Ageism in Nursing

Ageism in Nursing describes the ostracism older nurses experience, which is adverse to Healthcare.

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Ageism in Nursing

I've been a registered nurse for almost 30 years, having worked in British Columbia and Quebec, Canada, then Louisiana, Vermont, and Washington State.

Nurses care for patients across the lifespan. A large aging population makes the elderly a majority.

According to a UN report in 20191, the elderly represent 9% of the world's population. These numbers vary. Canada, and USA, and other wealthy countries have a higher aging population, with Canada and USA being in the top 50 countries with the largest number of older adults2.

An older nursing population correlates with the elderly population.

How Does This Affect Healthcare?

The nursing shortage will only worsen as nurses retire. Aging nurses face ostracism in healthcare.

I grew up in poverty and had to work starting at age 14 as a waitress. I learned to work very hard. I've mastered multitasking. I've mastered being optimal in interpersonal skills conversing well with my patients and their families who love me. I've mastered the basic skills of caring and empathy.

Being a visible minority, a Wetʼsuwetʼen (Athabascan) woman, I mastered gaining the trust of many patients, especially ailing native patients who are underrepresented in healthcare. I had to be twice as good in all walks of life. I found myself proving my proficiency minus the stereotypes. I overcame these stereotypes with time, and colleagues have come to see me as a "guru" in nursing.

But ...

I Didn't Master Ageism

I don't know how to overcome this stigma. I've been called a mature nurse, encouraged to retire, etc., from upper management.

Now, I'm facing the ostracism of being an aging nurse. Ostracism is manifested by not being hired for other jobs within my organization. It means not being recognized for being an amazing nurse.

It's disheartening not to be recognized. Lack of recognition was another major issue nurses perceived as a cause of lack of motivation3, and more disheartening that healthcare has become money oriented. If quality matters, aging nurses will be upheld. After all, we know heart rhythms, signs of impending sepsis, etc. We call an impending crisis. We are trained to count IV drips to the second to ensure the ordered IV intake is met within safe limits. Nowadays, everything is computerized.

Younger nurses might not sharply recognize an impending crash and might not know how to calculate IV rates in cases of power outages.

I don't know if ageism in nursing will be solved. It's like a snake eating its own tail. The high elderly population with complex needs populate healthcare. While in healthcare, ageism denies aging nurses being held in high regard.

Many older nurses chose to leave. I did.

Ironically, in 1999 when I was nursing for 5 years, I was picked over an older nurse for a job. Then, I felt empowered. Now I know why. It was cheaper to choose me as a young 20-something nurse instead of an older, higher-paid, more experienced, and more competent older nurse. But it still cost as much to train me. 

As an aging nurse, I aspire to bring more awareness to issues in nursing.

Ageism needs to be addressed more. Healthcare needs older nurses for quality care.

References/Resources

1 World Population Prospects 2019: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2019)

2 Countries With the Oldest Populations in the World: Population Reference Bureau

3 Proactive Strategy to Improve Staff Engagement: National Center for Biotechnology Information/National Library of Medicine

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Wetsuweten Cynthia

About Wetsuweten Cynthia

Im a witsuwit'en athabascan woman, having worked for 30 yrs in remote to urban areas. I am a mother to Terry & Carissa, amazing adult children, wife to Ghasan, and Grandma to Dade. I recently published," A Stethoscope with my Mocassins," on Amazon.

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Healthcare needs to recognize and value what we all bring to the table. Older nurses have a wealth of experience,  including things not learned in books. Younger nurses will have a broader scope of knowledge,  albeit not put into practice yet. Both are needed. Leadership needs to recognize this, but it's often money which makes the final decisions. Follow the dollar.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

What kind of recognization are you not getting?  Are you not getting good performances evaluations or raises?

That's sad that upper management would encourage you to retire.  That kind of agist harassment I'm pretty sure isn't legal here in Florida.  

I'll be 64 on my next birthday and I don't think I've experienced ageism yet.  I still get good reviews and make the maximum salary allowed.  People come to me with questions and ask advice all day long.  I precept new grads and am the mentor.  

Good luck.  I'm sorry you feel this way, but not sure you should brand the whole profession as one that ostracizes older nurses.  In my opinion and experience only.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

I echo Tweety's comments: what are you looking for?

I'm almost 65 and I've not experienced ageism at least...not yet. I plan to work much longer. I do know that as an APRN my value is not based on my age but rather on my knowledge and my ability to be a productive member of the practice. 

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

Nurse Beth wrote a good article about it here.  

I haven't had to apply for a job as I age, so I'm not sure how that would go at my age.  But I would ask for more money than a younger worker and with four to six years left to retirement I imagine a younger cheaper worker would be more desirable.  

I don't see them pushing out older workers in favor of younger ones though.  Right now a body is a body and they are keen to keep the bodies they have, especially after covid.

I will say they about a year ago they combined our unit with the unit next door to create one unit and the manager position they eliminated was my manager who was 70 at the time but not quite ready to retire and gave it to the other manager who was 50 something.  Obviously age, not experience played a role in deciding who to let go, although the 50 something had been a manager over 10 years and had about 25 years in nursing.   The older one was understanding and decided to go part time working as the house supervisor a couple of 12 -hour days a week.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.
traumaRUs said:

I'm almost 65 and I've not experienced ageism at least...not yet. I plan to work much longer. I do know that as an APRN my value is not based on my age but rather on my knowledge and my ability to be a productive member of the practice. 

A former poster who that I'm friends with on facebook is an NP and is 60 and just started a new job with a new practice.

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Specializes in Med surg, community health,.

You are fortunate to not have experienced ageism. Perhaps I should add that Im a very visible native american woman. I , too, get the best reviews from my patients, peers, and their families. I am addressing comments pertaining to retiring, as I couldnt comprehend why. I don't want to jump to the fact being native american is the reason, as I've experienced much bias my entire life, but I want to be more general. Im an old visible native american nurse- very marginalized ?

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Yes, I agree there is age discrimination in nursing, especially in management level and non-bedside jobs, but this reflects the same long-standing trend in corporate America in general.  The Supreme Court has made it very difficult to fight age discrimination in the courts further emboldening companies bad behavior.  But it also depends on the company culture where you work.  Where I worked age discrimination was apparent for non-bedside management jobs even before Ascension took over. 

I watched 2 CNO's be fired and sent out the door by security one after the other, both experienced older women, however, I wasn't personally upset due to their arrogant behavior bragging about their McMansions one minute and voting to demote a nurse's clinical ladder pay the next.  Then another kind, experienced older but overweight educator was let go and replaced by a young attractive woman who looked like the star from the Gilmore Girls. It took the 2 CNO's a year to get another job and the educator over 6 months and I believe age discrimination was a big reason why. 

The educator ended up getting a job as an adjunct instructor at the local university, while I'm sure the pay was probably bad it offered health insurance which isn't usual.  She was good with money, had savings, a pension and her house was paid for.   Most importantly she enjoyed the job; it was meant for her as she loved to teach and mentor and her students loved her!

We were taken over by Ascension which was notorious for laying off its staff even floor nurses and making them reapply for their jobs, and if they were chosen forcing them to take a paycut!    But we were union so they couldn't do that to us.  I had heard this first from a nurse who moved to Milwaukee regarding what they put her older coworkers thru.  Also confirmed by a married nurse couple who were laid off at the same place and now working as travelers during covid making big bucks off Ascension.

At Aurora, another competitor, I heard the same thing they would write up and fire older nurses if they didn't leave on their own.  I remember a news article where a CNO there mentioned they needed experienced nurses for a new hospital they were opening but her tone made it obvious that she really didn't want to hire them, rather focusing on personality but accepting the fact they needed experience in a small, new hospital.  It was ironic, rude, disrespectful, but funny that as much as she didn't want experienced nurses she knew she needed them!

Now Froedtert, on the other hand, hired older nurses and had a positive reputation overall, although, I talked to a former coworker who had a great radiology nursing gig there and told me the whole team was laid off when the hospital decided to cut costs and pay less.  

So age discrimination is rampant and I believe it's about the money.  However, I'm sure it's less obvious now given the fact that 500,000 plus nurses have walked away from bedside and/or nursing entirely including taking early retirement so employers are probably more desperate and willing to accept older nurses.  I, too, took early retirement end of 2020 and I'm very glad I did.

For me personally as a new nurse I encountered a few older nurses who didn't want to deal with training and wanted to coast and do the least possible, but I would say it was just a few.  As I got older I experienced some rude comments from a couple new grads who thought they were superior when in reality they had lots to learn, but that was more the exception.  All these people moved on fairly quickly and I didn't let them bother me.  The majority of my coworkers grew to like and respect me for my knowledge and experience. 

I do want to add that I believe the pre-covid push to force older working nurses to get their BSN or be fired was also an age discrimination tactic.  It makes no financial sense to go back to school and get your BSN as an older nurse when you are looking toward retirement and most places don't pay tuition, nor salary increase, nor time off for study.  At best, they may pay a small stipend, a couple grand, that doesn't begin to pay the cost of these programs. 

The hospitals that forced nurses to get their BSN made a choice to coerce and financially disadvantage older nurses when they could so easily have simply grandfathered them in if they truly valued them.  It was about exerting power over them and forcing them to spend thousands simply to keep the job they already had in my opinion.  Their years of hands on nursing experience is far more valuable than any BSN diploma!  Very devaluing and disrespectful!

I wonder what will happen now that so many nurses have walked away since covid.  Will they still enforce these BSN requirements or will it go by the wayside in order to keep the staff nurses they have rather than pay travelers megabucks. On the other hand, nurses that get their BSN may decide to go on and get their NP and leave the hospital altogether so it may backfire on them in the end.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.
Wetsuweten Cynthia said:

You are fortunate to not have experienced ageism. Perhaps I should add that Im a very visible native american woman. I , too, get the best reviews from my patients, peers, and their families. I am addressing comments pertaining to retiring, as I couldnt comprehend why. I don't want to jump to the fact being native american is the reason, as I've experienced much bias my entire life, but I want to be more general. Im an old visible native american nurse- very marginalized ?

I acknowledge you and didn't mean to diminish your experiences with agism.  I wouldn't take kindly at all to someone saying I should retire and might make a complaint to HR if they do.  

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I found there was indeed age discrimination PRE-COVID, now, NO! At 69 y/o I have been Blessed with one of the best and most satisfying and rewarding positions in my entire career.

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