Nursing has a high divorce rate

sarose611 · Dec 26, 2015

Are the nurse divorces filed by the hurse? How many nurses worked and put a spouse through school, then the spouse left? The listed professions with low divorcevrates are traditionally male. The ones with higher divorce rates have many females. Maybe they got tired of working 2 fulltime jobs: their career and housewife/mother.

NurseGirl525, ASN, RN · Dec 26, 2015

I've also heard that nurses have high divorce rates. I've also heard the stat on second marriages as I have heard Dr. Phil mention that stat many times!! :dead: I know more people who are making it on their second marriage longer than their first. I attribute that to making better choices when we get older. When we are young we don't necessarily know what love is and make rash decisions on getting married because we don't want to be old maids!! So many people in their early twenties think they are old already. I see it all the time in here.

A lot of nurses are Type A personalities. It's hard to find someone to handle that. I divorced after 15 years in 2013. I spent a lot of time dating, knowing what I wanted this time and not settling for any less. I finally found the man who can handle my personality. He's independent and confident in himself, but also knows how to handle my independence and my constant need to fix things. I think that's important. I can also handle him and his stubborn ways. We are a good mix. We have taken it slow and will have been together for a year and a half when we finally move in together. I moved in with my ex after 3 months!!

Editorial Team / Moderator · Dec 26, 2015

To be fair to my profession, I was divorced TWICE before I ever became a nurse, and only once after.

KelRN215, BSN, RN · Dec 27, 2015

When I looked it up I think I typed nurse divorce rate, it was that 20-30 ( depending on what source you read) of nurses get a divorce.
I was just curious of other people's thoughts on the matter

How is that high? That's well below the national average. According to the American Psychological Association, the national divorce rate is 40-50% for first marriages.

GaleSRN, BSN, RN · Feb 22, 2016

I would think that it is because nurses tend to marry badly at least the first time. We are caregivers. We want to fix everyone, so we marry people we can fix. Made that mistake. I am married to a great guy now who does not require any fixing!

FloatRN19 · Feb 22, 2016

Isn't the divorce rate around 50% on average?

No it's not. That stat represents couples who get married under the age of 25 with both incomes coming from no degree jobs with an income under whatever total a year income it was.

NanaPoo · Feb 22, 2016

I think, as nurses, we learn what true compassion and caring is and we begin to realize if/when we aren't seeing that from our spouse.

I think, as our spouses, they truly cannot understand what we do and see in our jobs even when we try to describe it to them. They can't really understand the stresses and emotions we undergo and it's difficult to have the support we need outside of work from our partner.

If this leads to a higher divorce rate for nurses, it doesn't really surprise me at all.

TraumaKittyRN · Mar 17, 2016

Not really a surprise. Nursing is a demanding and high stress job. A nurse works 12 hours and is often not home to get kids to school, make dinners, clean house and laundry etc like other spouses are. Couple that with nursing being a very female dominated profession and I think you will see that many relationships fall apart because there is still an expectation that a woman must still fulfill the "wife" role on top of being a very busy nurse. Add to that that now more and more people are choosing nursing as a second career and most likely are becoming a nurse after marriage.

Basically what I have seen many times is that the relationship that doesn't last in nursing is when the wife becomes a nurse later in the marriage and because of the job many aspects of the relationship change. This really seems to impact those with very "traditional" relationships the hardest.

My husband was super supportive about me becoming a nurse after 13 years of marriage, but it has been rough making adjustments. Add working nights and not seeing each other for days on end because he works 9-5, me missing holidays and not being able to do some of the stuff I used to do around the house has been hard on us. I don't have kids and can only imagine what an added stress that is. So having been through part of a rough adjustment after becoming a nurse I get it, luckily we've weathered our storm and worked out a new rhythm to life.

JoannieO · Dec 9, 2016

I've been married since May 1973, a RN the entire time + still married to the same guy who was an IT professional. Many variables here: Yes, nurses could support themselves with benefits + their income. Perhaps the partner didn't like that the nurse wife wasn't home so much, working shifts + holidays, hey maybe the partner was Jealous of the nurse's income??!! Interesting study but don't know how it compares to another profession; I.e. Engineering, teaching, accounting, etc. I could, though, see why some couples would divorce just on the lack if the nurse's time at home.

JoannieO · Dec 9, 2016

Interesting in that I just replied that perhaps the nurse wife isn't home much. I married after I was a RN for 2 years, so my hubby adjusted well.I worked a variety of jobs, ending a 45 year career this past September-working Monday -Friday, no weekends, nights or Holidays. However, I wished to continue to work a few more years + my hubster wanted me retired with him, so here I am í ½í¸Š!! The time goes by very quickly so when you turn around, you'll find yourself retirement age !!