Aged over 50 years and practising: separation and changes in nursing practice among New Zealand's older Registered Nurses.
OBJECTIVE
To describe temporary and permanent separation patterns and changes in nursing practice over 5 years, for the 2006 cohort of nurses aged ≥50 years in New Zealand.


BACKGROUND
As ageing populations increase demand on nursing services, workforce projections need better information on work and retirement decision-making of large 'baby-boomer' cohorts.


METHODS
Retrospective cohort analysis using the Nursing Council of New Zealand administrative dataset.


METHODS
A cohort of all nurses aged ≥50 years on the register and practising in 2006 (n = 12,606) was tracked until 2011.


RESULTS
After 5 years, a quarter (n = 3161) of the cohort (equivalent to 8·4% of all 2006 practising nurses) was no longer practising. There were no significant differences in permanent separation rates between the ages of 50-58; between 18-54% of annual separations re-entered the workforce. On re-entry, 56% returned to the same clinical area. Annual separations from the workforce declined sharply during the global financial crisis and more of those leaving re-entered the workforce. In 2006, half the cohort worked in hospitals. After 5 years, the number of cohort nurses working in hospitals fell by 45%, while those in community settings increased by 12%. Over 5 years, weekly nursing practice hours declined significantly for every age-band.


CONCLUSIONS
To retain the experience of older nurses for longer, workforce strategies need to take account of patterns of leaving and re-entering the workforce, preferences for work hours and the differences between the sub-groups across employment settings and practice areas.
School of Population Health, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Nicola
N
North
William
W
Leung
Rochelle
R
Lee
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D063506:Ageism / Q000639:trends*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009520:New Zealand; D009726:Nurses / Q000639:trends*; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000639:trends*; D010563:Personnel Turnover / Q000639:trends*; D057184:Practice Patterns, Nurses' / Q000639:trends*; D012179:Retirement / Q000639:trends*; D012189:Retrospective Studies
ageing; cohort design; nursing; nursing workforce; permanent workforce separation; temporary separation