58 years old - Am I too old to start nursing school??

Dear Nurse Beth Advice Column - The following letter submitted anonymously in search for answers. Join the conversation!

You are reading page 4 of 58 years old - Am I too old to start nursing school??

I'm about 20 years younger than you, and I'm having a tough time landing interviews at hospitals. As much as I don't want to believe that age is a factor, all of my classmates who've landed jobs almost instantly are at least 10 years younger than me, in their mid-late 20s, so it does make me wonder.

If nursing is something you're truly passionate about, and you really want to learn to be a nurse, then go for it. I'm sure there are folks who are able to make it work. But, if you're only looking into this to *maybe* land a sweet job, the deck is stacked against you. Age discrimination is so hard to prove, but it's real. :(

Specializes in Family Practice, Med-Surg.

I am 62. I planned to work until 66, continue to add to my retirement fund. Over a year ago, it became abundantly clear to me that I could not continue to work. I was working full time as an NP. My employer was all about production and patient satisfaction. I devoted my life to my job, basically because I no longer had the energy for work and life. I had to choose. Devoting my life to work didn't work. I was no longer refreshed after time off and at end of the week, I found myself crying at work when things did not go well. I was doing a good job, my patients loved me. My employer would not reduce my hours. I resigned 11 months ago. Nursing school at 58? I would think long and hard. Will you be able to pay back your loans if you don't get hired? Maybe you need to let go of the dream. Nursing is a strenuous profession.

Specializes in ER, Med-surg.
Cola89 said:
Honesty, I think so. Why? Because bedside nursing is for the young and generally healthy, and you would have to start out in some sort of direct patient care position. Young nurses with only a few good years of experience are clammering to get out move up into less physically and emotionally taxing positions --- and can, because they at least have working experience. Being a nurse is a lot more physically demanding than most (even students) realize.

As a newer grad, 12 hr. shifts easily turn into 14 hr. shifts. And, just yesterday I went nine (9) HOURS at work without one drink of water. Or anything. It was 1530 before I took my only break. That was my first and only opportunity to hydrate myself at work. I was that busy with a zillion calls, an admission, a discharge, patients coming back from surgery... more calls, more demands... an end of shift discharge. It's really physically difficult to tolerate and I cannot recommend it.

^^^ This is so true, and it does not necessarily get better with time and experience. Even with experience, in many hospitals, staffing and acuity is such that it's not uncommon for there to be no time for lunch or breaks. You will see many people on this board saying things like "You must MAKE time for self-care" and that is true to an extent- but it's also possible to be in a situation where you have a list of tasks none of which you'd be willing to say before the patient, their family, your boss, or the BON "that was late/missed because I was in the bathroom/getting a drink." Gotta get that EKG in under ten minutes, hang that drip, answer that call bell before your confused patient falls, and "self-care was important!" is not a good enough reason for why you were off the floor when things on your assignment went bad. And under Joint Commission policies, you usually need to be able to get to a breakroom or elsewhere off the workfloor to take a non-policy-violating drink, because they aren't allowed in work spaces. If all that sounds miserable and unreasonable- welcome to modern hospital nursing.

I had a hellacious shift last week where despite working flat out for hours, I also didn't get a drink (because we're on high alert for TJC and I couldn't have one at my desk, and I COULD NOT get off the floor for even a moment until eight hours in to my shift). Two ICU holds, two floor holds, and a "regular" ER bed (so constantly admitting and d/cing patients), prepping one patient for surgery, another on multiple drips, everyone was total assist, two of them had diarrhea, and we had no tech, and the rooms were spread across the department (because we were too short-staffed to keep assignments in just one area) so tons of running. I covered more than six miles of walking between clock in and clock out, and lifted/turned/changed/repositioned cumulatively thousands of pounds of patients, mostly by myself. I was dehydrated and beyond physically miserable by the end of the day, and the cold I thought was gone resurged and turned in to bronchitis in the following days. Again, I'm a basically fit, healthy thirty-something. And this was a bad shift, but it wasn't a shocking/unimaginable shift by any means- conditions similar to this are not uncommon, this was just an exceptionally bad combination of acuity, census, and understaffing.

I'm actually pretty damn good at time management, but there are days when the work assigned goes beyond what anyone of any experience level can "manage" in the time allotted. There is a reason so many nurses are clamoring for non-bedside jobs, and it's that many bedside jobs as currently structured wring you out and leave you with no physical reserves.

I just really wouldn't recommend it for someone who is stressed and exhausted to the point of unhealthiness by study alone. And I don't mean that in a bad way at all- I don't REALLY recommend it for young, healthy people, either, but it's one thing to go through a few years of it in your youth in order to get access to saner jobs later. It's entirely another to sign up for it when you're in your sixties.

Specializes in Registered Nurse.
Cola89 said:
Honesty, I think so. Why? Because bedside nursing is for the young and generally healthy, and you would have to start out in some sort of direct patient care position. Young nurses with only a few good years of experience are clammering to get out move up into less physically and emotionally taxing positions --- and can, because they at least have working experience. Being a nurse is a lot more physically demanding than most (even students) realize.

As a newer grad, 12 hr. shifts easily turn into 14 hr. shifts. And, just yesterday I went nine (9) HOURS at work without one drink of water. Or anything. It was 1530 before I took my only break. That was my first and only opportunity to hydrate myself at work. I was that busy with a zillion calls, an admission, a discharge, patients coming back from surgery... more calls, more demands... an end of shift discharge. It's really physically difficult to tolerate and I cannot recommend it.

Yep. Non-stop is Med Surg. I often don't stop for break until 4 (starting at 7-ish) I do manage to run to my water bottle once in a while. Not often.

Yes........I said it........

rhondaa83 said:
Yes........I said it........

Like, silently to yourself?

My opinion and experience says nursing school at any chronological age is a personal thing that should be rigorously and honestly self-assessed. That said, I went to nursing school at age 59 and worked 50 plus hours a week and attended FT day school and it was not a challenge for me. I was under-challenged. My Grandmother was a veterinarian surgeon and clinical instructor who performed her last equine surgery at age 87. She stopped when her horse fell over a jump on a hunt course, crushing her hip. While I was in nursing school, I met a nurse who was 74 and had just returned from climbing Mt Hood. She looked like she was 40 and had more energy than an 18 year old. I am 61 and have more energy than I had when I was 30. My cog processes have improved and not declined. In addition I bring years of experience as a CNA and PCT, Phlebo., and so on. The real hands on care. And...because I have observed many years of learning exactly how I will not be as a nurse and exactly how I will be as a nurse I didn't feel a huge transition from being a real bedside nurse into med pass nurse. My work days are much easier physically and less demanding than when I was PCT or CNA. It's a different kind of stress that I refuse to let get inside of me. And....being older and not having children at home....I fill in every shift every parent calls in because of needing to meet the needs of children. And, as many new parents are struggling financially, I often pick them up for shift work as well. And....sad as it is....I also feed CNA's and PCT's on occasion because they are paid an unlivable wage for doing 90% of nursing work. So having an older nurse around is a smart move for thinking management, and a really smart move for those nurses who tend to want to destroy someone's life.

Some employers seem to enjoy initial investment in new nurses regardless of age as their staff turnarounds are so high. I am becoming more and more less sympathetic when I hear things like employer investment pay off and one mistake and out, in an ever changing environment where impossible workloads are condoned behind the hand. Chronological age is not an accurate measure of personal fitness for any job. I will outrun you, I bench 225 easily, and out work you. I am 61 and getting stronger and have more endurance as time goes by. It is about how I take care of my body and mind. It is how I deal in a resilient way and how I have dealt with life experience in the past. It is some genetic inheritance that allows all of my family to work up into their 80's and 90's. If they are still breathing they are unbelievably able to still work and work well.

If you smoke, drink, take drugs, don't follow written mobility care plans, eat a lot of crap food, wear crap shoes to work, wear terrible socks or stockings, don't work out, don't think positively, don't have a Spiritual life, sleep around, gossip, don't see impossible workloads as personal challenges that excite your creativity, if you have no sense of loyalty to a facility or any work ethic, then at any age, or if you are _itch....its time to get off the nurse wagon and go work someplace else, at any age.

I think some nurses are bringing on their own burnout. I see the obese nurse right now...not more than 15 feet from me, filling her mouth with cheese puffs at her work station on a patient unit in the hall. She's eating in the hall on a designated infectious disease unit. She has her bottle filled with pepsi. She is sitting because she is so unconditioned and overweight that she cant stand. She is 26 years old, single with no children.

What the heck, chronologically challenged person going into nursing is probably juggling 12 hour shifts with 4 nurses yelling at person at the same time, lifting bariatric with no equipment, doing all the blood sugars, most wound care, all hygiene, all mobility, all feeding, all room and transportation, all,EKGs, OXygen equipment and masks, answering call lights, running all the errands and crap jobs that RNs would never do, and in some places that person is probably doing assessments for the nursing staff, checking IV sites, and even passing oral meds.....and making a hefty 10 an hour if lucky.

The median age of PCT's where I work is 57.

Why wouldn't the PCT or CNA want to make more money.....its less physical work and frankly med passes and a little different documentation, assessments are not more demanding.

Before anyone is a nurse they should do time as CNA and PCT and go on a back training program.

Whether underpaid aids living on sub Welfare wages, or nursing, we are today's SEAL team in healthcare!

We need to train as such!!!

Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Knute said:
Sif you have no sense of loyalty to a facility or any work ethic, then at any age, or if you are _itch....its time to get off the nurse wagon and go work someplace else, at any age.

In an era where healthcare facilities and managers display no loyalty to nursing staff, I will never be loyal to any healthcare facility. Never. Ever. Absolutely not.

My workplace would terminate my employment, as well as anyone's job, the very moment management grows tired of me or any of my coworkers. My manager announced in a meeting that, "We can quickly replace anyone who wants to quit."

I will give my place of employment precisely as much loyalty as they extend to me, which is zero, zilch, nada.

I am a 63 year old RN and I can tell you, yes, you are too old to begin a nursing career. Nursing is hard, physically and mentally. If you can't make it through the nursing program you will not stand up under the 12 hr. shifts and holidays in addition to the ungodly hours themselves and sometime with no break. Not trying to be mean. Just realistic.

....its who we are at the end of the day and how we come back from devastating experiences working under a corrupt and evil health care management that makes us count as Nurses and as people. Let me share a personal happening:

L was the worse _itch on the planet and DON in a facility that was beautiful on the outside and phoney on the inside. Patients were in thread bare clothing and always ran out of needed hygiene care and some other essential products and this was intentional.

Staff was frightened and bullied and the nurse educator taught that LPN's were basically nothing more than a CNA with med pass privileges, RN's were constantly chastised and set up to fail and that if we couldn't do the work we could always apply at WalMart.

.....so when floor nurses and aids huddled together after one particularly vicious verbal attack on all of staff the team decided to kneel in prayer and ask Heavenly Father to help us maintain a sense of well-being in a situation where anything but that was the case.

We, after all, loved our patients inspite of the best efforts of management to set us up to fail in the care of those we cared for.

We determined to remain loyal to facility and to patients and that no matter what they did to us.....we would be NURSES.

After we did this, the DON went out on sick leave and then she was fired. The new DON fought with upper management without fear as her husband was the primary wage earner and she had some leverage in not being overly concerned about her wage and therefore giving in to unrighteous and illegal demands by upper management (and in this case it was much more than just too many patients per staff...some bad things were happening).

After we huddled and prayed together, out relationships improved, and things got a little better for us. It took some time, but we came together as a real team. As well, inspite of someone not deserving our loyalty, we were loyal to facility and to each other...the backbiting and bullying stopped......we aren't just anybody, we are NURSES.

Specializes in LTC and Pediatrics.

Why is is that everyone replying on here assumes that a nurse will be working 12 hour shifts in med/surg? I can tell you that some of us have never worked med/surg since school. I have many friends who have done other things as well as not working 12 hour shifts. If we want to base all nursing based on a 12 hour med/surg practice, then we are not representing nursing well at all.

This is why the potential student asking the question needs to evaluate what she wants to do with her nursing. In what areas she is wanting to work. Full time or part time? That is important too. For some of us, it isn't about the money believe it or not. Especially when we are older.

Another thing, I know of grads in their 20's where it has taken them several months get a job. It took me about 2 weeks.

I am one who says if someone wants to return to school at an older age, then go for it.

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