiting for you!

morgieb

69 Posts

God bless you! I think your experience far outweighs your age. There are nurses who work well into their 80s and beyond. You would be a great resource to anywhere that hired you. I wish you an abundance of peace, blessings as well as job prospects!

ACTVRACHAN

2 Posts

I hope things work out for you. Try a Methadone maintenance clinic. The work is age appropriate and work is very satisfying.

Thank you.

Buyer beware, BSN

1,137 Posts

Specializes in GENERAL.

OP: you want frankness, right? You don't want sugercoated pablum, correct? OK, tell me have you noticed that not one of the previous threads identified which company or locality they actually work for or live in. Why? Because it's a big pie in the sky, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm secret.

Studies have shown that the vast majority of people who lose their jobs one way or the other and are in their 50-60s are put out to pasture and relagated to the ash heap of history.

This is why although the unemployment rate of 4.7% sounds like full employment it's a total joke. The workforce participation rate is the metric that tells the real story and that is but 62% of all able bodied workers. So, that 38%, which includes you, are pretty much out in the cold unless one of the previous Scarlett O'haras wants to turn you on to a good thing. But don't hold your breath.

So despite the doom and gloom, I'm still buckin' for you my good-hearted colleague.

Dafabb, LPN

123 Posts

Specializes in Med/Surg/.

Are you always so negative in life???

Dafabb, LPN

123 Posts

Specializes in Med/Surg/.

AGE 61- This thread has some great ideas. I know a lot of RNs who went into the insurance part. They love it. I am an LVN and I went to work for the state thru an agency at 63. Why don't you personally write to these Nurses and then I am sure they will tell you who and where. Many do not want to divulge that on a public forum. Working from home would be great with your wife in need. There are a lot of needs there. I don't know where you live so check with these nurses for a good head start. If you have good experience and the need is there your age will not matter in most cases...Telephonic is always in need and that would be a great job for you........I wish you well........

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