A Focus Group Study of Retirement-Age Nurses: Balancing Tension and a Love of Nursing in a Changing Healthcare Environment

Abstract

The aims of this study were to explore the experience of retirement-age nurses and identify decision-making factors and innovations to enhance retention. BACKGROUND: A national shortage of nurses has created challenges to preserving quality patient care and level of nursing competency and managing turnover costs. METHODS: A qualitative study using focus groups was conducted of nurses 55 years or older who were working or recently retired. Data were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim, with content analysis used to code in an iterative process until consensus was reached. RESULTS: The tension of balancing the love of patient care within a changing healthcare system was described. Patient acuity, competing roles, and the centrality of computers were stressors and integrally related. Flexibility in work schedules and new practice models were important to retirement decision making for work-life balance and retention.CONCLUSION: Passion for patient care dominated decisions to continue working. Innovations in practice models and scheduling offer opportunities to enhance the retention of experienced nurses.

Retaining new graduate nurses

“…Flexible scheduling options respect both the role's physical demands and the expertise lost when experienced nurses leave the profession. 59 Anecdotal expe-rience from several authors of this paper suggests that when staffing vacancies necessitate overtime, nurse managers should closely monitor staff who consistently volunteer to work additional shifts for fatigue and burnout because both are directly linked to turnover. Managers may find it beneficial to limit overtime to maintain staff wellbeing and promote retention.…”

“…Self-scheduling is one way to improve work-life balance for staff while still promoting equity, teamwork, and safe staffing. Flexible scheduling options respect both the role's physical demands and the expertise lost when experienced nurses leave the profession 59. Anecdotal experience from several authors of this paper suggests that when staffing vacancies necessitate overtime, nurse managers should closely monitor staff who consistently volunteer to work additional shifts for fatigue and burnout because both are directly linked to turnover.…”

Workforce support and retention

“…1 Slusser and colleagues describe "senior nurses" as "'wisdom workers' who have layers of experience across multiple areas of care delivery and are essential to growing future generations of nurses." 2 Furthermore, the American Nurses Association highlights the pressures felt by the nursing workforce amid and after the pandemic due to the increasing demands of an aging, chronically ill population; the departure of expert nurses; and insufficient workforce support. 3 Multiple studies have explored the readiness of new-to-practice (NTP) nurses entering the workforce and the impacts of educational preparation; however, this pilot aims to understand how the nurse emeritus (NE) role can support the NTP nurse and offset these pressures in the practice setting.…”