Nursing-A second carrer at 50!

[FirstChoiceLast]

I have a 25+ years career in Finance and Accounting. I have reached the top of my profession in my area-Financial Controller. Job satisfation is now zero and I kepp wondering about my first career choice-nursing;which my mom, who worked at a hospital discouraged me to pursue since I was gifted in mathematics and numbers. I now have a stong yearning to embark on a nursing career before it is too late and therefore I have registered to start the ADN, this fall at a community college.

From reading the blogs, my questions are:

1. Is it too late for me to have a meaningful career in nursing?

2. Is age discrimination widespread?

3. Is employement for new, older graduate more difficult?

4. Is there a site with information as to best employers for older/new nurses?

5. Is it wothwhile/cost effective to pursue studying from:ADN,BSC to Masters or PHD, level in nursing at my age-

newly 50?

6. Is there statistic out there, about successes in nursing as a second career at age 50 plus?

Thanks for information and feedback.

[buransic]

I'm in my mid-40's, changing from a technology based career, and one year away from completing my BSN. Here are my observations to this point:

1. Is it too late for me to have a meaningful career in nursing?

I'm not qualified to comment on on the nursing aspect, but I can tell you it's never too late to make your work meaningful as long as you know what meaningful work is. Guy Kawasaki, one of the original Mac development team members, has a take on meaningful work: 1) Improves quality of life, or 2) Rights a historical wrong, or 3) Keeps a good thing from going away. I can tell you that even as a student nurse, my work is meaningful because I've been able to cover 2 of the 3 in the list. I expect my future work will continue to do so.

2. Is age discrimination widespread?

I don't know about discrimination, but there's a lot of criticism of the younger generation out there. Mostly undeserved and much based on less than adequate communication. The whole thing about being quick on the uptake at a younger age? Anecdotally, I can tell you when it comes to memorizing huge amounts of material (think pharmacotherapeutics) the youngsters have a decided advantage. When it comes to integrating knowledge in a meaningful way - let's say the more frames of reference you have, the more likely you are to be able to do this. The important thing to know is, "How you learn things". Once you have a handle on this, then you can make the necessary adjustments.

3. Is employment for new, older graduate more difficult?

Dunno, I'll let you know in about a year. But I can tell you that your clinicals are a great place to apply your experience in trying to understand all aspects of nursing including managerial, process approach to management, and interpersonal communication. Your previous experience, and in some instances deference to your age, will allow you to educate your peers, instructors, and nurse preceptors as well as learn from them. The result will be to grow your network so when time comes to go to work, you'll have info to work with. Treat clinicals as an opportunity to learn the craft and consider it a try-out and I'll bet it will help in your job search.

4. Is there a site with information as to best employers for older/new nurses? I'm interested in this myself; thanks for asking.

5. Is it worthwhile/cost effective to pursue studying from:ADN,BSC to Masters or PHD, level in nursing at my age-

newly 50?

I harken back to what a friend told me when I complained that I'd be over 30 before I attained my first degree. He said, "You can be over 30 with or without your degree. Take your pick." I intend to go on. I would recommend getting into a BSN program to start if at all possible. You'll find it'll take about the same amount of time if you already have a bachelors degree in something else. That said, do not apply to only one program. It's very competitive to get a seat in a school. Keep all of your options open ADN, BSN, public, private and so on.

6. Is there statistic out there, about successes in nursing as a second career at age 50 plus?

Neat question; I'll be watching for the responses.

I can also tell you, every day I go to class or clinicals, I feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Good luck to you and I hope you attain your goals.

[eriksoln, BSN, RN]

I think its easy to get too caught up in your own age too. Dont allow a self fullfilling prophecy tagged on you by others to become true.

Remember, having an age with a higher number does not reflect "maturity", it reflects only how many B-days your celebrated.......catch my drift. Just as age does not always reflect maturity, it also does not reflect "being slower to catch on" as another poster put it or anything of that nature.

See, as I began to say in orig. post, it has more to do with you as an individual than your age. If, in your personal life and former/current career, you got along with others and adapted to change well and all that other good stuff.......you will continue to do so in nursing. If you didnt get along with others or had issues with policy changes and couldnt adapt, then you wont in nursing either. Its that simple. Age really doesnt enter the equation at all.

As I tried to explain to another poster in a topic a bit like this one, your performance and ability to carry out the duties of the position as far as I'm concerned are not an issue with regards to your age. The phase in which age does become an issue is when you have to deal with the reaction to your age by the people you wish to work for. Do some HR people discreetly seek younger people, I dont doubt it. Does that matter in a nursing shortage where hospitals are starved for competent staff that shows up for work......NO.

[llg, PhD, RN]

Well, that's reassuring that oldsters like me are still valued! I thought because people over 50 have more health problems, that employers prefered youngsters.

The health issue IS something to think about. I have worked with many "older" new grads who are surprised and disappointed with their new careers because they hadn't anticipated how physically difficult it can be. In many cases, new grads have to start "at the bottom" of the career ladder and have to work staff nurse jobs with 12-hour shifts, rotating shifts, and that involve a lot of physical labor. Their "older" bodies don't handle all that very well and their personal/family lives are not geared to that type of work schedule. They have never had to work night shifts, weekends, holidays, etc. and their families are not very supportive of re-arranging their plans to suit the new nurse's work schedule.

I don't know what your personal situation is -- but these are issues that you should take seriously as you plan a career change. They are the ones who have "tripped people up" in the past and you need to assess your ability to deal with them.

Don't forget that there are other health care jobs that involve helping patients -- but that do NOT involve as much physical labor and that do NOT require the same work schedule. Some of those careers may also appeal to you and carry less "risk" of difficulty.

Another thing to consider is your existing expertise. Perhaps there is a way you can apply your past experience and current expertise in the health care industry or in the human services sector that would satisfy your desire to help people, but that would not require you to become a nurse.

I know that some people become nurses in the 50's and are happy and successful. But that's not the result for everybody. Whatever you decide, I wish you the best of luck.

llg -- 53 years old (and my body ain't what it used to be)

[FireStarterRN, BSN, RN]

You give sound advise, llg. Those are very important considerations.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

great thread. good to know you're not walking in blindly and asking questions.

my two cents.

1. is it too late for me to have a meaningful career in nursing?

of course it's not too late. a bittle pill to swallow is that you're going to be starting at an entry level. people from other professions, particularly "older" people who come from management positions struggle with this idea. you're going to be the new grad, and your charge nurse just might be the age of your children or grandchildren and they will be your supervisor. the one who trains you might be half your age as well. how is your health? your back? your knees? how you handle stress?

2. is age discrimination widespread? no. there are some generational gaps and misunderstandings sometimes, but i haven't heard of it being widespread.

3. is employement for new, older graduate more difficult? around here the bsn schools tend to graduate kids fresh out of high school who go directly to college and the adn program has older people. both seem to enjoy finding entry level positions with ease.

4. is there a site with information as to best employers for older/new nurses?

good question. i would think an employer wouldn't want to be on that lest as age discrimination/preferencing is illegal.

5. is it wothwhile/cost effective to pursue studying from:adn,bsc to masters or phd, level in nursing at my age- newly 50?maybe not. what are your long term goals, and at what age will you retire or hope to retire. you will be pushing 60 by the time you get a phd and financially that doesn't make much sense since your working life is limited and the cost of such an education is high.

6. is there statistic out there, about successes in nursing as a second career at age 50 plus? mescape nursing has an excellent series on the older nurse, but i'm not sure they specifically address your situation, but it's worth a read: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/521375

if you haven't seen it, there's a good thread here at allnurses: https://allnurses.com/success-stories-nursing/anyone-start-their-125963-page69.html#post3359544

[FireStarterRN, BSN, RN]

Another good response Tweety. It's important to go into this realistically, with eyes wide open. Age does matter for the reasons you and llg have outlined. I'm an exceptionally fit 51 year old and yes, I'm starting to feel my age. Bedside nursing is a physically demanding job!

[angel337, MSN, RN]

The health issue IS something to think about. I have worked with many "older" new grads who are surprised and disappointed with their new careers because they hadn't anticipated how physically difficult it can be. In many cases, new grads have to start "at the bottom" of the career ladder and have to work staff nurse jobs with 12-hour shifts, rotating shifts, and that involve a lot of physical labor. Their "older" bodies don't handle all that very well and their personal/family lives are not geared to that type of work schedule. They have never had to work night shifts, weekends, holidays, etc. and their families are not very supportive of re-arranging their plans to suit the new nurse's work schedule.

I don't know what your personal situation is -- but these are issues that you should take seriously as you plan a career change. They are the ones who have "tripped people up" in the past and you need to assess your ability to deal with them.

Don't forget that there are other health care jobs that involve helping patients -- but that do NOT involve as much physical labor and that do NOT require the same work schedule. Some of those careers may also appeal to you and carry less "risk" of difficulty.

Another thing to consider is your existing expertise. Perhaps there is a way you can apply your past experience and current expertise in the health care industry or in the human services sector that would satisfy your desire to help people, but that would not require you to become a nurse.

I know that some people become nurses in the 50's and are happy and successful. But that's not the result for everybody. Whatever you decide, I wish you the best of luck.

llg -- 53 years old (and my body ain't what it used to be)

wonderful post llg. very honest, but not discouraging.

[booklovinrn]

I love your story and questions. It sounds familiar. I'm 48, I have a BBA in accounting, a CPA that's not current, and an MBA. I worked in accounting for about 12 years but I never really liked it or found any job satisfaction. I also taught high school math for about 5 years. My friends and family think I'm nuts but I'm going to start an ADN program this fall also. I'm very excited about it. My career plans now are to start working as soon as I finish the ADN, work for a few years while getting my masters, and then get a doctorate. I like to teach (just not high school) I'm thinking that I'll only work in the hospital (the physically demanding part) for a few years and then switch to teaching or working as a NP in a clinic. I've also thought about as I get older teaching online nursing courses. I don't plan to ever retire!

So back to your questions-I definitely think it is doable. I wish I had started a long time ago, but I have had a lot of different experiences that some of the younger students haven't had.

Anyway, PM me if you want to talk to someone going through the same thing, and good luck to you.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Another good response Tweety. It's important to go into this realistically, with eyes wide open. Age does matter for the reasons you and llg have outlined. I'm an exceptionally fit 51 year old and yes, I'm starting to feel my age. Bedside nursing is a physically demanding job!

Yes it is. After 15 years I developed plantar fascitis and my feet were killing me. I've recovered and now wear orthotics and do foot stretching every AM. Luckily otherwise I'm in good shape and always have exercised, especially my back. But occasionally I do feel the aches and pains of an aging nurse. LOL.

A 50-something person who has had a desk job their whole adult life might not appreciate how it feels to be on your feet for a 12-hour plus shift. Or if they already have a bad back, knees or feet, I'd have to tell them to consider something else.

[FireStarterRN, BSN, RN]

I'm very fortunate to have a good back and good feet. I'm feeling general aches and pains more. I am blessed with a high pain tolerance, however, so it really doesn't bother me.

I don't know how other people do it who are less fit!

That being said, age can affect people at desk jobs with problems such as carpel tunnel and tendinitis from repetitive motion.

[RNgonewild]

50 is not too old to start a new career! We just started a new grad class, or as I would like to say " an old grad class" as only one person is in their twenties, the rest mid forties or above. And my hospital had no problem hiring them. Yes nursing is a physically demanding job, so be prepared. I'm currently working with several nurses above the age of 70 and some in the sixties. I'm getting up there myself, but try to protect myself at all costs, so if your hospital has a no lift policy, etc follow it. Nursing is where it's at today so good luck in your career choice!

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

There is a great demand for competent nurses at any age. I graduated nursing school at age 55.