Ageism in Nursing?

Nurses General Nursing

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I read a comment in Twitter where an older nurse was pulled aside and told to speed up. Getting older is tough and involves many factors that determine the amount and kind of work that a person can handle. Right now, even younger nurses are getting burnt out. I was thinking about the work nurses do and the speed at which we accomplish tasks. Do you think ageism is playing a part in the hiring process? Do you think nursing programs are responsible in providing information about the burnout problem in nursing before taking money, especially from student loans? There needs to be transparency in nursing from education to practice. 

At 67 I was perfectly capable of keeping up with any one of the younger nurses.  

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When I read the line downthread about patient loads getting heavier, I thought about the patients I have cared for for the last few months. Nobody has weighed less than 250lbs. My last patient was 350. (COVID patients tend to run larger than average). Protecting your back from injury is a big factor to keeping up in nursing, and I am very careful about moving people, even with assist. 

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Specializes in Primary Care, Military.
23 minutes ago, RNperdiem said:

When I read the line downthread about patient loads getting heavier, I thought about the patients I have cared for for the last few months. Nobody has weighed less than 250lbs. My last patient was 350. (COVID patients tend to run larger than average). Protecting your back from injury is a big factor to keeping up in nursing, and I am very careful about moving people, even with assist. 

I was actually thinking about the number of patients, but your point is true, as well. I'll never forget working in the ER and helping coworkers shift a patient up in bed. The patient was in a bariatric bed and, despite it being locked, the amount of force created by shifting this patient up in bed caused the bed itself to slide forward and to run over the foot of one of my male coworkers. I'll never forget the look on his face. It was a shock that nothing was broken, but it did cause the big toe's toenail to fall off from the trauma. ?

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Nursing ages you like hardly any other profession does.

So those "old" nurses are not always so old, chronologically. Some are in their 30s and injured. Some are in their 60s and are speedy.

But old nurses cost a lot of money; so why not give them the old heave-ho when they appear to slow down? UGH.

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Specializes in school nurse.
On 9/14/2021 at 2:21 PM, Hoosier_RN said:

On hearing this, I declined to hire, sent to other area clinic managers, who, when they did hire, regretted it. Long story short, older nurses may struggle, but some young nurses ain't cooking it up, either

If you didn't want to hire them why did you then pass them on to others? Was there some kind of HR process you had to follow?

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Specializes in Dialysis.
22 minutes ago, Jedrnurse said:

If you didn't want to hire them why did you then pass them on to others? Was there some kind of HR process you had to follow?

Because, some large companies require that a "warm body" doesn't get passed up. Yes, as far as process, I told the recruiter that the interviewee wasn't a good fit for our clinic, but was willing to interview at any of our other locations, or possibly would be. I've talked to friends in hospital management, and it happens there as well. Interviewee isn't a "good fit" for ER/ICU/L&D (name a specialty), recruiter will ask if they want to interview for med surg or psych (like they are bottom of the barrel), just to keep that warm body. With the current shortages of permanent employees, it's probably not happening much, they are getting hired right up

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Approximately 1/3 of new nurses leaving nursing after the first 2-3 years. That's a lot. I think in order to retain these nurses, we need to look at the expectations of the job. Most cite burnout. So the work enviroment  is playing a factor. Are hospitals weeding out those who can't tolerate the work environment in order to create an ideal team of nurses. I'm thinking ideally, that's what they want. 

We see that age may not be a factor in this post. However, is it fair that the environment is so demanding that 1/3, who paid and spent their time to become a nurse, leave in 2 yrs? I don't consider these nurses flakes. They got thru nursing school. They couldn't have seen what was coming to make them want to leave their new career after that much investment. 1/3 is a lot of nurses who basically stated this is not working for me on many levels. To assume that many of the nurses who left are weak, slackers, or flakes is supporting the environment that made them want to leave. To epitomise the nurse who works at mach 10 with a 10/10 resilience factor (some hyperbole) is setting a dangerous precedent. To make a nurse feel like a failure and a flake as a result of this kind of environment can lead to bullying. The rolling of the eyes, the sharp tone of voice, the lack of engagement r/t frustration of a new nurse learning. The "we'll get her in line" sort of mentality... There is a loss of some good, empathetic, intelligent nurses out there that could have succeeded but for this abusive environment.

If this is the case, then the schools and HR have the responsibility to let that applicant know ahead of time what the expectations are. Most have to start out in the hospital. Transparency needs to be set for these kinds of programs. List the good and bad. Nursing has only gotten worse. It's not family friendly or nurse friendly and it's filled with risk. 

 

 

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My above comment speaks to the culture of nursing, the "Nurses Eat Their Own" culture that helps the hospitals keep the abuses going. This hurts all ages. 

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Specializes in Dialysis.
On 9/18/2021 at 11:04 AM, AtomicNurse said:

If this is the case, then the schools and HR have the responsibility to let that applicant know ahead of time what the expectations are. Most have to start out in the hospital. Transparency needs to be set for these kinds of programs. List the good and bad. Nursing has only gotten worse. It's not family friendly or nurse friendly and it's filled with risk. 

My clinic has 1 unfilled nurse position, which is no big deal, it only adds a few hours a week to each nurse there, but during interviews, I don't know how many have said "I won't work early mornings, evenings, nights, weekends or holidays" (so far they've all been recent grads). When told that all of those are required for healthcare, especially in a dialysis clinic, I've also heard that " I was told nursing hours and work environments are very flexible", like it's our faults that patients need care, and it's not just M-F 8-5. I wish the healthcare industry would quit perpetuating this myth of flexibility, as many with flexibility had to work years to get it, it didn't usually come right out of school

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Specializes in Med-Surg/Tele/ER/Urgent Care.
On 9/17/2021 at 8:33 AM, HarleyvQuinn said:

 Back and other musculoskeletal injuries from the job that create limitations can occur at any age. This is a very important factor to remember, especially with the increased acuity and heavier caseloads that nurses are carrying during the pandemic. You don't have to be "old" to find yourself moving slowly because you're in pain from an injury, or suddenly in need of surgery yourself. It doesn't matter how good or experienced a nurse you are, Admin has little use for a "broken employee" whom they just see as someone who can't keep up. 

So then move to a different type of work setting! One where you aren’t using your body to move patients that are large. Take your nursing knowledge and use it elsewhere. Nursery, school nursing, preop admits, clinics, case management, education, public health etc etc. Worked with a nurse that injured shoulder on telemetry. Encouraged him to apply to urgent care clinic the hospital was planning to open. He started as staff RN eventually became nurse manager.

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Specializes in Primary Care, Military.
11 hours ago, PollywogNP said:

So then move to a different type of work setting! One where you aren’t using your body to move patients that are large. Take your nursing knowledge and use it elsewhere. Nursery, school nursing, preop admits, clinics, case management, education, public health etc etc. Worked with a nurse that injured shoulder on telemetry. Encouraged him to apply to urgent care clinic the hospital was planning to open. He started as staff RN eventually became nurse manager.

Personally, I did. I advanced my education and chose FNP. I was merely pointing out that age doesn't necessarily equate to "slow," as it could instead be the result of injury. ?‍♀️

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On 9/17/2021 at 9:21 PM, SmilingBluEyes said:

But old nurses cost a lot of money; so why not give them the old heave-ho when they appear to slow down? UGH.

^^^This^^^  In my opinion, the mandatory BSN, imposed by many hospitals, is a veiled attempt at getting rid of senior nurses who are at the top of their pay scales.  The unsaid rationale, is that it's better to hire in new grads at a significant cost savings. Over the years, I've worked with quite a few '50 something' year old nurses, who were not grandfathered in and faced termination in a few years without meeting this requirement.  To pay out thousands of dollars and go through the hassle to obtain a BSN, was a bad BCR, and a deal breaker for many older nurses who later decided just to step down and take early retirement. Sad, when a BSN (and I have one), is such a superfluous, meaningless degree and is no substitute for years of experience.

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