title: Nurses' health, age and the wish to leave the profession--findings from the European NEXT-Study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In many industrialised countries the number of workers with low health is expected to increase in the nursing profession. This will have implications for occupational health work in health care. The European NEXT-Study (www. next-study. net, funded by EU) investigates working conditions of nurses in ten European countries and provides the opportunity to evaluate the role of health with respect to age and the consideration of leaving nursing.
  
  
  METHODS
  26,263 female registered nurses from Belgium, Germany, Finland, France, England, Italy, Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia were eligible for analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In most countries, older nurses considered leaving the profession more frequently than younger nurses. 'Health' was--next to 'professional opportunities' and 'work organisational factors'--strongly associated with the consideration of leaving nursing. However, more than half of all nurses with low health wanted to remain in the profession. This group reported rather positive psychosocial working conditions--but also the highest fear for unemployment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings indicate that 'the nurse with low health' is reality in many health care settings. Both positive supporting working conditions but also lack of occupational alternatives and fear of unemployment may contribute to this. Current economic, political and demographic trends implicate that the number of active nurses with low health will increase. Occupational health surveillance will be challenged by this. But NEXT findings implicate that prevention also will have to regard work organisational factors if the aim is to sustain nurses' health and to enable nurses to remain healthy in their profession until retirement age.
authors.affiliation: University of Wuppertal, FB D, Dept. of Occupational Health, Gauss Strasse 20, D-42097 Wuppertal.
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Hasselhorn
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tackenberg
authors.forename: Angelika
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kuemmerling
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wittenberg
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Simon
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Conway
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Bertazzi
authors.forename: Beate
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Beermann
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Büscher
authors.forename: Donatella
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Camerino
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Caillard
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: D'Hoore
authors.forename: Madeleine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Estryn-Behar
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fontenla
authors.forename: Dinah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gould
authors.forename: Beate
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: van der Heijden
authors.forename: Malin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Josephson
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kiss
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kovarova
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kuhn
authors.forename: Marjukka
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Laine
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Le Nezet
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lindberg
authors.forename: Halszka
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Oginska
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pokorski
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pokorska
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Radkiewicz
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rimarcik
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: van der Schoot
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stelzig
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stordeur
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wickstroem
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Widerszal-Bazyl
authors.forename: B H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Mueller
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D005060:Europe; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008019:Life Style; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008875:Middle Aged; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000600:supply & distribution; D016272:Occupational Health; D010563:Personnel Turnover; D012179:Retirement / Q000523:psychology; D014478:Unemployment / Q000523:psychology; D016526:Workload / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data