Mean Age of RN's

We need an icon with a cane or walker (I am trying to laugh). What does everyone think of this? Is anyone feeling the effects? I work in surgery and a great majority of our staff are in their fifties. We do not mess around and our schedule is heavy. It really makes a difference when a majority begin to get hurt a work due to fatigue,etc. The pool of experienced nurses is nil. Just wondering if this challange is being met elsewhere. Thanks!

Well, I'm 42, and about half of our staff is in the 40-ish range, with the rest being newbies.

What we have done is split the staffing up, about 50/50. Half veterans, and half newbies. Doing this serves two purposes...it helps the new nurses by giving them some more experienced nurses to turn to in a crunch, and it gives us old farts a chance to teach (and learn, for that matter!).

There is a high turn over rate in our unit, I guess because it can get pretty intense (duh...MSICU!), but there is an abundance of new nurses who want to become ICU nurses, or at least they think they do. Some move on to PICU, NICU, CVICU, etc...

At this point, I don't believe that any of our veterans are planning to retire, although I often dream of it!

TracyR
www.nurseserver.com

I will be 60 in June with 31 years of Nursing behind me. Not too many stay with it that long but there are some out there.

Hi Fay,

sounds like you're still going strong! Welcome to the forum!

I'm 30 and I feel the effects everyday.. There are so few nurses out there it is scary!! I dont know what is going to happen when all those 50 and over retire?

I guess I am the baby here, I am 26 and have been working as and RN since I was 21. Most of the nuses that I have worked with on most of my assignments durning my travels have always been a great deal older. With their experiences I have learned alot. Keep going strong you give us younger nurses someone to look up to.

I'm 43 and consider myself an old-timer.

I've often though of writing a book called "You can tell you're an old nurse when..."
...you remember metal bedpans.
...you routinely washed and sterilized metal bedpans.
...it was common knowledge that if you needed help STAT, and no one was answering the call light, you threw the metal bedpan out into the (non-carpeted) hallway. The noise woke the dead and help was there.
...you actually counted IV drip rates and were impressed with the first IVAC you saw.
...you find yourself employed some 20 years later at a place where they still use the first IVAC you ever saw.

Can anyone help me with this "project." It might get fun.

I am having a crisis. Recently, I was approached by our educator to resume a preceptor role in my ICU. I am a 36yo RN who has worked in this unit for 11 years- the last 5 as a charge nurse. I have precepted before with great success.I tend to be decribed as "anal" and acertive. I think that that's not necessarily a bad thing and sometimes it's a great thing. Here's my rant.
After the second day on the job, my orientee has stated that he has is not comfortable with a protocol and will NOT do it that way ever. It is a tubing protocol- not dangerous, just wasteful and against the grain of current studies in line infections. Also, even after discussing the need and purpose of isolation gowns for even minor interaction at a patients bedside- he demonstrates ( yes on day 2) that his habit is not to wear them. There have been other comments and flags that are burning me up. These are my 2 documentable concerns.
AT the end of day 2 of orientation we mutually decided it would be maybe best if we searched out another compatible preceptor for him as not to make his experience in our facility a bad one and start out on a more positive note. I feel weird about it even though I know it is the right thing to do. Partly ego and partly safety. S'posedly, he has a varied background not including critical care. Therefore, I started out as if he was fairly green. He admits to experience with vents, lines and other things but verbalizes little understanding so far. In retrospect, i could have started things at a differant pace. On day one he was annoyed that I gave him no freedom. day 2 - I was too liberally and distant. His actions toward our vent patient really reflect sound care of a chronic vent patient vs critical non- weaning patient. I am at awe that he has no understanding of the settings and patient responces to those settings. TOday I speak with my educator about my concerns and generating a new preceptor. I feel like -itch and that I blew it. I see 'issues' that may or may not resole regarding practice concerns. It it too early on this path to carry these thoughts? Has anyone else had a orientee that just did not mesh with them? I am a mess. HElp

could you put me on his national do not care (for) list please? I don't want him taking care of me, especially if he was in the isolation room next to me just before.

What would throw a flag up for me is that he sounds pretty disrespectful. If he's just starting (especially) he should be doing just what he's told. He hasn't been there long enough to make his own decisions. Plus, if he has that attitude already, how bad is it going to be when he's comfortable?

I'd say you're doing the right thing

... NOT wearing gloves to do handle any body fluids.
.... smoking at the bedside with your patient.
.... an aline was a big deal when they came to your hospital.
....candy stripers:)!
.....wore your nursing cap faithfully every day.
....wore only a white uniform and sneakers were unacceptable foot wear.
WOW- I feel old:)
....your pleurevac set up was a couple of bottles on the floor.
Tst3

...hemorroidectomy patients stayed a week inpatient.
...doctors would send<font color="purple">Text</font> their patients in to a private room for a week for "rest".
...patients would be admitted the night before surgery for a shave and an enema.
...glass thermometers soaking in alcohol at the bedside for each patient.
...the only special bed on the ward was a circle-electric bed.
...we used to call our units "the ward".
...the patient bathrooms were out in the hallway and not in the patient rooms.
...color coded little medication cards.
...we mixed all our own IV's in bottles.
...we gave all our antibiotics by IM injection in the buttocks for weeks on end until we couldn't find a soft spot to put them in and half the time the solution would spit back out at you, and their hips were so sore and hard and bruised. (Thank God for IVP meds now!!!)
...families never stayed overnight with the patients and visiting hours we strictly enforced. (wholistic care was not a priority then).
...we cleaned, sharpened and sterilized needles on the ward and reused them over and over again.

I am 64 and planning to retire when I am supposed to- next year at 65 1/2. I think our unit has about national average age wwith most of our nurses 40's to 50's and a few 30's and maybe 2 in their 20's. Most of our group has worked there for 10-30 years,including supervisers and we get along well with little back-biting. We try to support one another and trade hours etc as needed to make life better for all.
As for I remember when--I,too know how to count drops so the IV will run at prescribed rate. Also remember wearing those hats which I loved at the time (it proved that I was a real nurse!) I learned lots of tricks from older staff,including nurse aides.

I'm 47, have been an RN for 27 years and still love it!! Obtained my CCRN 12 years ago. Got my BSN 2 years ago and am currently working on my Masters/NP. Am I nuts to do this at my age?! Maybe, but I'm not getting older, just better!!

Guess I'm the youngster of the crowd, I'm 35 and looking forward to another 20 years or so of Nursing.

Course I'll always be doing my nursing website on the side. Or maybe floor nursing will be come the "side" job

We'll see how it works out.

Has anyone heard that the average age of a Nursing Instructor is like 53!

Who's gonna be teaching once they retire?

Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.4nursing.com

i'm 43 and been an rn for 15 yrs...

let's face it... america's nurses are in the middle of menopause and armed with sharp instruments!!!

This is much more than you asked for, but I got on a roll!
I just turned 56. My first hospital experience was in a state supported facility in Massachusetts that harkened back to the 1800’s! To prepare a soap suds enema you had to fill a metal enema can with warm water then place a bar of soap in a metal mesh device with a handle ..to make the soap suds you had to pump the device up and down until it was sufficiently soapy…gad, those were the ‘old’ days!
I think *redrosegal* and I worked in the same place! All of her memories are very familiar.
And, *Tst3*, I remember those pleurevac bottles very well!
I also remember---
… non-electric beds---all patient beds were secure in the high position. Hoyer lifts were regularly used
…..wooden wheelchairs
…no blue pads\chux-- we used rubber draw sheets under the regular draw sheet (remember draw sheets?)
….IPPBRx given with the use of the large green O2 tank (nurses gave all respiratory treatments)
… multi dose vials of Demerol, Morphine etc open on the shelf along with large bottles of Librium, Valium, Codiene, Percodan etc
….dishing out meals from the food cart (actually dishing out food! You really HAD to know your nutrition in those days!)
…..if your patient died it was your responsibility to prepare the body; take him\her to the morgue, then go to the morgue to clean the body after the post mortem! (I hated that!)
…..sometimes You were the only nurse on the floor 11PM-7AM which could be a 35 bed male surgical floor <those were the days of patient gender segregation>
…..cardiac monitors wheeled into the hallway so that the nurse could ‘keep an eye’ on her patients
…Blakemore tubes being tractioned with tea cups
…..Scope rooms in L&D (scopolamine medicated maternity patients medicated with this during transition! I worked with this during my L&D rotation in nursing school and never worked L&D again!)
…..’Carbolizing your unit’---cleaning the patients ‘room’ after discharge-it was the nurses responsibility to disinfect the unit and prepare it for the new admission. This included cleaning the metal bed (the whole bed!) Also, cleaning and disinfecting the metal bedpan and metal urinal; soap dish and what ever else had been used by the patient
…cleaning the wheels of the treatment carts with ether (I don’t remember why we had to do that)
….I, too, remember throwing the metal bedpan to get attention during an emergency
….writing narrative nursing notes
…..cataract patients were on strict bedrest and sandbagged (to prevent movement of their head)for days!
….IV cutdowns were routine
…..IV bottles were all glass
…..Syringes were all glass-- I, also, remember cleaning, sharpening and sterilizing needles for reuse
…..Units\wards dedicated to TB patients
…..standing up when the doctor came to the desk
…..being ‘called on the carpet’ for having a run in my white stockings .. having to wear my white nurses cap on my head; only white Clinic shoes on my feet and a full white nurses uniform which had to come below the knees!—no pants or skirts! Heaven forbid! Your hair had to be off your collar; you couldn’t have long nails or wear nailpolish, rings, bracelets or necklaces and never any perfume! Although, we could smoke at the nurses station <go figure>
…..the days before the hospital wide page system, if you needed your supervisor you had to call each floor looking for her..if you had an emergency: tough luck
…..the days before air conditioning on the floors
….the days when you could open the windows in each room

Thank you for posting the query about the old days of nursing. It has been fun remembering. I only worked in that 'ancient' hospital for about 18 months, but it has held a lasting impression all these years. As bad as those days were there was always time to hold a patient's hand and listen to their concerns...
Carol

The Mean Age of RN's since 1989 has been in the early 40's with a slight trend towards mid-40's up to 2001.

Source: Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group Files, 1984-2001

Table 2.7: Mean Age of Licensed Nurses

They're all MEAN! haha.

Thanks for responding mag, I knew that stat was there. I was thinking it was 46 years old and climbing but that's probably too high.

Either way, think about that. The mean age of a registered nurse is 40 something plus. That's up there.

shortbus wrote:They're all MEAN! haha.

Thanks for responding mag, I knew that stat was there. I was thinking it was 46 years old and climbing but that's probably too high.

Either way, think about that. The mean age of a registered nurse is 40 something plus. That's up there.

I resemble that remark! LOL, I'm climbing to 46 yrs old & will reach it this coming 12 April.

... it ain't up there cause I'm no where near my peak ;)

I am an RN of 32 years duration, age 62. I am on the nurse educator track for an MSN, almost done.

I find that there are many nurses in their 40s and 50s but few have been at it as long or longer than I.

Jim
Los Angeles