The nurse finder

Employment transitions for older nurses: a qualitative study

“…While providing insight into older nurses’ perceptions of their employment options as they approach 50 years, this research also emphasises the importance of relevant stakeholders recognizing pro‐actively the implications of an ageing nursing workforce. As others have suggested, employers need to accept that older nurses are a valuable resource for addressing staff shortages in nursing (Department of Health 2000a,b, Parish 2000).…”

“…The National Health Services (NHS) is the largest employer of nurses in the nursing sector (Department of Health 2000a) and its workforce is ageing with more than 75,000 nurses being aged over 55 years, and a further 71,000 aged between 50 and 54 years (Parish 2000, p. 11). This phenomenon, which also exists in other countries such as the United States of America (USA) (Hornstein 2001), means that one in five nurses registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC, formerly the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting) is aged 50 years and above.…”

“…2002a, p. 538). Workforce planning suggests that this level of potential turnover requires at least 15,000 new nurses to be recruited each year (Parish 2000, p. 11). This age shift is compounded by prevailing shortages of nurses within certain segments of the profession.…”

“…Staff retention is increasingly one of the 'new concerns' claiming the attention of international decision-makers in nursing (Van Lerberghe et al 2002, p. 525; see also Nelson 2002), although Letvak (2002) found that only 6% of hospitals in North Carolina (USA) had policies addressing older nurses' needs, and only 13% had specific plans for policy development. Besides being able to fill nursing vacancies, older nurses possess skills and knowledge relevant to employers and patients (Parish 2000; see also Department of Health 2000b).…”