Thinning Ranks Challenges loom as the nursing corps grows older    |
| What do you think? Email us at [email protected] nurseweek.com Related sitesAmerican Association of Occupational Health Nurses (AAOHN)Texas Nurses Association (TNA) and the Texas Nurses FoundationAmerican Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE)Occupational Safety and Health Administration | More than 40 million Americans will be 65 or older by 2010, and hospital officials are already bracing for a staggering increase in the patient population as baby boomers creep closer toward senior citizenship. But it’s not just the patients who are getting older.Experts say the country’s nursing corps is aging faster than nearly every other profession. The average age of a nurse in the United States is now more than 44 years. The mean has grown so steadily this decade that some healthcare experts are predicting a professional crisis in the making.Disastrous trend“It’s a disaster waiting to happen,” said Peter Buerhaus, PhD, RN, director of the Harvard Nursing Research Institute and an assistant professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. “The nurse work force is going to be aging itself out [of the workplace], and given the trends in demographics, it doesn’t look to me that there is a hope to attract an adequate level of nurses for the future.”That may just be part of the bad news. The pipeline of younger nurses entering the profession is not replenishing the supply of older nurses who are retiring, opting out of bedside nursing, or opting out of the industry altogether. And with other pressing issues at hand, most hospitals are ill prepared to deal with the issues raised by an older nursing corps.“[Hospitals] are so oppressed by their present-day survival, an aging nursing population is way too low on their priority list,” Buerhaus said. “Hospital involvement is way overdue. No one has a complete understanding of all the implications of dealing with an aging work force.”Those implications are myriad. For employers and nurses alike, the primary impact will be a push to make the workplace more desirable to older nurses and to increase staff retention. Of special concern are long workdays, including forced overtime and 12-hour shifts. But other considerations can be more subtle.“You hear anecdotal things like ‘12 hours is too hard,’ and some nurses may look to cut back on hours, but not too much,” said Joyce Batcheller, MSN, RN, senior vice president and chief nursing executive for the Seton Medical Center in Austin, Texas. “But we had a meeting not long ago and we were discussing what to have on the crash cart, and a nurse suggested we add reading glasses. There was laughter, but most of us knew what she was talking about.”Increased risk for injuryIn 1997, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Bureau of Labor Statistics received claims from nearly 27,300 registered nurses who reported missing work because of a workplace injury or accident. Almost 5,400 of those claims were injuries from lifting. While there is no data suggesting that claims for workplace injuries are proportional to age, many experts agree that age may not only pose a greater risk of injury from the physical demands of the job, but also increase long-term disability after injury.“The physically laborious jobs [of nursing] are very challenging, especially for a predominantly female work force,” said Deborah V. DiBenedetto, RN, a certified occupational health nurse and president of the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses. “Is there a greater potential for long-term disability as you get older? Absolutely. If I fall at age 52, there’s a big difference in the potential for disability than if I fall and I’m 21.”Opting outThe personal risks and physical demands of the job lead many older nurses to opt for retirement or a different, non-acute nursing position, said Nancy Ackley, who holds master’s degrees in rehab counseling and theology. She is also the RN director of the Texas Nurses Foundation, the charitable, research, and public service arm of the Texas Nurses Association, which is conducting a demographic study of nurses in the state. Ackley said hospitals want older nurses to avoid workplace stress and injury to increase the likelihood that they will continue working.“I’m not suggesting that the [older] nurse cannot do their work well,” Ackley said. “What I’m suggesting is that experienced nurses will choose not to do work that is so physically, emotionally, and mentally demanding. If I’m a hospital, I don’t believe that the aging nurse reduces the quality of care. In fact, I believe the aging nurse provides more experience and skill.”Some experts estimate as much as 40 percent of the current corps of nurses will retire within 10 years, and yet most hospitals haven’t faced the possibility of such a loss.“There need to be ways to use older nurses, ways to keep them engaged in the work force,” Buerhaus said. “You need economic incentives, but if you can keep them in, how do you make the workplace more comfortable?”Some hospitals have instituted 24-hour, on-call lifting teams to minimize the physical aspects of the job, and others are looking to make schedules more flexible. But most haven’t planned for a staff of nurses who will soon be over 50 years old.“We would be shortsighted if we put all nurses into the bucket of 12-hour shifts,” said Marjorie Beyers, RN, executive director of the American Organization of Nurse Executives. “But it’s tough to think that far ahead. We know we’ve got an aging nursing work force, and what we do now will pave the way for the future.” |
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