NURSING - over 55? age discimination? or not?

SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN · Jan 3, 2009

I am 55 now and no longer work on the floor. At 52 I had to trouble being hired but I was an LPN in a nursing home rural area.

RN1982 · Jan 3, 2009

I will become a RN as soon as possible. As you see from this website, I am 59 and female. I will graduate at over 62. I am in good health, and look younger than my age.
I had a ICU hiring nurse manager from a huge Oakland County hospital in Royal Oak and Troy, who was taking one of my classes for her masters and she said to my face without blinking that she would never hire me if I interviewed with her because of my AGE! She said as far as she was concerned I would not be able to handle the responsibilities of ICU - of course that is based solely on her prejudgment of my skills and abilities.
My goal is to work in ICU, CCU, Cardio in a hospital. I have no interest in working in a nursing home. As a CNA, I have had my fill of the "environment" of nursing homes.
Does anyone have success stories, suggestions, and success in being hired (or sadly, age discimination experiences) at over 55 years old in hospital jobs?
Have a wonderful, productive life! :wink2:

I know exactly what hospital you are talking about. I worked there for five years. I am sorry that she said that to you and to me that is blatant age discrimination. I know people your age who can handle the responsibilities of ICU and then some. You shouldn't be hired based upon your age. You should be hired based on your capabilities.

If you do want to hire in there. They offer a Critical Care internship in January for RNs and new grads. Also look into doing a Nurse externship after you finish your Med/Surg rotation and see if you could extern in the ICU.

labnurs · Jan 7, 2009

As someone who's been in HR/Recruiting for 15 years and recently started the path to being an RN, I can offer you the same advice that I would give any "older" applicant.

First, remember that your resume is a snap shot of your experience, NOT your life story. Meaning, you should really only include the last 10-15yrs experience if possible. If you've had 3 jobs as a CNA since 1995, then I really don't need to see the jobs you had prior to that.

Do NOT put school dates on your resume. It's not relevant to state when you graduated or got a certificate, just that you did. They may ask you later for verification purposes, but at that point, they are getting ready to hire you.

When you go in for an interview, talk about long term goals and do NOT talk about how many more years you plan to work or anything about retiring. If you are asked about it, just say that you are looking for a career position.

Even if you only plan to work for 5 or 10 more years, you don't need to say it!

If you look young, great! Make sure you dress in modern attire. Not "young", but professional.

Also, don't talk about your family. You should never do this anyway. If you're a woman, and you mention that you have small kids, some hiring managers will start thinking about childcare and sick kids and things like that. If you're older and you mention grand kids, they start thinking about how old you might be and how you may be looking to retire (trust me, it happens all the time). So just don't bring it up.

The biggest thing would be to show that you have lots of energy, drive and passion for the position.

Hope that helps! Good Luck and don't worry about that person in your class. She's just one ignorant person.

movingforward3 · Jan 10, 2009

As someone who's been in HR/Recruiting for 15 years and recently started the path to being an RN, I can offer you the same advice that I would give any "older" applicant.
First, remember that your resume is a snap shot of your experience, NOT your life story. Meaning, you should really only include the last 10-15yrs experience if possible. If you've had 3 jobs as a CNA since 1995, then I really don't need to see the jobs you had prior to that.
Do NOT put school dates on your resume. It's not relevant to state when you graduated or got a certificate, just that you did. They may ask you later for verification purposes, but at that point, they are getting ready to hire you.
When you go in for an interview, talk about long term goals and do NOT talk about how many more years you plan to work or anything about retiring. If you are asked about it, just say that you are looking for a career position.
Even if you only plan to work for 5 or 10 more years, you don't need to say it!
If you look young, great! Make sure you dress in modern attire. Not "young", but professional.
Also, don't talk about your family. You should never do this anyway. If you're a woman, and you mention that you have small kids, some hiring managers will start thinking about childcare and sick kids and things like that. If you're older and you mention grand kids, they start thinking about how old you might be and how you may be looking to retire (trust me, it happens all the time). So just don't bring it up.
The biggest thing would be to show that you have lots of energy, drive and passion for the position.
Hope that helps! Good Luck and don't worry about that person in your class. She's just one ignorant person.

The problem is I have NO serious work history in healthcare, and I only worked as a secretary and self employed insurance sales agent since 2000 in short term jobs. My resume does not show any stable work history. Everything else you mentioned I already know.

Any suggestions for resumes that do not have stable work history?

Thanks.

dream00 · Jan 15, 2009

Oh Yuk! I'm 53 and hope to be starting the Respiratory Therapy prog in Fall '09. They dont offer it anymore in May, so now I have to wait all summer to get in, that's at OCC Southfield. Hope I dont run into this same problem. I know lots of older women doing pre-req's right now to get into various health care programs, is this what we have to look forward to? especially after doing all the schooling and all that goes with that??

treetop2 · Jun 5, 2009

Face it, we live in a youth obssessed society and the hiring personnel are younger these days because of the change in the job culture; people do not stay in the same jobs for their whole lives...if they don't leave, management usually gets rid of them when they start gaining seniority and in the pay scale. People are conditioned in government school to only be comfortable around people like themselves, their own age group, so if there is a choice btw someone with oodles of experience and more gray hair and someone their own age with whom they can compare piercings and tatoos they will hire the pierced and tattooed. Sometimes they don't want to pay for experience so they hire new grads top keep costs down and dump them on a seasoned supervisor who must continually teach and watch them (some new grads are downright incompetent these days). The business mentality does not view experience in a nurse as much of a plus, we are all simply cogs to them to plug into slots and they "budget" for a certain number of lawsuits. It's all "just business" and quality costs. They hire older new grads in the SNF where I work but the key is "new grad+cheaper labor".

deftonez188 · Jun 10, 2009

"some new grads are downright incompetent these days"

I won't assume that you mean to say there weren't incompetent grads 'back in the day' - perhaps if training programs were better, results would be better.

:twocents:

Franjcamp · Jul 19, 2012

This is a concern for me also. I just finished my Masters Degree at 60 and am looking to transition into nursing as an educator or case management position. I have been called into interviews by my previous employer of 20 years, 4 different times and was not hired. I was told recently by one of the employees who is several years younger she was forced to take a UR position cause the company felt she could not cut working on the floor any longer. I currently work at a critical care access facility prn on 12 hour shifts. They are killing me physically. Never thought much about my age being such a big factor. Apparently my mind is intact or I would have not been able to maintain a 4.0 in my graduate program.

I was told by a friend who is a CEO of a rehab agency that my credentials should prevail, but he also was honest in saying that he is cautious in hiring anyone over 55.

I wish you the best of luck. You may find yourself moving to attain your goals.

I guess we just need to consider ourselves as oldies but goodies.