Why Do Older RNs Keep Working?

Abstract

Retaining older nurses in the workforce is an important strategy for managing workforce shortages. Nurse executives will need to consider strategies that will enhance retention of older nurses and focus on the reasons older nurses want to keep working.

The health of working nurses: Hypertension prevalence, awareness, treatment and control by medication

“…The costs of such programmes for the prevention and treatment of hypertension in nurses are likely to be far outweighed by the benefits in workforce productivity (Asay et al., ). While many of the factors related to health are personal (Graham, Donoghue, Duffield, & Griffiths, ), nurse managers are in a position to recommend that their staff protect their good health, engage in regular screening and accommodate health changes in staff when they occur. Health promotion units for staff have become commonplace in workplaces and are involved in screening campaigns, which could be promoted by nurse managers to their staff (Ogunmoroti et al., ).…”

Retaining older hospital nurses: Experienced hospital nurses’ perceptions of new roles

“…In comparison, with a randomly selected sample of 319 registered nurses in Australia (mean age 55), Duffield et al () found that 17% of the respondents noted overall health was a factor in their intent to retire early; overall health was described as age related, or related to fatigue/burnout. On a positive note, reasons to stay in the workplace cited by nurses 50 years and older include the opportunity to participate in decision‐making related to work activities (Hellemans & Closon, ), and in a study with nurses 45 years and older, good working relationships and interesting work (Graham et al, ).…”

Retirement planning and work-related variables in Chinese older nurses: A cross-sectional study

“…In the United Kingdom and Canada, 20% and 33%, respectively, of the nurse population are aged over 50 years (Keller & Burns, ). In Australia, the average age of nurses was 44.5 years in 2011; nurses aged 50–54 years accounted for the largest proportion (Graham et al., ). In New Zealand, approximately 40% of the nurses were aged over 50 years (Clendon & Walker, ).…”

“…Various studies (Auerbach, Buerhaus, & Staiger, ; Bishop, ; Duffield et al., ; Graham et al., ; Meng, ; Nooney et al., ; Spiva, Hart, & McVay, ; Stichler, ; Valencia & Raingruber, ; Williamson et al., ) found that the main factors that influence whether older nurses plan to remain in clinical practice are the working conditions; personal health and economic status; and other factors such as working hours, workload, social welfare and personal circumstances. Meng () showed that the main factors that affect retirement planning by older nurses are health status, economic status, attitude toward retirement and satisfaction with current work.…”

“…However, Graham et al. () reported that the working environment is the most important reason (48.5%, n = 171), followed by economic (28.7%, n = 101) and social reasons (22.7%, n = 80). Notably, Letvak () revealed that 94% of the medical institutions that employed retired nurses at the time did not take corresponding response strategies, and 87% of the agencies did not even draft a plan.…”