I'm taking a 3-month medical leave of absence due to stress from nursing. Anyone who is currently working with me will recognize who I am.
Basically, covid has killed nursing for me. It has made it into a macabre profession. I am now a full-blown claustrophobic thanks to the masking mandate, and all the other regulatory BS that has taking over everything. I hate what nursing has become.
I hope to continue to lead a healthy life, and then die before the medical industrial complex gets its hands on me. I've told my children that I want to die a natural death and I want only a graveside Christian burial when my time comes.
For years I have enjoyed your anecdotes and commentaries. I completely understand your need to get away from all this craziness. Even within the past year, nursing has become a dangerous environment for patient and nurses alike. As nurses, we are unsupported, understaffed, and missing basic necessities to function within our jobs. I wish you all the best and hope you get some well deserved TLC.
Specializes in Community Health, Med/Surg, ICU Stepdown.
I hope your time off is healing and restful. You deserve it!! 3 months will also be a good amount of time to think about what you might like to do next. But I hope the first few weeks will be only for relaxing ❤️
Nursing has definitely served me well. I think it should work like other hazardous professions though, such as the military. 20 years served and then a pension to allow you to pursue another line of work.
That system has been phased out. The new system is a 401k based retirement.
That system has been phased out. The new system is a 401k based retirement.
I just want to let nurses know they may at least have the option of early retirement. Some of the older nurses may still have a pension, though probably frozen by now. If you have a pension, check with them to see when you can start it. Some places it's as soon as 55, although for lower payout. You have a choice of monthly checks for your life or a lump sum.
If you live a long life the monthly option would be the best choice, except one caveat, if you worked for a Christian hospital, you may very well find that it is a "church pension" which means they don't have to pay into the federal pension guarantee insurance fund like all other private businesses must do if they have a pension plan. So when private companies go bankrupt the federal govt takes the pension liability over and the workers would still get at least part of their pension. A church pension there is no such legal govt provision, it is truly luck if and how much of a pension you would then receive if the hospital or system went bankrupt.
As you can imagine there have been many lawsuits about this unfair arrangement. It should be no surprise that the Supreme Court ruled for the hospitals, essentially making us second class citizens! The result we have no real protections if the hospital pension is underfunded and runs out of money or the hospital goes bankrupt. It has rarely happened and then your monthly pension can be significantly reduced and if you haven't started receiving your pension you could actually lose it entirely in a worst case scenario.
So before taking your pension you have to seriously consider how financially sound your hospital or hospital system is and how well the pension is funded if you are able to find that out. Unionized hospitals receive financial information about the hospital and the pension plan and can also analyze the pension independently to see if they agree with what the hospital claims.
Then you have to make the decision do you want to gamble that the system will remain solvent and take the monthly payment for life vs the lump sum. Your pension may have various formulas to determine your monthly payment especially if you were grandfathered after another corp took over or changes were made to the plan before you could retire. The lump sum is determined thru a govt formula and increases by age, even if it is already frozen. I think the lump sum appears to be worth about only ten years of monthly payments.
Some corp have outsourced their pension liability to an insurance company via an annuity, then you have a little more protection based on the state law the system is based in. But an insurance company will determine the monthly payment on life expectancy and if you are a women it will be lower than for a man since they tend not to live as long, so that is a downside for the majority of nurses.
If you take the lump sum and roll it into an IRA be aware you cannot take the money out without penalty before 59 1/2 years old. You could check if your 403b allows you to roll your lump sum into it and then could use it the year you turn 55 or anytime later. This is from a little known govt Rule of 55, essentially a loop hole where if you leave your employer the year you turn 55 or later, no matter if you quit, are fired or laid off, you can take the money out. But one caveat you have to check with your 403b to see if your plan allows this, not all do. Further you have to find out how it works. Ideally you are allowed to take periodic distributions when you want, but some only allow a one time distribution. If that is the case you would be heavily taxed since you would essentially have to liquidate it entirely which would put you in a very high tax bracket. If you roll it over to an IRA you would have to wait till 59 1/2 to take money out without penalty.
One last consideration if you take the monthly pension option you can choose not to have taxes taken out at that time. Otherwise you must take out 20% for taxes from your 403b/401k until you are 59 1/2. This is unfortunate because it draws your 403b money down faster and you then have to wait for the tax refund you will most likely get.
One other consideration if you have a 403b and they allow periodic distributions according to the Rule of 55, roll over any other 401k/403b you may have from other employers before you retire as only the 403b/401k of your present company that you retire from has this option. Any other 403b/401k that isn't rolled into your present employer's 403b will still be subject to the 10% federal plus whatever your state tax penalty is before 59 1/2. Lastly, if you are planning to retire before 59 1/2 ask your present 403b if they allow traditional IRA rollovers. Some do and this is a great option to get around the 10% penalty if you need to take the money before you are 59 1/2. You can thank Reagan for the 10% penalty!
One last thing you can also take COBRA for 18 months if you choose, but must pay up to 102% of what the total health insurance premium is between you and your employer. Also you should be able to pick and choose between your health insurance, dental and vision if you have those. Compare the cost against what you would have to pay thru Obamacare by guestimating your total income for the year.
For me Obamacare was cheaper, but I kept my dental insurance thru Cobra. Also if you have a Roth IRA you can take out up to the amount you contributed before 59 1/2 without penalty and most importantly that doesn't count as taxable income so you can keep your yearly income lower to qualify for health insurance subsidies if you use Obamacare.
If you were to become disabled your COBRA would last for 36 months, but again you would probably be better off with Obamacare. You must be disabled for two years before you qualify for medicare, otherwise you have to wait till 65. Also if you are in a disability process it will generally take a year or more and the majority are denied the first time and then you would have to appeal. I think a lawyer would help you, but then they take a portion of your back payments. I bring this up as nurses are high risk for disability. The best case scenario you would eventually be approved and get your back pay and it would be based on your full retirement age of 67 vs waiting till 62 to start social security which would be 30% less than you would be entitled to at the full retirement age of 67.
I'm not disabled myself, but I just wanted to provide this info to help anyone who is dealing with serious health issues.
You could decide to start your pension or use your 403b/401k at 55 and/or get another job either for a competitor or another employer. Some people after they retire early work part-time in nursing or even other jobs like store clerk or driver or whatever hobby or passion they have. These options are all on the table.
Best of luck to everyone. I hope this info helps others who need to retire early for their physical or mental health!
Specializes in ED & Critical Care CEN, TCRN, CCRN, CFRN, CTRN.
Have you thought of being a clinical research nurse? I work PRN in clinical research. It's LOTS of regulatory BS, BUT I research, I don't have to deal with stuff I deal with in the hospital (pts family, unruly patients, holidays & weekends, on-call, float, JOCO, fear of being reported to the BON, admin, stupid floor rules, no breaks on lunches) you get the point! There are LOTS of opportunity with research and pharm. We are hurting for nurses, because most are attracted to traveling for the money. If I was full-time, my salary would be 90K. I work (inpatient) full-time because that's my skillset with my background, BUT I keep a foot into research for that day I decide to walk out. In research, we are lacking RN's and NPs.
Good for you! I'm glad that you prioritized yourself. No job or profession is worth feeling so awful. I hope you feel better. It sounds like there are so many people feeling the same way, so know that you are not alone.
Specializes in ED & Critical Care CEN, TCRN, CCRN, CFRN, CTRN.
10 hours ago, LibraNurse27 said:
That sounds cool! Where did you find these types of jobs?
Depends on where you live! I live in Raleigh NC. Do a search on indeed for clinical research nurse, or clinical research coordinator. Also try LinkedIn. Some hospital have research opportunities too, BUT the pay isn't as great.
evastone, BSN, RN
132 Posts
Emergent,
For years I have enjoyed your anecdotes and commentaries. I completely understand your need to get away from all this craziness. Even within the past year, nursing has become a dangerous environment for patient and nurses alike. As nurses, we are unsupported, understaffed, and missing basic necessities to function within our jobs. I wish you all the best and hope you get some well deserved TLC.