Nurses over 50 &/or with health issues affecting work

nightingale, RN · Jan 12, 2002

The parish nursing forum link is found on the home page under "Nurse Specialties". You will find it alphabetically under Parish Nursing.

B.

Karen4HIM1951 · Jan 13, 2002

HI

We are all looking at many changes in our life - As I told a good friend of mine yesterday - I know that God is directing things,

I know that I will end up where He wants me to be, however,

the roller coaster ride to get there is NO FUN. I'll have to admit that I have been pretty frightened during this ride. If I don't take a Family Medical leave I may loose my job because my thinking is just not up to par - I keep forgetting things and I don't want it to get to the place where I put any patients in jeopardy.

I just need to vent and talk to others who have been going thru similar things and who "know what it's like" while I continue to practice my faith with patience, waiting for His time and not mine!

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

live4today, RN · Jan 13, 2002

Hi Nightngale 1998,

Thanks for the information on where to find the Parish Nurse forum. I wondered where I could locate it. :)

Karen,

Hang in there! Things will start looking up for you, too. You gotta hold on to that hope. You are in my prayers. Feel free to send me a message if you ever need to share beyond this post, or just to have an online friend to vent with. :)

GAEIRERN · Jan 13, 2002

After working in the clinical area for 29 years, my back finally gave out and I called it quits. I managed to find a job doing case management for an insurance company. It isn't the perfect job (and what is, these days?), but at least I'm being allowed to utilize my experience and knowledge in trying to make a difference for our senior population.

workinurse@aol. · Jan 16, 2002

I think this is why we see few nurses over 50 in the hospital. Hospital careers for RN's end far short of 65 due to health reasons or normal aging prevents meeting job demands aimed at healthy YOUNG people.

Your future as you age in Hospital Nursing is just as much "at risk" as is your health if you are a smoker.

We need to network so that as we find ourselves unable to continue hospital work we can find meaningful work with adequate compensation OR we need to guage the work to the age and health of the individual.

Currently the Hospitals want you to "just keep on nursing until your health is gone, then leave quietly and no one will be hurt"

This battlefield mentality is only fairly met with the mercenary attitude or working registry and going with the highest bidder as you trash your health.

Hospitals have no allegiance to nurses, we are not in this together, CEO bonuses and shareholder dividends are the focused goal of the hospital companies and Nurses are simply the biggest "overhead" item on the budget. Your chief financial officer loves to find ways to cut nursing, which leaves you less able to do more tasks, increased stress and circulating stress hormones to do the cummulative damage that steals your health by age 50. Do a search on the effects of Glucocorticoids and stress related diseases and see your future. Look at your fellow aging nurses, you are headed there.

Ben Thair RN · Jan 16, 2002

I have also practiced nursing for more than 25 years...I am so practiced that I am almost getting it right much of the time! It is true that the face of inpatient nursing care has changed dramatically. Nursing and staffing models are weird, shifts are inflexible, acuity is high, rewards are few, administrators view nursing as an expensive budgetary item that cannot be entirely replaced and patients are frightened, angry, defensive, misinformed, mislead and too low on the totem pole of importance within the system (at least the patients haven't changed much!)

I would recommend that my aging colleagues begin the process of moving themselves out of that high pressure, fast pace, high stress environment...and I mean begin the emotional move. I am a critical care and critical care obstetrics nurse. I don't practice that now...I am very happy. But that is what I AM. My heart beats to the rythm of crisis, crashes, precipitous delivery, resusa anything, transport and tribulation. I moved myself emotionally, and intellectually to a place where it was ok for me to be a nurse "of a different color". A place where the physical toll was more manageable, where the stress was more manageable, where the hours were more manageable.

I would recommend looking at all of the many, many ways that we can practice nursing on full-time, part-time and volunteer schedules. Look at consulting, look at legal, look at HMO review, look at rehab, look at correctional, look at hospice, look at parish, look at migrant health, look at community health, look at techical writing, look at education in non-traditional settings. I could go on and on.

We all have to pay our bills, but, ultimately it is not all about the money. If it was just about the money...would most of us "old-timers" have stayed in the fray? I think that it is about who we are...I am a critical care nurse...I just don't live there anymore!

nightingale, RN · Jan 16, 2002

Thank you for posting Ben Thair... curious.. what do you do now?

I am still "in the trenches".. I do not know how much longer I can last... it is such physically demanding work... and my body hurts at the end of the day.. to say nothing at the end of my three in a row (but I want the 4 days remaining off.. so I put up with it)...

I love the excitement too... and my patients.. I love making that connection and being a nurse....

I agree with your philosophy... I am emotionally leaving... to what I am not sure... but my eyes are wide open....

Again, Ben Thair, thank you for your accurate assesment and positive aproach as to where to go with it!

B.:)

mcl4 · Jan 16, 2002

Originally posted by Karen4HIM1951
I'm sure I'm not the first (or the last) nurse to deal with this issue - I've been a Nurse for over 27 years and now I find myself having trouble "keeping up".(( Due to age? Weight? Arthritis? effect of an AA (sustained while working) and other reasons)).

I think it would be great to be able to talk to others about how they are handling things or what they have done in the past (for those who have retired or found alternative means of remaining in Nursing that are easier for them.

Feel free to email me or respond on this buletain board!

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've read all the messages and felt that all nurses should read this thread. It has many inspiring and helpful messages for all age groups of nurses. I listen to a nurse who was in her early twenties speak of chronic back problems and I now wonder how she will do as she ages with the strenous work that is required as a staff nurse?

I have a question and it is in regards to the nurses responding. Is you work history full or part time?

CATHYW · Jan 16, 2002

My work hx is full-time:rolleyes:

nightingale, RN · Jan 16, 2002

I usually work fulltime and usually have two job.. when I take time off it is time off.. for 2-3 weeks at a time to be with family....

B.:)

Uptoherern, RN · Jan 16, 2002

so...what does one nurse year = to in "normal human being" years??? :cool:

live4today, RN · Jan 16, 2002

Erdiane,

I had to laugh when you wrote what does one nurse year equal to human years. My personal take on that question? one nurse year = 5 human years. HA! Gotta laugh out loud or cry until I scream! :rolleyes: