Older VNs

Re: Older VNs

Katie Mansfield — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 07:52:40 GMT

I actually have more energy now than I did in my 20s Used to spend too much time in the pub and not enough time in bed

I also think studying and working with younger people makes me feel as if I'm still in my 20s. As long as the brain is tricked like this I'll keep going

K x

Re: Older VNs

chris beasley — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:38:38 GMT

[quote user="gemma preston"]

A nurse I have previously worked with last year is in her 50's and she is still fighting fit. I dont think I'll be able to carry on that long think my body will have packed up before then... another 20years :(. I dont really want to do teaching but I suppose it may not be too bad if I do more clinics and less crawling around on floor or wrestling wriggly dogs.

[/quote]As Im in a sole nurse practice -I do more than my fair share of crawling around the floor and I do it just as well as I did in my 20s!

Re: Older VNs

Gemma Preston — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 17:11:42 GMT

Re: Older VNs

Fuzzyduck — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 13:45:55 GMT

Im 29 and can see me working (at least part time) as a VN until retirement. I have met plenty of "older" VNs who have been more than capable of doing the job at that age, i am very fit and active and hope to be able to stay that way long in to retirement, my parents are almost 60 and both are incredibly fit my dad and uncle who is 66 still go windsurfing, mountain biking, skiing and keep up with their sons.

I currently work 45 hours a week, which i cant see me doing until retirement, but i wont work for pittance wages and i dont believe nurses should have to work for pittance just because practices have been able to pay that in the past. Times are changing and there are practices who will pay more, i can afford to pay my rent and bills and go on holidays because i asked for more money at interview and got it and turned plenty of jobs down because the pay wasnt enough.

Hopefully sometime soon i will have a family and then go back to work part time, but i cant honestly see me doing anything else.

Re: Older VNs

GremlinNurse — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 23:19:32 GMT

[quote user="Laura James"]

with her experience she can get blood out of anything.

[/quote]

LOVE this quote :)

Re: Older VNs

Laura James — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 16:51:14 GMT

I'm 23 and regularly work 60+ hours a week - mainly due to being short-staffed and holidays sickness etc and on my student nurse wages I can't afford to move out of my parents house, although i hope this changes in october if I qualify.

Admittedly I can't see myself working this many hours when im over 50 but I plan to be fighting with the cats and dogs with the rest of them!

We have a theatre nurse in practice who works mon to fri doing a lot of the anaesthetics and is a clinical coach and she is nearly 50, we have one other 50+ head nurse who mostly does paperwork and insurance forms etc but will still come and wrestle if needed and with her experience she can get blood out of anything.

Re: Older VNs

chris beasley — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 14:41:23 GMT

[quote user="chris beasley RVN MBVNA"]

As a nurse of 54 (in 2wks time), I am still working full time. I dont do evenings or OOH unless I am covering someone.

That is due to a very good boss and a husband with a well paid job. I am quite well paid compared to some of the posts I see on here, but I would never have been able to afford a morgage on that wage.

So many nurses leave for a better wage and working conditions. As head nurse I understand the costs and overheads of a small practice - could they afford to pay more? I think it would be difficult for a lot of small practices without putting their prices up.

I have a lot of people to thank for my position and also enjoy my working days. (with a few exceptions)!

[/quote]

P.S I also have a lower back problem and two arthritic knees due to years of lifting animals!

Re: Older VNs

chris beasley — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 14:39:35 GMT

As a nurse of 54 (in 2wks time), I am still working full time. I dont do evenings or OOH unless I am covering someone.

I have a lot of people to thank for my position and also enjoy my working days. (with a few exceptions)!

Re: Older VNs

Elvira — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 14:23:13 GMT

Well I'm 56 and only qualified last year. I've been doing nursing work for 5 1/2 of the eight years I've worked in a vets. Admittedly I do only work 21 hours a week plus weekend duties but I do everything everyone else does and frankly I seem to be healthier than most. In 8 years I've had about 6 days off sick(and 4 of those were due to an attack of virtigo). I wrestle with the difficult dog/cat along with the best of them! I am fortunate though that I don't have to live on my wages otherwise I wouldn't be able to do this.

Re: Older VNs

SmegSlayer — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 12:17:35 GMT

and yet the british still work longer hours compared to the majority of europe

Re: Older VNs

Sal the 1st — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 21:48:24 GMT

[quote user="SmegSlayer"]

I WILL refuse to work over 40hrs per week. I will not sign a contract that makes me agree to working over the EU working hours limit. The limit is there for health reasons. I know that I do not cope going much over 40 hours per week.

[/quote]

And I am not suggesting that anybody should unless they have considered it carefully - the only reason I mentioned it was to illustrate that although conditions are not fantastic now they are quite a good deal better than they have been in the past with generally speaking shorter hours for better pay and yet we still have high drop out levels.

Re: Older VNs

SmegSlayer — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 18:58:10 GMT

Pay is definatley still poor in general. I cannot afford to rent my own place and have lived in shared accomodation with shared facilities since I left uni. I have also not started paying my student loan back.

I want to get married and have a family. The chances of meeting someone and getting to know them well enough to marry them cannot realistically happen when working 50+hrs a week. I'd be too exhausted to go out. VN wages are barely enough to live let alone get a house and start family on. I haven't had a proper holiday since 1995 when I went to Switzerland with the girl guides aged 12. I desperately need a holiday and looked at 4 days in Florence (1 place I am yearning to see) and can not afford it.

Re: Older VNs

Sal the 1st — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 18:27:53 GMT

[quote user="GremlinNurse"]

Firmly believe age is just a number :)

[/quote]

definitely

Re: Older VNs

Susan Jackson — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 17:37:55 GMT

I'm hoping for someone rich to marry and make me a kept women!

Re: Older VNs

GremlinNurse — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 17:30:28 GMT

We have 3 nurses who are over 50...2 qualified VNs and 1 qualified ANA(just finished and got distinction :))

They have more than 90 years experience between them and are much valued members of staff...they do all the same rota duties as everyone else.

I wonder what I'll be like health-wise when I'm 50, get back and knee problems now and as retirement probably won't even exist in the future I'd consider a move to a less physical job!

Firmly believe age is just a number :)

Re: Older VNs

Caro Laithwaite VN — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 16:53:53 GMT

We are not all over the hill.

With age and work the moaning esp. from the stupid unions about working till 66 from desk jockeys, teachers and people in general gets me angry. Brian was 65 and still electrician. Ok he cut out lot of heaver stuff but still travelled all over the country repairing industrial processing units, was rewire person for most of bargain booze shops on upgrades, and made circuit boards from scratch which when complete took 2 people to lift and he wired them in so quit looking at age and look at the person and their health/ability.

Re: Older VNs

Sal the 1st — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 15:15:47 GMT

interesting topic

Wages. The most I have ever taken in wages in a year is no more than 17k, even as a head nurse approx 5yrs ago I was only on 14.5k and yet reading through what newly qualifieds are expecting these days they are wanting far in excess of this. Has the rate of pay really risen so much or is it just the expectation of a better wage?

Hours - without exagerration my working week was usually somewhere between 50 and 70hrs a week. Ok i appreciate fewer hours now but you get some nurses coming into the job presently that blanch at anything over 40hrs.

I think the job has changed over the years true enough, and I think also the expectation of what pay and conditions are acceptable in the job have also radically changed - which is no bad thing but I feel there is still quite a huge difference in the expectations re pay and conditions required by nurses and practice expectations re pay and work required and it is this that I feel leads to such a high rate of attrition.

There are actually quite a few of us older nurses out there - its just that we arent all obvious.

Re: Older VNs

FINNIGAN — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 15:11:28 GMT

Hey, im 48, and just qualified, not ready to get the knitting out yet, so much more to learn and do, ill be nursing with my walking frame if i have to, !!!!

Re: Older VNs

Katie Mansfield — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 14:50:35 GMT

I intend to - I won't be qualified til I'm 45!!

K x

Re: Older VNs

Julie-Anne Wilson — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 14:40:02 GMT

I think the poor pay coupled in with unfriendly practices/ungrateful Vets etc might explain some as well.

Re: Older VNs

Nicola Oliver — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 14:03:10 GMT

I've thought about this as well. I'm only 24 and I already suffer from back pain and not so long ago had to have a week off work as I couldn't walk because of it. I've know two nurses who were in their 40s nursing, and one who was in her late 50s, but the latter didn't really do much physical work - insurance claims, admin, nurse training, and some nurse clinics.

I can't see myself nursing forever and I probably would like to change careers at some point. I know a lot of nurses who are unhappy and have left the profession recently as they were fed up with nursing for other reasons (politics, salary, etc), and they were all in their 20s, so maybe that's why there aren't many older VNs?