Baby Boomers, those born from 1946 to 1964, make up 29-percent of the American population. There are about 75 million Boomers in the United States and they comprise the country’s largest age-related demographic. This year, 2008, the age range of Boomers is 44 to 62. The Boomers are growing old. Thanks to medical advances, they will also be living to increasingly advanced ages.
Guess who else is growing old (in working world jargon)? About 30-percent of practicing nurses nationwide are over the age of 50. I am a Boomer myself and I see a problem. Certainly, I've not discovered anything new but the problem becomes scarier when it becomes personal. At precisely the time I’ll be reaching an age when I likely could need more medical care, one-third of the nursing work force will reach, or be approaching, retirement age right along with me. We all know that the supply of new nurses is not keeping up with demand, so the nursing shortage will become even more critical as these older nurses leave the profession. So, who is going to take care of me?
The answer to that question is up in the air and probably will continue to float around up there for several years. For one thing, there is not a single solution to the nurse shortage, nor will there ever be. Solutions will have to come from a multitude of directions, focused on individual facets of the crisis.
To help chip away the problem comes the Aging Nurse Project at Massachusetts General Hospital, the brainchild of 64-year-old RN, Ed Coakley. Simply put, the project takes information gleaned from interviews with older nurses, evaluates their concerns and develops plans to mitigate issues the nurses find disquieting. It turns out that a significant number of older nurses want and, in some cases, also need to continue working. But, they have concerns about the physical demands that are inherent to the profession, particularly lifting and moving patients. They fear back injuries and the lack of stamina required to perform their jobs well.
In an effort to retain that group of nurses, some hospitals have made concessions for them that include shorter work shifts and flexible hours, retraining for work in less strenuous work settings and pairing them with younger nurses to create a more functional intergenerational staff.
All are forward thinking moves that the Boomer nurses are embracing. Massachusetts General reports that about a third of its nursing staff are over 50 and their turnover rate is about 4-percent, a good indication that the older nurses are happy with the changes and content with their jobs.
I’m impressed by the willingness of the hospitals to be flexible and to seek and initiate these changes. Despite their having little choice, really--all are scrambling to maintain staffing levels--it is always a challenge to move away from the procedural norm. The changes are not the be-all and end-all in fixing the nurse shortage but they make perfect sense and are proving to be effective. Maybe there’ll be a nurse to take care of me--and you--after all.
Friday, February 15, 2008
The Need to Keep Aging Nurses in the Work Force
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4 comments:
Kudos to Nurse Ed Coakley and Mass General Hospital. I am from NYC, and I'm finding the opposite is going on. In that I mean I see much more ads for "new grads welcome" and it's nearly impossible to address the issue of shortening the shifts because the majority of RN's still desire the longer shifts due to family, school and other obligations. As far as teaming a younger and older RN together, there lies resentment as to who's paycheck should reflect more compensation for percieved increased work done. As a 52 year old RN, I feel as though the experience and knowledge I impart to my less experienced counterpart is priceless, although it's rarely percieved that way on the recieving end. I'm so glad that somewhere, the value of our experience and nursing instinct is worth the percieved gap in salary some folks may feel. I hope that this is a trend that catches on, because from what I've seen, many people want to graduate with MSN's and become administrators right out of school. I am not knocking education by a long shot, I'm just advocating experience to go along with it. Thanks Ed, for speaking up for the Baby Boomers.
Thanks for your wise comment. And, yes, kudos to Ed!
Anonymous, When I read the part of your comment that stated the desire for many student's to graduate with MSN's and go into administration right away, I thought you were taking those thoughts right out of my head. I've seen this and heard about this many times. How can anyone administrate something they've never done? I don't knock education either. I think it's a very good thing, but like everything else, there's got to be a balance of experience and education. Nursing is a wonderful profession of caring and doing for others. It's not something that comes straight out of a book. They couldn't possible prepare student's for every scenario that is going to come their way, and anyone who's done any kind of nursing knows that things have a tendency to go somewhere between what should happen and Murphy's law. I cringe when I think about what's going to happen when the "new" administrators come across difficult situations in nursing. What about the patients? I'm from the city too, and I'm 53. I do see some of the newer nurses resentment when it's mentioned how much experience I have, and I don't understand it. When I was a new grad, I would have jumped at the opportunity to work with a preceptor, unheard of in those days. While education is a good thing, I think some of it is causing misguidance.
I find the younger nurses can be disrespectful,they think they know it all and want to take over,some of the young charge nurses would work us older nurses to death.I find that at 52 my stamina is waning and I need to find an easier job.
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