What is Happening with RN Retirements?

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, FAAN

For years, we have been hearing that Registered Nurses are delaying employment. Nurse leaders have noted that their staff seem to aging in place. Retirement delays have been attributed to the challenges that new graduates are having finding employment. We now have data with a study published this month in Health Affairs about how patterns in retirement are changing. Auerbach, Buerhaus and Staiger, three prominent workforce researchers, report that there has been a large shift toward later retirement among Registered Nurses during the past four decades, independent of any effects with economic downturns.

The Changes

The researchers studied changes in employment patterns during two specific time-frames, the decades between 1969 and 1990 and the decades between 1991 and 2012. During the 1969-1990 time-frame for any given number of RNs working at age 50, 47% were still working at age 62 and the numbers dwindled to 9% by age 69. Contrast that with the time-frame between 1991 and 2012 when 74 percent of nurses studied who were working at 50 continued to be employed at age 62 and 24% were still working at age 69. These are very significant differences in rates of employment. RNs today who are 50 years old and still working are likely to work another 14 years versus the 11.4 years they would have worked before 1990. The researchers note that some of this increased employment of older nurses has probably been made possible by the growth in positions outside of acute care settings. Data from national nursing samples shows that as nurses age, they shift their work settings outside of acute care. The 2008 national nursing sample indicated that only 35% of nurses over the age of 65 were employed by hospitals. This helps to explain why some of the previous employment models that projected a nursing shortage during this decade were based on the historical patterns of retirement that are no longer valid.

The Implications

There is good news in this data in that nurses are using their professional expertise for longer periods of time and the healthcare industry is benefiting from these patterns. The recent shifts in growth of employment outside hospital settings to home health, hospice and long-term care will continue to make long-term employment possible for RNs as they age. What is unknown is how the gradual retirement of a large segment of the workforce – the Baby Boomers – who have been working longer will impact RN employment numbers. In some respects, we have become complacent with the idea that there are now enough nurses and a future shortage is unlikely. This study demonstrates the interesting reality that employment patterns shift over time and as leaders, we must be attentive to the changes.

Read to Lead

Auerbach, D.I, Buerhaus, P.I. & Staiger, D.O. Registered Nurses are delaying retirement, A shift that has contributed to the recent growth in the nurse workforce. Health Affairs. (8). 1474-1480.