aging nurses

I've been a nurse for 26 years. When young, I did 16 years as Critical Care Supervisor, 8-12h days and on call day and night for problems! I thived on it! I'm 52 now and I am feeling my age in many ways in todays environment. But my mind hasn't stopped working and I can still plan for yet another transition is my career. I am studying Legal Nurse Consulting, plan on getting my geriatric certification so that I can deal with the law and elder care. I still work 12h shifts F,S,S and don't like the way nursing is being abused by increased work load and decreased staff. I need to move on to what I feel is a natural progression of nursing in what I can comfortably do and enjoy. I think a lot of us are not so eager to encourage new to the profession until changes are made so that the patient is the center of care and not the schedule and the tight budget.

So to all the older nurses who are finding it difficult to maintain the work load, think of how you can expand your knowledge, still use your skills and make yourself a more comfortable career for your older years...just some thoughts...msjenny