Aging nurses pursue traveling healthcare careers

Jul 1, 2008
By: Marcia Faller
Healthcare Traveler
Volume 16, Issue 1

Key Points

• AMN's 2008 Survey of Nurses 45 to 60 Years Old revealed that 35% of Baby Boomer nurses plan to retire, find non-nursing jobs, work part time, or work as traveling nurses in the next 1 to 3 years.
• It is important to address conditions causing older professionals to leave nursing jobs, and consider the retention of experienced nurses a priority for the healthcare industry.

Nurses, like America's population as a whole, are getting older. The Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA) National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses indicates that the majority of nurses in the U.S. are now at least 45 years of age. In fact, in 2004, over 41% of nurses in the U.S. were 50 years old or older, up significantly from 33% in 2000.

How long are these Baby Boomer nurses planning to remain in the clinical workforce? What facets of their jobs do they find the most gratifying and the most frustrating? What is the overall level of job satisfaction among Baby Boomer nurses, and how many plan on working as travelers?

AMN Healthcare, parent company of American Mobile Healthcare, recently conducted a survey of 1,830 nurses between 45 and 60 years of age to explore these and other questions.

Future workforce issues

AMN's 2008 Survey of Nurses 45 to 60 Years Old revealed that 35% of Baby Boomer nurses plan to retire, find non-nursing jobs, work part time, or work as travel nurses in the next 1 to 3 years. This finding has significant implications for those concerned about the nursing workforce. More than 1.12 million nurses in the U.S. are between the ages of 45 and 60, according to HRSA. Should even 10% of these nurses choose to retire in the next 1 to 3 years or to find non-nursing jobs, the overall nursing workforce would be reduced by some 112,000 nurses.

One benefit offered by travel nursing is that it provides a means by which Baby Boomer nurses who might otherwise choose to retire or find non-clinical jobs can stay in nursing. Two percent of Baby Boomer nurses surveyed reported that they plan to work as travel nurses in the next 1 to 3 years. Should 2% of all nurses ages 45 to 60 choose to work as travelers during this time period, approximately 22,500 nurses who may have pursued some other option would remain in the profession.

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Home Health Aide

Home health aides help elderly, convalescent, or disabled persons live in their own homes instead of health care facilities. Under the direction of nursing or medical staff, they provide health-related services, such as administering oral medications. (Personal and home care aides, who provide mainly housekeeping and routine personal care services, are discussed elsewhere in the Handbook.) Like nursing aides, home health aides may check patients� pulse rate, temperature, and respiration rate; help with simple prescribed exercises; and help patients to get in and out of bed, bathe, dress, and groom. Occasionally, they change nonsterile dressings, give massages and provide skin care, or assist with braces and artificial limbs. Experienced home health aides, with training, also may assist with medical equipment such as ventilators, which help patients breathe.

Most home health aides work with elderly or disabled persons who need more extensive care than family or friends can provide. Some help discharged hospital patients who have relatively short-term needs.

In home health agencies, a registered nurse, physical therapist, or social worker usually assigns specific duties to and supervises home health aides, who keep records of the services they perform and record each patient�s condition and progress. The aides report changes in a patient�s condition to the supervisor or case manager.

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Nobody ever WANTS to go into a nursing home! (True, but……….)

For those of you who have always wondered about nursing homes;

Nobody ever WANTS to go into a nursing home! (True, but……….)

There are many myths about nursing homes that may have been true in the past, but are now very untrue- read on to learn that your preconceived notions may be wrong!

#1) The biggest myth of all! “The nursing home is the end of the line- you only go there to die”

WOW! I am astonished at how often I hear this! Almost every nursing home has a significant focus on helping a person recover from illness or injury and transition to a lesser level of care. That means, if you go to a nursing home, nobody just gives up on you. It is frequently just a stepping stone, rather than a “last stop”. Discharge planning is done on a regular basis for everyone, even if they were admitted for “long-term care!” I bet you didn’t know that! The nursing home has a responsibility to assess whether a person still needs that level of care, and if he or she doesn’t, to make arrangements for discharge to an alternative setting. This could mean home with or without additional services, to an assisted living facility, rest or group home, senior housing, or to a family member’s home. Many states are enacting legislation to provide more home services for these nursing home residents who have improved to the point they no longer require nursing (or skilled) care.

ALSO…………… many nursing homes provide “short-term rehabilitation” or “subacute care” specifically designed to assist those who have had illness, injury, or surgery obtain the physical, occupational, and speech therapy, as well as nursing care, they require after a hospital stay. The focus from Day 1 is to get these residents back on their feet and help them transition back home. In most cases, Medicare and private insurances cover these services as long as certain criteria are met.

Please feel free to call me if you have any questions about myth #1 or nursing homes in general, and stay tuned for myth #2!

Shaileen (203)927-0702

There are many career opportunities in nursing homes! From administrators, to accountants, to housekeepers, nurses, cnas, therapists, and many, many other opportunities, nursing homes offer fulfilling, secure careers with potential for advancement.