Nurses over 50 &/or with health issues affecting work

Nurses General Nursing

Published

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 am 63 and will be retiring at the end of February! I was fine and able to "run with the wolves" until I hit 60. My get up and go just got up and went. I was still able to perform very well at work but when I got home I hadn't an ounce of energy left. I cut back to 3 eight hour days a week. It helped somewhat. The thing that helped most was switiching from Labor and Delivery to Mother/Baby. (At least half the patients in your assignment you'll have no trouble lifting! ;))If you want to work in a hospital this seems to be the easiest specialty for the "aging body" to handle. I was the oldest nurse on our floor for the past couple of years and yes, some of the younger ones did make fun of the older nurses but they were the older nurses who wouldn't keep up with the new technology or new style of delivering family centered care and were unwilling to go with the flow, so it's a two way street.On the other hand,the turnover amoung the younger nurses is amazing. Some stay just long enough to collect their sign on bonus. :( I agree that SS will never support anyone and our hospital doesn't have a defined pension plan. Luckily I put 20% of my income in a 403B (unmatched by the hospital:o) and there were a few good years for my mutual funds so I shouldn't have to beg on street corners if I'm frugal ;)Good Luck to all--try and stay healthy.(and NEVER lift a patient by yourself unless he's a newborn!)

Specializes in Community Health Nurse.

Hardknox,

I loved your quote, and is it oh so true! :cool:

I'm hoping to find a job in a newborn nursery or mother/baby because of my right shoulder strength not being 100% since my Spring 1997 injury to it. I'm one of those nurses who has experience, but has been out of the field for almost five years. The jobs I have applied to so far have all been a dead end street.

Still trying though! :eek: I just turned 50, and although I personally don't consider that age "old", many under the age of 35 may disagree with me. :rolleyes: Their day will come, Lord willing, when they won't think 50 is "that old" either. LOL!!! ;)

______________________________________

To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world." --UNKNOWN

I am a 27 year veteran of critical care nursing, UR, and Case Management with Rheumatoid Arthritis, approaching age 50, presently working on my BSN to further my nursing career.

I have a question for others. Does anyone else feel that nurses in general devalue nurses who have moved away from the bedside? I see many posts on the various bulletin boards for nursing which seem to reflect these feelings.

:confused:

There are SO MANY options within nursing for those who cannot perform physical activity as they used to. This bulletin board alone gives tons of options, such as case management, utilization review, telephonic triage lines etc. I would suggest that anyone who cannot perform at the bedside, utilize their vast experience to offer to these alternative nursing avenues your expertise. Research! Read! Apply!

Someone who has been there,

Norweaver

norweaver:

I have not felt the change in nurse careers from bedside to whatever has been devalued. It is impossble to read all the posts on this BB, but I do not recall getting that impression (or at least it has not stuck with me).

Honestly, as a bedside nurse who struggles with the physical demands of hospital floor nursing, I value what others do and read these posts with great interest.

Congratulations on your successes in informatics! Sounds like you are going to have fun with it and very much add to the world of nursing.

B.:)

Hey! I don't consider 50 old either!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been in Home Health around 7 years - Now find it hard ti keep up with it (becomming more and more demanding!).

It isn't so much age as it is health - Have just been diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue - (whew! there for awhile I thought I was just loosing it - becomming senile or getting altzheimers!!! After all, I'm just 50!)

My solution is to take a Medical leave of absence (that way the mortgage gets paid)(which starts today by-the-way!) and pursue actively-ways in which to treat (some folks say HA) the symptoms of this disease! I started by teaching my 16 year old to give me B12 shots yesterday (50-80% of folks treated with B12 injections every 3 days have shown improvement) and incorporating a changed lifestyle. Hopefully when my leave is over, I will either have found ways to manage this disease, or ways in which to adapt (go to part time? another job in nursing?

quit nursing altogeather and pursue my writing? Who knows?)

By the way!!!!!!!!!!!! I worked fulltime in nursing until my kids were born (1982) then I had the luxury to work part-time until my husband had his first stroke in l994 (full time since then!)

:rolleyes:

I found I couldn't physically hack floor nursing after 16 years. The biggest problem was the widesweeping change to 12 hour shifts. That was too long of a work day for me. At 46 I am now a government (state) RN consultant...develop policy, teach, inservice and do community health. It took me 10 years to track this job down!...the little gem jobs don't always advertise.

I knew too many nurses in their 60's dragging themselves through each shift becasue the pitiful pension wasn't going to be enough to live on. Floor nursing is grueling...I often thought there should be a '20 and out' provision with half pay for life like the military.

Love that idea Enright!!!

By the way - - I found my favorite AVITAR! Thanks!:D :) :cool:

I am still 2 years away from my RN, and I am a 37 yo male. That means I will be 39 when I get my RN, and 41 when I get my BSN. Yall are talking about losing steam at 60. I predict I will lose steam at 65, maybe. Body mechanics are important. Don't be afraid to get old. We are not disposable items; Don't suggest that. This is a serious discusion.

Mario

Don't be shaken up - most of us that are talking about being "discarded" are ones who've been doing the physically hard nursing work = with all the lifting = etc - for 25-10 years!

We've been forced to abuse our bodies in the name of patient care! These were times when you did what you had to do whether it was bad for you or not - we had no choice - modernday techniques were not available and we wouldn't DREAM of asking for help (not that there was any around at that time either!)

Things were just DIFFERENT!

And the attitudes you hear us talking about are not figments of our imagination!!! There is a "throw away" mentality among Administrators/Institutions and younger nurses!

Since you are just starting out - with a unique attitude from your perspective - maybe YOU can be one of the ones who change this!

The Lord knows we are too "worn out and weary" to do it outselves - Nursing (which I dearly love) has taken the best of my life (which I really don't regret-It was/is my calling). It is just hard to get use to not being able to do what I could do - and difficult to find alternative ways in which to share our knowledge!!!!!:o

Isn't there a common law describing employers can't let you go, and hafta offer some compensation, if you get disabled at work/profession? Even though we may be shown how to stand, carry and reach correctly, it's still possible to get stress injuries after so many years. Sure, i can see if you do not work for the same place, then your on your own. For example, if you are 50, take on a new position, and then your lumbar starts caving after 5 years. I mean, I know the USSR fell 10 years ago, but common sense didn't. Wow! It starts to dawn on me that health care in America is a "for-profit" thing, and corporations, with boards, operate private ones. (duh)

My choice to persue nursing is born from a talent to help and care for people, and that makes me happy. I'd get sad if a younger person bullied me over my age. Can I expect to be cared for as I have cared when I get to the end (>65),(when my body gives out)?

:confused:

it's unknown, and part of the downside is that its unknown. There is plenty I would like to say, but edit my words here on this discussion board;)

It's true that there are compensations for on the job injuries, etc, Mario, but so many of us abuse our bodies through years of work. When you work shorthanded, you have total care patients, and everyone else is working as hard as you, sometimes you take chances you shouldn't take, instead of using good body mechanics. For the sake of the patient, we do necessary things, like turning large patients alone, etc.

The problem is, you wear yourself out, and then the final straw drops when you're home doing something else, and then can't qualify for work injury compensation. Although, I think, unless really fully disabled, there are always other nursing tracks you can take without the physical activity involved in direct patient care, there are so many choices for nurses.:)

I apologize if anyone took my comments as negative to the posts on this forum. I was trying, in general, to reflect on my own experiences on the job, which include many comments about "You're not a nurse anymore, are you" and classmates who are in clinical nursing who comment similarly. It gets difficult at times to deal with those that think if you manage clients over the phone, you are not assessing, planning, implementing, educating and evaluating.

My apologies again, if offense was taken. I was also trying to point out that simply because your body is telling you to back off, it need not be the end of a promising, fullfilling nursing career.

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