Oldest Nurse

[KY RN]

What is the oldest nurse you've worked with?

I just found out I worked with a nurse that is 95 years old. ( She works 3 -12's a week on a busy med-surg floor.) HOLY GUACAMOLE!!!! I thought she was in her 50's and she told me that she was 95. She has been at this facility as a nurse for 83 years. She started when she was 12. She also has two teenage foster children. Talk about stamina. :bowingpur

This nurse can run rings around me and everyone else on the floor while looking nice in her make-up and hair. I asked when she would retire. She said,"when they carry me to the funeral home." I can only hope I have the energy she does at her age.

[EarthChild1130]

We had a nurse who came 2 hours a week to our clinic to administer injections. She just retired 2 months ago at the 'young' age of 90. She and her 94 year-old boyfriend now travel around the state visiting friends and she was voted activities director of the apartment complex where she lives!

She became a nurse when she was 22...I can only imagine the things that she's seen!

[BanoraWhite]

95 ! Wow !

I have found from working in Aged Care that after some people retire they seem to go downhill healthwise because they aren't really keeping active anymore.Good on her for keeping busy and active.

[HazelLPN, LPN]

The oldest nurse that I know that is still in practice is ME! I am happy to say that I'm 76 years old. I retired in 2009 from hospital nursing after 54 years. Before you gasp in amazement, the final 4 years were contingent only (8-16 hours a week) and I haven't worked full time since 1992 and I haven't done nights since I had avocado green in my kitchen. I had knee replacement surgery in August of 2009 and decided to hang up the nursing cap a month before my surgery. My knee had gotten to the point that was starting to effect my mobility and would effect my patient care and I realized that the recovery process was going to be long and I wasn't sure if I'd ever be as good as I used to be.

Even though I've made a full recovering (Thank God for water aerobics!), I don't have it in me to do critical care nursing....or even hospital nursing anymore. I'm old and cranky and still walk with this cane every once in a while....and I just might be tempted to use this cane to bang some sence into some young whipper snapper know it all new grad BSN who speaks of things that she knows nothing about and then lose this license that I've somehow managed to hang onto for more than half a century.

Last month, I ran into a colleague at a tag sale who is now a school nurse. (seems like a lot of ex critical care nurses end up as school nurses). Connections connections.... this week I trained to be a substitute assistant school nurse working with special needs students who are being mainstreamed into regular schools who need skilled nursing care. I will probably work once every other week or so, and that's fine at my age. School nursing is NOT easy as I've found out....I'll never be the actual nurse (they are mostly MSN educated RNs) but I worked with one for a week and I was BEAT. Part of that was working full time (again, not since 1992) and part of it was the constant stream of kids needing SOMETHING...and often times something rather serious.

I'm not ready to stop completely just yet and I have a few good years still left in me. However, I don't think I'll be working at 95. Then again, Miss Tina Turner said should wouldn't be running across the stage at 50 and she is still doing it at age 70, though her legs are better than mine and she never has to use a cane.

Best to you,

Mrs H.

[linearthinker, DNP, RN]

There is a supervisor on the med-surg floor at my hospital who is 72 that has been a nurse since she was 17. She is lazy and stupid and hasn't learned anything new in the last 30 years, so she isn't a good example of septuagenarians at work, but gernerally speaking, I say keep on keepin on.

[martymoose, BSN, RN]

There is a supervisor on the med-surg floor at my hospital who is 72 that has been a nurse since she was 17. She is lazy and stupid and hasn't learned anything new in the last 30 years, so she isn't a good example of septuagenarians at work, but gernerally speaking, I say keep on keepin on.

lazy and stupid? she's a supervisor. she's not wiping any rear ends. not directly dealing with patient care. I'd say thats pretty smart