How are you spending your retirement?

Nurses Retired

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I don't mean your money! :lol2:

I mean; how do you spend your time? What interests, hobbies etc are you pursuing?

And, do you enjoy being retired?

Specializes in neonatal intensive care unit.

Hello all,

It is oh so helpful read that some of you have also experienced medical problems and have been forced to retire from nursing earlier than you had planned! Good deal that many of us are able to get past feelings of bitterness about forced retirement and are able to move on to focus on positive ways to spend our retirement time!

I have been retired from nursing for five years.For now, I am semi-retired because I work two days per week as a child care provider in the nursery at a day care center. My favorite way of spending free time is to babysit my dear four grandchildren as needed! Attending informal community or church classes is another one of my favorite passtimes. For example,currently I am considering checking out the local toastmaster meetings. Recently my sister-like girl pal and I have started having weekly coffee chats and this is becoming a lively routine for us. My renewed goal for free time is to continue to learn, grow,and have a little fun.

Best wishes to all of you.

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Neonatal13

By all means have a serious daily to-do-list & goals Learning , any gregarious activity has productive end gains & is good for you.

Keep training your brain & your retirement years will melt into

the golden years....

wish I had tons more

Safta24

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Hello all,

It is oh so helpful read that some of you have also experienced medical problems and have been forced to retire from nursing earlier than you had planned! Good deal that many of us are able to get past feelings of bitterness about forced retirement and are able to move on to focus on positive ways to spend our retirement time!

Like some of you I retired early (57) and live on disability (SSD). Unlike most of you my boss woke up one morning and decided she no longer loved me so she suspended me and gave the chief of hospital security several months to develop a pack of lies about me. After over seventeen years faithful employment at the largest private employer in the city, he spent several months painting a picture of me as a dangerous psychopath. It took me six months to realize that in an "at will" state my boss could "retire" me at any time with no notice and no reason. I think she only gave me a "reinstatement (AKA Kangaroo Court:bugeyes:) hearing" was so that I could spend six months (with no income) thinking I might be allowed to resign. Those stinkers even contested my six-months unemployment, dragging it out in court for eighteen months by delays, and then failing to show up for the hearing--so I did eventually get my "money.":bowingpur

I tried the EEOC. the state civil rights commission and several dozen lawyers, all of whom told me that I definitely had a case, but as soon as they found out with whom they would be dealing, they refused to take it (unless, of course I could give them $10,000 cash).:uhoh3:

Four months after my "reinstatement hearing" (at which they neglected to follow their own "disciplinary procedures" and fired me on the spot), I had to go downtown and talk to a representative from the state to answer my former employer's allegations that I should no longer keep my license. Of course I have the letter from the state capitol which speaks to how unfounded their allegations were.:D

The stress of having a career which I loved taken away from me and the near homelessness of NO INCOME for nearly three years exacerbated enough physical and emotional illness to render me totally disabled my doctor said so immediately and after almost three years, the judge finally said so too.:yeah: The minute we could, we abandoned our "predatory mortgaged" (not for a big screen TV, but just to keep going) house, moved nearly two thousand miles away to a small, friendly town with a beautiful climate and a much lower cost-of-living (our rent is 1/3 of our former mortgage; our utilities are 1/4 and insurances are 1/5 of what they were). In four days driving, we went from twelve degrees, with falling snow, to t-shirts, shorts, sandals and three hundred days of sunshine.:wink2:

My wife, my son (36) two cats and dog have only been here two months but we loved it when we got here, and we love it more each day. My son got the first job in his life that he really likes.:yeah: I recently renewed my license in my former state and will soon convert it to this one. As soon as I do, I will volunteer at the city volunteer corps, and at the senior citizens' center (where my wife and I already joined a writers' group and are soon to take art, craft, birdwatching and conditioning classes, and I may teach beginning guitar). I will be glad to do B/P, glucose and vision screening, and dispense nursing advice, (which will always end with, "Be sure to see your physician."):bow:

I worked in mental hospitals for five years, emergency trauma centers for twenty-two, and had NO IDEA how stressful it was until I stopped:banghead:. I also had no idea how stressful living in a dying, crowded. nasty city in a state whose terrible climate is only eclipsed by its government debt, unemployment, foreclosure, crime and out-migration WAS until I started living here:wink2:.

At least once a day, I thank God (I am often driven to tears) for my deliverance from the forced labor that constituted my last years of practice in the busiest ER in town.

Conventional wisdom says, "once you work in a large urban trauma center you can work anywhere." HA! My boss always needed me to work a shift that should have had ten RNs with only one or two others. Whenever I applied for a job elsewhere she would see to it (by "blackballing" me) that I could not leave.:nono:

I am hoping to keep up my license long enough to have "RN" on my tombstone. I know that when I stand before Saint Peter:saint:, I will be proud of my contributions to the profession of nursing:heartbeat:. Although I have already forgiven them, I doubt that old Saint Pete will not expect some explaining by those who wrecked my profession and drove me from my home.:crying2:

What am I doing in retirement? I am spending a lot more time singing:yawn: in choirs, open-mikes (twice a month in a nursing home), watching birds, stars and planets, rock-hunting, playing with my pets, my musical instruments, reading, writing. socializing and making music with my new-found friends than I ever thought possible.:wink2:

If anyone who reads this is curious where I now live, send me a P-Mail and if you tell me who and where you are, I may tell you--as long as you promise not to move here.

Owney:typing

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Specializes in Med/Surg/Ortho/HH/Radiology-Now Retired.

Owney, I'm SO happy things are working out so beautifully for you and your family.

It sounds as though you've been to hell and back. I'm sorry for that.

My own sister, after 20 odd years of loyalty and dedication, was hounded, harrassed and made ill by her employer. She was a Child and infant health nurse.

What some employers do to their staff is beyond contempt!

From your description of your new locality, you must have moved to Australia!!!! LOL

ENJOY! You've worked hard and deserve it!

I wish you many happy years of blissful retirement.

Cheers...............

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Specializes in LTC.

Oh, Trauma, Trauma, Trauma! I'll be about your age when I finally GET to my RN! :chuckle Good lord, where does that leave me? I'll be working till I'm...what...80?

Best regards,

Michael

Oooh Oramar, I envy you.!

I am almost 49 now and must work till I'm 70 (no lie). I chose to further my education a few years ago and my student loans will take a long time to pay off. Plus, I didn't become a nurse till I was 34, so I have some financial planning years to catch up on also.

I love this thread! Keep it going.

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Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..
I don't mean your money! :lol2:

I mean; how do you spend your time? What interests, hobbies etc are you pursuing?

And, do you enjoy being retired?

A joke just for fun and a laugh:D

Working people frequently ask retired people what they do to make their days more interesting. For example, the other day the wife and I went into town and went a shop.

We were only in there for about 5 minutes. When we came out, there was a cop writing out a parking ticket.

We went up to him and I said, 'Come on man, how about giving a senior citizen a break?' He ignored us and continued writing the ticket. I called him a dumb bell.

He glared at me and started writing another ticket for having worn tires. So Mary called him a blockhead.

He finished the second ticket and put it on the window with the first. Then he started writing a third ticket. This went on for about 20 minutes. The more we abused him,

the more tick ets he wrote. Just then our bus arrived.

We try to have a little fun each day now that we're retired so it's important at our age.

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Specializes in Trauma,ER,CCU/OHU/Nsg Ed/Nsg Research.

:rotfl:

That's hilarious, Fran!

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Specializes in ICU/trauma/med-surg.

That's funny!! Sounds awfully familiar as that thought has run through my head also!

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Specializes in ICU/trauma/med-surg.

WOW!!! I love to hear from all of you "older" RN's. I makes me not feel so bad about my own age. I'm 53 and also wondering if I'll ever retire. I used to think I would retire in my 60's, then as I got older, I realized that's too young, and I'd get bored. I've been working since age 14, so I'm used to having a "full plate". I am now at a point where I have 100% flexibility in my life, working registry (no weekends or holidays if I don't want), and at my age, I've learned to not take too much "stuff" from people anymore. But I have decided that I need to get away from bedside nursing and go back to school (again wondering if I'm too 'old' for this). I stepped away from nursing for 1.5 years and realized this is where my heart is. It took me til now to realized 'what I want to do when I grow up'. I'm hoping a CRNA will do it for me. Then I plan to travel with that after a few years of experience.

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Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..

:yeah:Sounds like you have your life wonderfully planned out honey. Hopefully it will all happen.:D

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Ah retirement! I always figured I would be the one turning out the lights as the facility closed. Instead I retired while I still had health and interests. Last year I drove across country with my husband and ended up dry camping on BLM land in AZ. I am working some this summer and plan to go back to the desert again this winter. While traveling I crochet animals and leave them in towns for the local toys for tots kind of activity. I am able to spend quality time with my husband now that I am not on call and he no longer fears phone calls that were more venting by staff than need for me. We got a new dog from the animal shelter in AZ and she is a great traveler. She forces me to exercise and laugh more than I had in many years. Being a nurse means I can work if I want and live cheaply if I don't. It is always a compromise when you give up full time income to do what you have always wanted to do but were stopped by responsibilities. Life is good!:twocents:

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Good for you for using your retirement time as a tool to expand 7 express yourself in your travel & crafts . Sounds ideal.

I enjoy ed retirement as a bonus to be able to volunteer

a couple of hours a week in so many places.

Life is indeed very good

safta24

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